Background: Curriculum, Open Educational Resources, and Quality

In the education field, terminology is often used without a clear definition or shared understanding. Before diving in, we start by discussing how this paper defines curriculum, open educational resources, and quality. We also highlight the current research and evidence that supports our understanding of curriculum quality and look at emerging research around the quality of open curricula.

Basics of Curriculum and OER

In the PreK–12 context, the term curriculum is commonly used to refer to all of the academic lessons and content taught in the classroom. These lessons are arranged to present the content for each subject area in a logical order for each grade level, spanning the entire academic year. In some cases, textbooks constitute a significant portion of the curriculum, but the term also includes the full range of other instructional materials used to teach a subject, including fiction, primary source documents, hands-on activities, and other supporting materials. In the U.S., curriculum and instructional materials have primarily been produced and distributed by textbook publishers. School districts typically select and purchase their resources directly from these publishers.

As a growing number of states and school districts have begun to evaluate, develop, and adopt OER, however, this model has begun to change. Simply put, OER are freely available materials that are published using an open content license. Openly-licensed content has broader copyright permissions than traditional proprietary content: materials published using an open license can be freely and legally downloaded, used, changed, built upon, and redistributed by any person in perpetuity.¹ In the PreK–12 context, teachers and instructional leaders may use OER to keep lesson content up-to-date, adapt materials to meet the needs or interests of students, or share effective content with other educators across classrooms. (For more on district and school use of OER, see PreK-12 OER in Practice below.)

The term OER describes a full range of educational resources. A photograph, single lesson, unit of study, or full-year comprehensive curriculum can all be published using an open content license, just as any of those resources can be published using a more restrictive, all-rights-reserved license. Additionally, OER can be either print or digital, though digital OER are significantly easier to adapt and share. Initially, most OER were individual instructional artifacts, like worksheets and lesson plans, intended to supplement classroom learning. Increasingly, OER have become better organized and more comprehensive, expanding to include textbooks, full curricula, and online courses designed to map out learning for an entire school year.

What We Know About Curriculum Quality

Just as the grain size of content varies, so too does the quality. This is true for both proprietary resources as well as OER. A growing body of research overwhelmingly concludes that a high-quality curriculum can dramatically improve student learning. To guide decisions on choosing high-quality curricula, the education community has primarily used two key measures: (1) how well a curriculum is aligned with state academic standards, and (2) whether implementing the curriculum in the classroom leads to positive gains in student learning, typically measured using standardized assessment scores.²

Throughout this report, when we refer to high-quality curricula, we are primarily referring to content that is both aligned with state standards and vetted for its usability in the classroom. (For more, see the following section on curriculum and quality.) We are not saying that all the curricula discussed in this report have been evaluated to show a positive impact on student learning outcomes, because this kind of quantitative research does not exist for the range of new instructional materials available. This section explores more fully the research on these two measures of curriculum quality and looks at emerging research focused specifically on open curricula.

Curriculum and Quality

For most states and districts, a critical component of curriculum quality is the degree to which it is aligned with state academic standards. After the majority of states adopted new standards in 2010, education leaders were concerned that curricula were not being updated fast enough to reflect the substantial shifts called for in those standards. A significant 2015 study conducted by Morgan Polikoff, associate professor at University of Southern California Rossier School of Education, found evidence that those concerns were justified. He looked at commonly used fourth-grade math textbooks and found clear areas where those resources were not aligned with new math standards.³

This growing concern prompted a range of efforts to provide better information about curriculum and standards alignment. In one leading example, the nonprofit organization, EdReports.org, worked with states to identify commonly used ELA and math curricula. EdReports then partnered with education reviewers, most of whom are teachers, to review dozens of the most frequently used curricula available. Its review process focuses both on standards alignment—meaning each of the academic standards are covered by the material with the appropriate depth and rigor—and the usability and design of the materials.⁴ These kinds of evaluations provide important qualitative information for school leaders making choices about which materials to implement in districts and classrooms.

After ensuring curricula are aligned with academic standards and are designed to be easy for teachers to use, an important second step is to show how curricula impact student learning. Unfortunately, compared to other school-based interventions, rigorous academic research on curriculum efficacy is relatively thin. Available research has clearly demonstrated that curriculum can be an important tool for improving student learning. The quantitative research currently available, however, does not provide sufficient insight into which curricula are the most effective, or what specific elements and features of a curriculum make it more or less effective.⁵

A recent report authored by David Steiner and his team at Johns Hopkins School of Education examined the available research on curriculum and student achievement. Their review found that in general, curriculum choices have a significant impact on student learning outcomes.⁶ This finding is consistent with other research, including a 2012 Brookings analysis by Matthew Chingos and Russ Whitehurst, as well as a 2015 look at curriculum reform from the Center for American Progress.⁷

On the other hand, Steiner’s team found limited research on how specific curricula impact student achievement. Researchers are trying to fill in these gaps. Last summer, a small-scale study published by the Brookings Institution—authored by Polikoff and Cory Koedel, associate professor of economics and public policy at University of Missouri—sought to determine which elementary school math textbooks in use in California had the greatest impact on student learning. The researchers used historical data on textbook adoptions and student achievement data to see which books were associated with larger increases in student learning, and found that certain textbooks resulted in greater student learning gains.⁸ Additional research focused on curriculum efficacy would be an important complement to the growing body of information on curriculum and standards alignment.

Emerging Evidence on Open Curriculum and Quality

As an increasing number of open curricula become available, more information about the quality of these resources has also emerged. Reviews from states, nonprofits like EdReports, and other sources have uncovered a striking trend: of the new curricula available to districts and schools, many of the top standards-aligned resources are OER. In fact, many of these new open curricula were designed and written to align with state academic standards.

Similar to other available curricula, there is little quantitative research showing the impact of open curricula on student learning. In a small number of recent studies, however, the use of specific open curricula has shown promising gains in student learning. In a 2016 post on the CCSSO website, Austin Beck identified three articles focused on OER adoption in PreK–12 tracked by the Open Education Group, a team of researchers interested in understanding the impact of OER on student learning.⁹ As the CCSSO article describes, the three studies focus on the adoption of an open science curriculum in Utah public schools, initially finding cost-savings and, in a later study, finding positive gains in student learning.¹⁰

More recent research published by RAND Corporation on open ELA and math curricula currently in use in New York and Louisiana also point to promising gains in student learning.¹¹ These studies provide insight into the effect these new curricula are having on student learning, but continued research is needed to better understand how curriculum choices impact student learning.