(TNTP 2018)

They Can’t Do It!

If I hear another teacher tell me that they don’t think their students can do the work, so they make it easier, I am going to lose it! According to The New Teacher Project, students spend 500 hours on work that is below their grade level. Students of color and those from low-income backgrounds were less likely than their white and higher-income peers to be in classrooms with grade-appropriate assignments and strong instruction. The data from this study called The Opportunity Myth shows that 71% of students succeed on their classroom assignments, but only 17% met grade level standards (2018). This is a huge problem in education. 

(TNTP 2018)

(TNTP 2018)

Why Can’t They Do It?

The big question is why don’t we provide our students with the High-Quality Instructional Materials (HQIM) to succeed? Many teachers say they don’t have access to HQIM (on grade level, complex and standards aligned) so they search for materials online on sites like Teacher Pay Teacher (TPT). Many of these sites do not go through a review process and some of the materials are not on grade level. In my former schools, teachers spent so much time on Google, Pinterest and TPT.

(Scholastic Teacher, 2016)

Teacher Time?

According to Goldberg, teachers are producing instructional materials, they spend considerable time on this task in addition to time spent searching for materials. More than two-thirds (69%) of teachers spend four or more hours per week creating instructional resources. Fifty-two percent spend four or more hours per week searching for free resources, and 23% spend the same time searching for priced resources for the classroom (2016). This is a waste of time and I believe that their time should be used more effectively.

Using Time Wisely

The best way to solve the problem is for districts to adopt HQIM for their teachers and train them effectively with the curriculum. EdReports is a great resource to use to see what curriculums meet the expectations. Visit https://www.edreports.org/reports for more information.

Goldberg, M. (2016). Classroom Trends: Teachers as Buyers of Instructional Materials and Users of Technology. K-12 Market Advisors.
Retrieved from: https://mdreducation.com/reports/classroom-trends-teachers-buyers-instructional-materials-users-technology

Scholastic Teacher and Principal School Report: Equity in Education. (2016). Retrieved from: http://www.scholastic.com/teacherprincipalreport/Scholastic-Teacher-and-Principal-School-Report.pdf

TNTP. (2018,). The Opportunity Myth. https://opportunitymyth.tntp.org