Many districts are in the process of aligning their curriculum to the Massachusetts Curriculum Frameworks incorporating the Common Core Standards. Districts are both reviewing materials and developing their own curriculum units. So how do you assess materials for alignment to the CCSS?
The Massachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary Education (ESE) had the same question when it began the Model Curriculum Project. To answer it, the Department partnered with Rhode Island and New York to develop a quality review rubric for materials aligned to the Common Core State Standards.
Now, any district or school can use the EQuIP rubrics and resources to evaluate the alignment and quality of curricular materials.
The rubric is a way for Massachusetts’ educators to assess curriculum materials they are developing or considering for adoption/adaptation. ESE used the EQuIP (Educators Evaluting the Quality of Instructional Products) rubric, as well as its own rubrics for History Social Science and Science Technology and Engineering to assess the quality of its own Model Curriculum Units through expert review panels.
Achieve, a national bipartisan education reform organization, continues to support this work through its EQuIP initiative, which has developed a comprehensive rubric and review process designed to determine the quality and alignment of instructional lessons and units to the CCSS.
While districts and schools can use the EQuIP rubric locally, Achieve has brought together educators from all over the country to utilize EQuIP to evaluate CCSS-aligned materials. Through this process, several ESE MCUs have been reviewed and rated Exemplar:
Grade 2 – Informational Text: Reading for Inquiry and Writing a Report
Grade 6 – Rates, Ratios, and Percents
Grade 7 – Analyzing an Author’s Style: Macauley’s Unique Way of Explaining a Complex Process
Grade 9 – Satire: The Nose
Grade 11 – The Art of Persuasion (Exemplar if improved)
Grade 11-12 -Nostalgia
The ESE Model Curriculum website has a section labeled Quality Review Rubrics where you can find ESE’s HSS and Science Rubrics, and the EQuIP rubrics for ELA/Literacy and Math.
Teachers who are using the EQuIP rubrics to develop, improve, or evaluate CCSS-aligned material are encouraged to submit their lessons for publication with Achieve/EQuiP, and potentially receive recognition as “Exemplars.”