High Quality Instructional Materials (HQIM) Reviews

Instructional Materials Reviewed by New Mexico Educators for New Mexico Educators
Materials Matter!
Instructional materials matter! Research
shows that students learn primarily through their interactions with teachers
and content. The instructional core is the foundation for ensuring all
kids are college and career-ready and have the skills and knowledge they need
to thrive in school and beyond. “One of the most significant factors that
impacts student achievement is that teachers commit to implementing a
guaranteed and viable curriculum to ensure no matter who teaches a given class,
the curriculum will address certain essential content and provide a coherent
experience for every student.” (What Works in Schools, Marzano,
2003)

However, not all students have the same access
to high-quality instructional materials (HQIM) and this perpetuates the opportunity
gap. According to the TNTP 2018 report “The Opportunity Myth”, students have big
plans for college and career and most students do what they’re asked in school but
are still not ready to succeed after school. They found that one reason
students leave school unprepared for their futures is the lack of access to
grade-appropriate assignments. They found students spent more than 500
hours per school year on assignments that weren’t appropriate for their grade -
the equivalent of six months of wasted class time for each core subject.

In classrooms with more access
to high-quality instructional materials, students did better—particularly if
they started the school year behind their peers.
One of TNTP’s five
recommendations is, “Give all students, especially those who are behind grade
level, access to instruction that asks them to think and engage deeply with
challenging material.” We know that educators have one of the most
important missions in society. We also know from a recent Rand survey
that 96% of teachers are searching for lessons and materials on Google and 75%
on Pinterest. According to the 2019 report “The Supplemental-Curriculum Bazaar: Is What’s
Online Any Good?”, most
of the materials found online rate as mediocre or probably not worth using and
fail to align to the academic standards to which they claim to align. On
average, teachers are spending approximately seven hours per week searching
online for materials. This assortment of online materials can lead to
instructional incoherence and inequities for our students.
The Instructional Material
Bureau’s mission is to ensure HQIM is in the hands of every educator and
learner in New Mexico and that it is used to its fullest extent. We also
must assert that in order for HQIM to be fully effective, it must be
implemented with high-quality professional development. In fact, a recent
review of STEM instructional-improvement
programs found that when teacher PD
focused on the curriculum materials teachers would use in their classrooms,
student performance rose about 10 percentile points.
The research is
intended to support educators at all levels of the educational system to ask
for, insist on, and make the shift to HQIM.