69传媒

The two 5th grade volumes of McGraw-Hill鈥檚 Treasures reading series at first glance look remarkably similar.

Both include, for instance, a nonfiction selection about a scientific mission to Antarctica, coupled with snippets from a researcher鈥檚 journal. But there are subtle differences in what they ask students to think about as they read. The older edition, from 2008, merely asks them to explain the value of keeping a journal. The newer one, from 2011, asks the students to explain how 鈥渟ensory details and other language鈥� differ between a primary source, such as the journal, and a secondary source, such as the narrative.

In the 2013 version of its 69传媒 Street series, Pearson officials have excised 鈥渞eader response鈥� questions and replaced them with prompts asking students to 鈥渦se examples from the text to justify your answer.鈥�

From analyzing text features, to citing evidence, to de-emphasizing personal responses to readings, such changes nod in the direction of the Common Core State Standards鈥� English/language arts expectations.

All three of the major K-12 educational publishers have unveiled new basal-reading programs that purport to embody the standards, and supplemented older series, in order to claim that their products are 鈥渁ligned,鈥� 鈥渃ompliant,鈥� or 鈥渃oherent鈥� with the common standards.

Yet a crucial question remains: Are the changes sufficient?

It is quite literally a multimillion-dollar question, one whose answer could shape the education publishing industry for years. Publishing officials estimate that upwards of 75 percent of the elementary curriculum market in reading remains dependent on basal textbooks.

Alignment Puzzle

The idea of alignment between curricular materials and content standards in reading has always been a bit fuzzy, according to experts who have studied reading programs.

鈥淧ublishers are very adept at correlating the standards to the instruction in their programs,鈥� said Peter Dewitz, a professor of education at Mary Baldwin College, in Staunton, Va., and a former basal-reading-program author. 鈥淭hey can issue a page of correlations that illustrate what they鈥檙e doing, but if you look really closely, you鈥檒l find that it鈥檚 a shallower interpretation of that standard than what the [standards] writers intended.鈥�

Where the common core is concerned, curricular alignment matters because many of its English/language arts expectations鈥攃lose reading, writing to source texts, using a rich vocabulary to build students鈥� background knowledge鈥攁re as new to educators as to students. Alignment, in that sense, is more than materials. It鈥檚 also about making sure they are structured in ways that help instructors make use of the materials.

鈥淚t is really, really hard work,鈥� said Kate Gerson, a senior fellow for educator engagement and the common core for the Regents Research Fund, a nonprofit organization that works hand in hand with the New York state education department. 鈥淲e are really struggling and celebrating as we toil to make sure the materials we are producing will support teachers in their implementation of the standards, while leaving room for them to adapt and improve, and to inhabit texts in a very different way with students.鈥�

Using federal Race to the Top funds, the state has started a collaboration with two smaller publishers, Expeditionary Learning and the Core Knowledge Foundation, to craft a comprehensive K-2 curriculum and modules for grades 3-5, which it will share with other states.

For this story, Education Week obtained and reviewed the 5th grade volumes of the three major publishing houses鈥� basal programs, comparing them where possible with volumes written before the final draft of the standards was published, in June 2010. They include Houghton Mifflin Harcourt鈥檚 Journeys, from 2011; Pearson鈥檚 69传媒 Street, from 2008 and 2013; and McGraw-Hill鈥檚 Treasures, from 2009 and 2011. (McGraw-Hill also offers a new basal series, 69传媒 Wonders, and Houghton Mifflin Harcourt a new edition of Journeys, but full volumes of those products were not available for review.)

Great Expectations

As one of the few highly visible vetting processes for curricula, textbook adoption offers a window into the thorny topic of curricular alignment.

Fewer than half the states have a formal textbook-adoption or -review process, but among them are states with a large K-12 population, such as Florida. And there are already signs that the common standards are beginning to change how reading curricula are vetted, with many states drawing on the 鈥減ublishers鈥� criteria,鈥� a document crafted by two of the lead writers of the standards.

For its current English/language arts adoption, Florida built its evaluation framework on more than 100 pages of specifications drawn from the common standards and the publishers鈥� criteria. Among the state鈥檚 demands: Publishers must provide both a quantitative and a qualitative analysis of the complexity of each text selection in their basal series.

Using Lexiles and other quantitative ways of measuring text complexity is already common, but analyzing them subjectively is another matter. That requirement demands attention to such features as whether a story is told in flashbacks rather than chronologically, or contains several levels of meaning, as in satire or parody.

The criteria 鈥渞eflect what we wanted to be able to work with teachers on,鈥� said Stuart Greenberg, a former Florida department of education employee who helped design the evaluation tool. 鈥淭eachers had a lot of good pd on strategy work鈥攎ain idea, compare and contrast鈥攂ut one of the things they haven鈥檛 had as much training on is how to use the nuances of text structure to support understanding.鈥�

Such demands seem to have been taken seriously by publishers: Of the 鈥渂ig three鈥� bidding on the lucrative Florida contract, all include text-complexity gauges in the series they submitted for review.

A similar desire to help teachers truly embody the standards in their instruction鈥攔ather than engage in 鈥渢he great binder-replacement phenomenon"鈥攃aused Tennessee officials to break their English/language arts adoption cycle into two distinct phases, according to Emily Barton, the state鈥檚 assistant commissioner of curriculum and instruction.

First, every basal series had to meet seven non-negotiable requirements, all related to the common core, including whether 80 percent of questions are 鈥渢ext dependent鈥� and that at least 50 percent of selections are nonfiction. Only after meeting those requirements were the materials advanced to a second review, which digs into other criteria.

The state鈥檚 two-tiered model has already forced some changes. For example, one publisher submitted a series that reviewers determined didn鈥檛 provide students with enough writing activities requiring them to delve into source texts, Ms. Barton said. Faced with being disqualified from the rest of the review process, the publisher created an addendum.

鈥淲e saw publishers respond, when given information about places where their products were not meeting expectations,鈥� she said.

Publishers鈥� Response

The major education publishing houses have, in general, distinguished between their bridge products, such as older series or editions they鈥檝e supplemented, and brand-new editions that they crafted from scratch to embody the standards.

Districts using Treasures, for example, were offered free supplements, including teacher guides and new reading selections where needed, according to Daniela Perelli, the vice president of editorial for elementary reading at McGraw-Hill School Education, based in New York City. They were also provided with an analysis showing units in their old manuals they could use to provide aligned instruction.

鈥淲e did have that variety of text types already incorporated, and we spent a lot of time teaching about the genres in the piece, the organization of the piece, the particular aspects of writers鈥� craft that we鈥檙e asking kids to look at,鈥� she said. 鈥淲e felt the base was there, and good instruction was already in Treasures, and that we were now identifying it with the right labels.鈥�

Houghton Mifflin Harcourt offers for purchase common-core 鈥渆nhancement鈥� packages for districts using its backlisted series, such as StoryTown and 69传媒.

鈥淎 lot of the emphasis in the product is on writing and performance tasks,鈥� said Melissa J. Counihan, the vice president of product management and strategy for K-12 literacy and social studies for the Boston-based company. 鈥淎rgumentative writing didn鈥檛 really exist in the early-elementary grades; that鈥檚 one of the things we really had to change for the enhancements.鈥�

Such efforts to retrofit older curricula, as it were, appear partly influenced by the overall decrease in revenue caused by cash-strapped districts鈥� delays in purchasing new materials. McGraw-Hill officials, for instance, reported a 20 percent decline in its school division earnings in a second-quarter July conference call with investors. They attributed a 鈥渓ow-water mark鈥� in K-12 publishing partly to the common core, and anticipated improvements in 2013.

Even in the publishers鈥� new 鈥渇rom-the-ground-up鈥� curricula鈥攖ypically identified by the words 鈥渃ommon core鈥� appearing on the cover鈥攁s well as in the older curricula, there is a degree of repetition in the series. About half the reading selections are repeated between 69传媒 Street鈥檚 2008 and 2013 5th grade anthology, as are about two-thirds of readings in Treasures between 2009 and 2011. Houghton Mifflin Harcourt officials said about half the selections in Journeys鈥� 5th grade anthology are identical between the 2011 and 2014 editions, too.

But as evidenced earlier, there are differences, if sometimes subtle ones, in how exercises for students are framed. In a selection about a 19th century woman, the 2011 edition of Treasures, for instance, asks students to detail how an author鈥檚 鈥渃hoice of words鈥� relates to the purpose of her biographical narrative, a question not in the former version鈥檚 exercises for the same selection.

The 2013 version of 69传媒 Street has some arguably more difficult 鈥渨riting across texts鈥� prompts. A narrative about ghost towns is now accompanied by a short piece of historical fiction. Rather than making a poster, as in the previous edition, students must now write a journal entry in a character鈥檚 voice, drawing on details from the nonfiction text.

Some of the most important changes, the publishers said, appear in the new teachers鈥� editions to help them implement the new techniques. For example, the brand new 69传媒 Street teacher editions guide teachers through the reading of each featured text three times, said Nancy L. Winship, the vice president of product development for Pearson PreK-12 literacy. The tool responds to the common core鈥檚 demands that complex texts should be read multiple times as students master its new vocabulary, meaning, and craft.

McGraw-Hill and Houghton Mifflin Harcourt officials say their newest basals, which weren鈥檛 available for review, offer similar features.

New Tests

The ultimate test of alignment, though, lies in the hands of state reviewers.

Complicating those decisions is the fact that state adoption tends to be an all-or-nothing decision, leaving less room for shades of gray. Materials in Florida, for instance, are being evaluated on each criterion on a 1-to-4 scale, but they don鈥檛 have to clear a particular point threshold in order to win adoption, state officials said.

In New Mexico鈥檚 adoption earlier this year, reviewers detailed perceived weaknesses in several of the K-3 basal volumes. Documents on the state鈥檚 website show that reviewers judged that Journeys 2011, even with supplements, 鈥渄oes not sufficiently provide opportunities for in-depth writing instruction鈥� vis-脿-vis the common core. And while the 2013 69传媒 Street鈥檚 reading comprehension instruction was praised, its research and inquiry prompts were deemed 鈥渓imited in scope.鈥� But both series were ultimately approved by the state.

Tennessee, for the first time, will issue letter grades to English/language arts materials, a move officials hope will give a better sense of reviewers鈥� perceptions of the strengths and weaknesses in each basal series鈥� alignment to the standards.

Louisiana鈥檚 2012-13 adoption process could serve as a test case of how far states are willing to press on the issue of alignment.

Publishers鈥� bids, including one by each of the three major houses, were reviewed by committees against three newly developed evaluation tools drawn from the common core. But based on those reviews鈥攚hich have not yet been made public鈥攁nd his own perusal, state Superintendent John White said he is skeptical of the textbooks, and is considering whether to recommend any to the state board of education for adoption, in December.

鈥淚鈥檓 very concerned that the questions, the assessments, the text complexity, and other dimensions of the textbooks are not remotely ready to be called 鈥榓ligned鈥� with the common core,鈥� Mr. White said. 鈥淢y strong belief is that if we make a mistake and allow textbooks to go forward with our endorsement, it will indicate they are rigorous in a way many, if not all of them, probably are not.鈥�

Beyond Adoption

The rush to update the basal readers has some observers asking deeper questions about the architecture of reading curricula. Mr. Dewitz of Mary Baldwin College, for instance, contends that past the earliest grades, basal textbooks may no longer be an ideal way to teach to the depth envisioned in the standards.

鈥淚f you read deeply into the common core, it鈥檚 the ability to trace and track the development of an idea or a character over time,鈥� he said. 鈥淓ssentially from 3rd grade up, they are talking about books.鈥�

Ms. Barton says more Tennessee districts have expressed interest in using complete texts in elementary English/language arts classes, rather than shorter, prepackaged curriculum units.

鈥淚 do hear districts say, 鈥榃e鈥檙e going to use these three short texts and these two long ones,鈥� and that they want to get the copyright licenses and go from there,鈥� she said. 鈥淲e don鈥檛 yet have the 鈥榠Tunes鈥� version of curriculum, ... but common standards do change the economies of scale.鈥�

In one development, educators across the country are increasingly making use of free or open-source materials to craft lessons. And while the quality of those materials is widely variable, New York officials view their project as a way of signaling what a baseline standard of alignment quality should look like in the state. Unlike the proprietary basal series, the curriculum will be open-source鈥攆ree for teachers, districts, and even states to use as they see fit, Ms. Gerson said.

Though it鈥檚 difficult to say how the market will evolve as implementation continues, some see opportunities amid the chaos.

鈥淚 have a sense from teachers that they are going to want greater control over decisions that heretofore have been oftentimes left to publishers or central offices,鈥� Mr. White said. 鈥淭hat鈥檚 going to take hundreds of thousands of different forms; but I do think it implies a shift away from teachers who are willing to say, 鈥極K, I will take this book of content, its order, its skills, its sequence, and its assessments on face value as simply what I need to teach.鈥� 鈥�