How to Find the Curriculum Renaissance at ASCD #Empower19

There have been seismic shifts in the curriculum landscape in recent years, and increasingly, there’s buzz about this important, exciting development.

Sue Pimentel, lead author of the CCSS in ELA, described it as a “curriculum renaissance” in Education Week. We’ve seen this firsthand in our curriculum & instruction work.

In fact, three of us just wrote about this in Education Week, in a piece about the national reading crisis we perceive:

“Districts today have many choices among research-aligned, excellent curricula, which was not the case even two years ago. These new curriculum options may be the catalyst we need to improve reading instruction. In each of our districts, we have implemented one of the newly available curricula that earned the highest possible rating by EdReports, a curriculum review nonprofit. Districtwide reading improvement followed.”

We had hoped that the “curriculum renaissance” would be a theme at the ASCD conference… after all, it is the only national organization with “curriculum” in its name. Unfortunately, it doesn’t look like that’s the case. Flexible seating appears to be getting more session airtime than the curriculum renaissance. It feels like a missed opportunity, and we hope ASCD and other organizations start tuning into this trend.

So, we’re sharing options for how you can get to know the significant changes in the curriculum landscape – both at ASCD’s Empower conference, or from the comfort of your home or office.

From The Comfort of Home

You can:

Watch the recent webinar on the Curriculum Renaissance

Brian Kingsley dropped knowledge in a recent FutureReady webinar, “Selecting Materials in the Age of Curriculum Renaissance.”

Brian and fellow panelist Karen Vaites explained how the curriculum landscape has dramatically changed in recent years, outlining important considerations for school and district leaders.

Join Nebraska’s ELA curriculum webinars

The state of Nebraska is hosting webinars to introduce the highest-quality ELA curricula next week, from March 18-21! Anyone can join, and you can register here.

We understand that recordings will be available, and we’ll update this blog to share links to the recordings when they become available.

Check out our curated curriculum resources

We pulled together our favorite curriculum resources and research insights.

At ASCD Empower 2019

Many of the curricula that earn “all-green” reviews from EdReports and/or Tier 1 reviews from the state of Louisiana are at ASCD in the exhibit hall. Here’s where to find them: