Post by Project Evident

"A teacher is supposed to look at their classroom and backwards design based on who's there; the principals really should be doing the same thing to their teachers." This observation from a district leader at Project Evident’s Education Agency Practice Spring Convening in Philadelphia was spot on and really gets at how we approach implementation. If we extend that logic further to include district leaders alongside principals, we have a powerful anchoring point for sound, multi-year curriculum implementation planning. When we empower the people who work most closely with students to succeed, there's no way our students won't succeed too. Together with district leaders from Maryland, Ohio, and Minnesota, we spent two days working across three key dimensions of implementation planning: designing professional development around teachers' actual experiences, aligning staffing to the demands of curriculum adoption, and building evaluation approaches that can measure real student outcomes. These districts are leaving with a curriculum adoption timeline, a multi-year financial model, and the foundation for a detailed implementation workplan — all the conditions in place to implement with integrity and ensure students are engaged in learning experiences that help them grow. If your district is working through the challenges of implementation and is looking for a thought partner, we'd love to connect! This work was funded by the Gates Foundation. The findings and conclusions contained within are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect positions or policies of the Gates Foundation.