(from the Brookings Institution):

By Thomas J. Kane

They say never judge a book by its cover. We need to start judging textbooks and other instructional materials using student achievement instead.

In February and March of last year, as teachers were preparing for the first administration of the end-of-year assessments from the Partnership for Assessment of Readiness for College and Career (PARCC) and the Smarter Balanced Assessment Consortia (SBAC), the Center for Education Policy Research at Harvard surveyed a representative sample of 1,500 teachers and 142 principals across five states. Our report focused on the instructional changes teachers were making and the effectiveness of the training and support they were receiving. However, we also asked about the textbooks they were using. CONTINUE READING HERE