For decades, schools and districts have been forced to assemble their own improvement ecosystems — piecing together disparate curricula, assessments, professional development, and continuous improvement support from different providers with no common thread. The result has been a fractured landscape in which even the best individual tools fail to deliver the equitable, lasting outcomes students deserve.
Many aspects of schooling are centered on one-size-fits-all curricula and end-of-year summative assessments, where student performance data is often disconnected from what students do and learn day to day in the classroom. End-of-year testing data is analyzed and reflected upon only after the school year is over, making meaningful improvement in student learning difficult.
In the past few years, many states have worked with content providers to develop and implement curriculum-based, through-year assessments. These assessments can help measure students’ learning progress against standards and curriculum at timely intervals throughout the year, helping teachers adjust their teaching to meet the needs of every learner.
At the same time, curriculum experts have developed high-quality instructional materials (HQIM) tied to state standards across all subject areas. These curricula can help students gain the skills and knowledge they need to succeed, and they also enable educators to implement more student-centered learning approaches, including real-world projects that give students greater ownership of the learning process.
A New Era of Mergers and Acquisitions
For the first time, education providers can offer comprehensive services spanning curriculum, professional learning, curriculum-based through-year assessment, and continuous school improvement. In the next few years, the organizations that can bring together all these pieces – high-quality learning materials, assessment, educator support, and school improvement – will offer schools and districts viable alternatives to traditional teaching models and materials.
For the first time, education providers can offer comprehensive services spanning curriculum, professional learning, curriculum-based through-year assessment, and continuous school improvement.
In the context of an evolving and improving education landscape, our two organizations, Cognia and EL Education, announced this month an intent to merge. EL Education will bring its highly rated English Language Arts and student literacy curriculum, along with its research-proven school improvement model and deep instructional coaching capacity, to Cognia’s established expertise and its suite of assessments and school improvement services. Together, we will be better able to serve districts, giving them access to improvement through a single, cohesive, and coherent ecosystem.
In the future, Cognia will continue to expand and find strategic partners across other subject areas to provide a full curriculum and the aligned resources that districts need for their continuous improvement journey. No doubt, other groups are planning similar expansions to provide the help schools want and need.
A ‘Profound Moment’ of Transition
School service providers are at a profound moment of transition in developing curriculum and aligned learning resources and supports. While many of today’s organizations were founded during a period of consolidation for standards and curriculum, states are now re-regionalizing and seeking more tailored learning solutions.
Combined with the opportunities and demands of AI-supported learning, the redoubled focus on local standards is making static, one-size-fits-all content obsolete. In addition to aligning curriculum and resources with state standards, successful organizations will focus on adaptable tools that support the implementation of high-quality content and enhance the instructional experience.
In this new environment, organizations that do one thing well are likely to be outmaneuvered by those that bring multiple services directly to districts. Schools and districts may find greater value in comprehensive service providers who can support them in aligning their curriculum, assessment, instruction, and school improvement efforts.
Schools and districts may find greater value in comprehensive service providers who can support them in aligning their curriculum, assessment, instruction, and school improvement efforts.
The focus on expanding curriculum offerings aligned with our assessments is crucial to strengthening and targeting areas where schools want and need assistance. We are not in the business of telling schools what curriculum to use—districts will still have their choice. The intent of this expansion is to strengthen how learners engage and how teachers instruct by using the best learning tools and assessments.
To enable and accelerate real transformation in education, support organizations must evolve in lockstep with the schools and districts they serve.
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