How to Develop Local Priorities When Selecting Instructional Materials

When it comes to instructional materials, what you select and how you select matters. The ultimate goal of an effective adoption process is to choose curricula that are aligned to high-quality, college and career-ready standards and meet the specific needs of your community. A comprehensive adoption process includes time and capacity for districts to establish local priorities using an equity-focused lens that will guide their investigation and selection of new materials. The practice of including local priorities in early adoption planning can help to ensure districts select materials that better serve students who have been previously marginalized.

What is this resource?

This is a tool designed to help district adoption committees determine local priorities and the specific needs of the students and teachers in their local community in addition to alignment with standards and other indicators of quality. Setting local priorities builds upon an analysis of relevant local data such as student demographics, teacher characteristics, and achievement levels. The priorities will be used throughout the adoption process to guide local decision-making.

How should this resource be used?

We recommend developing three to four local priorities at the start of an adoption process to ensure specific community needs inform decisions throughout the work. This template can be used to guide stakeholder discussions to reach agreements on the priorities that will influence the entire selection process. This resource is part of our comprehensive 6 Key Adoption Steps feature and best used in conjunction with Step 1: Develop Your District Lens—which comes after committees have examined current data and established an instructional vision. Local priorities may then be used to drive decisions that are made in Step 3: Know and Winnow Your Choices.