Research Wednesday | August 13, 2025

Dear Friends,

Cautionary Tales About Curriculum Overload 

In this thoughtful article, Sarah Schwarz (Ed Week, August 4, 2025) notes that many districts that are already complying with mandatory “Science of Reading” curricula are also piling on with supplemental materials that teachers find more useful. In these reports, I have also recommended that while the Science of Reading has merit, the danger is that teachers will neglect writing, a key to improving students’ critical thinking and reading comprehension skills. However, the pendulum can swing the other way, as Schwartz argues, with teachers being inundated by a surfeit of overwhelmingly burdensome materials without the benefit of the time to understand and implement them all at once. Here is the essential question that every school leader must consider: When I ask teachers to deliver additional curriculum, how have I adjusted the schedule to give them time to understand, apply, and deliver it? If the schedule this year looks the same as last year (and, for that matter, the previous 10 years), we should not be surprised if teachers feel overwhelmed and burned out. The key is focus. While the Science of Reading may need supplementation, especially in writing, the answer is not a dozen new programs but just one that is deeply implemented. As I have argued in several evidence-based studies (See “Achieving Equity and Excellence”), deep implementation of a few initiatives is related to higher gains in student achievement than superficial implementation of many initiatives. 

Here’s the link:  https://www.edweek.org/teaching-learning/districts-using-high-quality-reading-curricula-still-supplement-with-other-materials-why/2025/08?utm_source=nl&utm_medium=eml&utm_campaign=eu&M=14468174&UUID=cf6b54314df4e4e93ba6874a5fe46aae&T=18897387

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