At a Glance

Well-designed, educative curriculum and materials, coupled with face-to-face professional development related to the curriculum, lead to more effective implementation of the curriculum, improved teacher practice, and student achievement.

The Study

Taylor, J., Getty, S., Kowalski, S., Wilson, C., Carlson, J., & Van Scotter, P. (2015). An efficacy trial of research-based curriculum materials with curriculum-based professional development. American Educational Research Journal, 52(5), 984-1017.

What This Means for Practitioners 

This study focuses specifically on a single science curriculum for high school students. Yet it confirms common practices for which there is limited empirical evidence. Among those practices, as specified in the Outcomes standard, teacher professional learning must align with student outcomes and teaching practices aligned to those outcomes in a coherent and integrated fashion. The professional learning teachers experienced focused on curriculum, curriculum implementation, teaching practices, fidelity of implementation, and increasing student achievement in an integrated fashion.

New programs, such as new curricula, require sufficient professional learning to support implementation. The Implementation standard explains that support must extend over time and provide opportunities for feedback and collaborative support. One goal of the professional development in this study was to build collaboration among teachers for implementation support. The description of the professional development program included no information about how or if it included feedback to teachers and classroom-based support outside the daylong sessions that occurred throughout the school year.

In addition, the Learning Designs standard states that the instructional practices used in professional learning should model and advance the expected pedagogical practices. Providers modeled lessons and applied pedagogical practices that teachers would use in their implementation of the curriculum.

A noteworthy element of the selection of participants was engaging school principals as advocates for teacher participation in the professional learning. This often-missing element of teacher professional learning aligns with the Leadership standard.

Overall, this study clarifies the significance of teacher practice in program implementation and student success. It verifies that teacher practice mediates student achievement and provides confirming evidence that professional learning as a core component of curriculum or program implementation is a worthy investment.