Is Your Online Reading Curricula Better Because It's Online?

𝐒𝐜𝐡𝐨𝐨𝐥 𝐥𝐞𝐚𝐝𝐞𝐫𝐬, 𝐩𝐥𝐞𝐚𝐬𝐞 𝐜𝐨𝐧𝐬𝐢𝐝𝐞𝐫 𝐭𝐡𝐢𝐬 𝐚 𝐏𝐒𝐀. I had another conversation today with a school leader about the diminishing quality of their core reading curriculum.

The more that EdTech companies invest into the bright and shiny toys of technology, the farther some of them seem to get away from the evidence base on the Science of Reading.

EdTech companies in today's competitive marketplace are trying to maximize their margins. That's fine. Companies have to make a profit to stay in business.

It's just annoying that some of what I'm seeing is undermining aspects of the evidence-base on the Science of Reading in favor of fancy online curricula or new AI empowered platforms. 

Online and AI options aren't necessarily bad. However, if a company doesn't really understand the Science of Reading, then when they translate their curricula into a online setting, they are likely to get rubbish if they don't have human curriculum experts guiding the path on instructional decisions.

𝘞𝘩𝘺, 𝘺𝘰𝘶 𝘮𝘪𝘨𝘩𝘵 𝘢𝘴𝘬? 

Well most AI large language models are scouring the internet to find their sources. Time and again, I'm seeing AI summaries that include garbage as sources. For example, today I came across an AI summary that cited a resource from a public education system that misrepresented the National Reading Panel Report on the topic of the 90-minute reading block...something I've looked into rather deeply. The AI cited this online source as though it were fact, even though the statement was completely untrue.

With curricula, what I have been seeing in classrooms is "instructional technology" that has replaced common sense about early literacy. The portions of the program that are intended to teach phonics, for example, have completely fallen off the rails and don't align with the idea of "explicit, systematic phonics instruction" anymore. It's like the skeleton is there, but there's no flesh and bones (pun intended).

These choices by EdTech publishers are having a real and negative affect on student learning as it relates to early literacy. 

If you are a consumer who is responsible for K-5 literacy curriculum adoption, I would encourage you to take stock. Know that the digital platforms aren't always made digital because they're better. They're made digital because companies can sell you a subscription and make more long term revenue from you. 

Be very careful with the core reading programs you're buying to make sure that both the 𝒄𝒐𝒏𝒕𝒆𝒏𝒕 AND 𝒊𝒏𝒔𝒕𝒓𝒖𝒄𝒕𝒊𝒐𝒏𝒂𝒍 𝒑𝒆𝒅𝒂𝒈𝒐𝒈𝒚 is aligned with the decades of research on what it takes to teach young children to read.

If you need any help, let me know. I'm happy to offer any insights I have as neutral 3rd-party who is not beholden to any EdTech companies.

Or, if you are interested in having assistance through the curriculum adoption process, ask me about how I facilitation curriculum review processes for adoption committees.