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District survey: most teachers using new curricula, but many report extra time and need for supports
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Summary
A district presentation of teacher survey results showed 71% reported using adopted curricula and 59% said students were benefiting, while large shares of teachers reported increased instructional or prep time and requested more resources—district leaders outlined coaching, pacing guides and follow-up surveys.
A district workshop on instructional materials on April 1 featured a detailed presentation of teacher survey results and a road map for expanded training and supports. Pete Vander Linden, who administered the survey, told the board the district received robust responses across content areas and 585 written comments.
The survey, he said, showed a 71% usage rate for adopted curricula and 59% of responding teachers reporting that students were benefiting. Vander Linden summarized common concerns: “The first year was hard. We stayed as a team for 2 to 3 hours each night to plan just 1 season,” an open-ended comment included in the results. He also reported that 64% of respondents said the new curricula require more instructional time and 60% said preparation time had increased; roughly 35% requested additional resources or supplemental materials.
District leaders framed those findings as actionable. “These numbers tell us we have work to do,” Doctor Logan Toon said, urging the board to support implementation investments rather than reverse adoptions. TJ Strain, the district presenter on high-quality instructional materials, emphasized that adoption alone is not sufficient: curriculum must be paired with professional learning and coaching and vetted through state resources such as RIMS and EdReports.
Supervisors who oversee content-area rollouts described specific follow-up steps. For elementary ELA (CKLA), staff are producing pacing guides, a submeasure framework for intervention, printable low-tech resources and optional Friday trainings; they plan to train roughly two-thirds of teachers on a writing supplement (Releasing Writers / Think SRSD) by next year. For secondary ELA (Savvas/My Perspectives), supervisors said they are pulling teacher teams from every secondary school to unpack standards and build shared expectations, while addressing Canvas and Encore integration problems. The math team highlighted grant-funded half-day prep sessions, additional manipulatives and cohort-based professional learning.
Board members asked for more disaggregated data linking training quality to student outcomes; presenters said they can break down the negative-response set by curriculum and will return with that analysis. The district will run another teacher survey in one to two weeks to track progress and identify additional supports over the summer.
The workshop closed with a reminder that primary instructional materials still require the district’s open-house process and board review; smaller or supplemental materials follow a differentiated approval path and continue to be vetted through supervisors.
