Creating and launching a digital curriculum is an important task at any level. Multiply that effort by a massive student base with a broad spectrum of students, and finding new strategies to bring that implementation to scale is imperative.
Kara Thorstenson, Director of Libraries and Digital Learning for Chicago Public Schools, discusses the district's impressive feat in launching a digital curriculum. For her participation in that effort, she was recognized by tech & Learning with a Innovative Leader Award during the midwest Regional Leadership Summit.
Launching a digital curriculum: the larger the district, the greater the challenges
Chicago Public Schools (CPS) is the fourth largest school district in the U.S., with more than 323,000 students across 634 schools, serving 24.7% English Learners and 16.1% English Language Learners. of diverse students. Prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, the district did not have a formal district-wide 1-to-1 device plan. The shift to remote learning required a rush to distribute technology to cover students, and since then the CPS policy has remained 1-to-1. But a shift toward digital learning required more than tablets in hand, and that shift began from from top to bottom.
“Delivering professional learning at scale has been a huge challenge for a district our size,” Thorstenson says. “We started with a tremendous amount of professional learning developed and delivered by educational technology/curriculum providers, with a gradual transfer to our internal teams (exclusively for school year 25). Moving to a virtual environment during COVID-19 allowed us to think more flexibly and creatively, delivering high-quality PL to more educators than ever before.”
The next hurdle was going back through the autonomy story on a school-by-school basis to ensure everyone was on the same page.
“After decades of decentralized curriculum purchasing and no district- or state-mandated curricula, schools and individual teachers were teaching with learning materials with a lot of variability in terms of quality and alignment to standards,” Thorstenson says.
A visionary board and proactive senior leadership ensured funding for the ambitious project was met. The key, however, was finding the right curriculum for CPS.
“As we assessed the status of local and purchased (off-the-shelf) curricula adopted by other large districts, we found that most resources did not directly address the needs of urban students of color and were not relevant to their lived experiences.” by CPS students. ”says Thorstenson. “Modifying and adapting licensed content to meet the district's definition of high-quality curriculum ensured that resources for teachers and students were designed with Universal Design for Learning principles in mind, including built-in support for English Language and Diverse Learners.”
Why go digital?
Considering the immensity of the task, one wonders why push for full digitalization while still recovering from the challenges of the pandemic era?
“Before developing our curriculum, district leaders traveled around the country to learn from other large districts and hopefully avoid some of the obstacles they had encountered when tackling similar projects,” Thorstenson says. “We learned that districts that had purchased countless textbooks or 'published' their own print content were obligated to disseminate those materials in perpetuity. The development of physical materials also significantly slowed down the process.”
At that time, CPS learned that approximately 50% of the district's teachers did not have materials available in the subject they taught. This created both an opportunity and a sense of urgency to develop and bring Skyline, their unique self-developed curriculum, to schools.
“Because Skyline was developed digitally, we were able to distribute it universally and only needed enough bandwidth and appropriate content licenses,” he says. “We can continually update it to accommodate changes big and small, from the name of Chicago's mayor to editing entire units if a different text is selected or a new state-mandated learning topic is required.”
3 key steps when launching a digital curriculum
- Do your research. Talk to similar districts and attend conferences to engage with curriculum products, both print and digital.
- Relationships are key. Customized development of curricular content and digital resources requires strong connections with external partners.
- Choose wisely. Ask interested parties what they need. Test results and data tell a story, but that story is incomplete without ensuring that the needs of teachers and students are at the forefront of any priority projects.
The Buy-In Roadshow
Launching any big project requires all stakeholders to be on board.
“Our Director of Curriculum, Instruction and Digital Learning traveled throughout the district presenting the project to principals and our 17 network heads to gather feedback,” Thorstenson says. “We leveraged a large teacher group called the Curriculum Collaborative to review the curriculum against a rubric and make suggestions for edits that were then used by the vendor partners who develop the curriculum.”
The district established a clear expectation that schools must demonstrate quality (defined by Ed Reports) in all content areas. Skyline was not mandatory, but being pre-approved and developed specifically for CPS with money from the central district budget offered the advantage of being a “free” option tailored to local students.
““We are really proud to develop the curriculum in partnership with local Chicago museums and other cultural institutions,” Thorstenson says. “We provide schools with thousands of picture books, novels, science kits and more to ensure students engage in hands-on learning while learning with a digital curriculum. “We have worked hard to ensure that Skyline is holistic and that much learning takes place away from screens/computers, even when materials are accessible digitally.”
Digital Readiness Guides and Other Implementation Strategies
The digital readiness guides function as a checklist to ensure that schools have the appropriate infrastructure, devices and peripherals to ensure a successful implementation of a digital curriculum.
“We didn't have to be 100% ready to take advantage of Skyline's learning materials,” Thorstenson says. “Digital readiness guidance acts as a roadmap for better budgeting and planning to establish the best possible environment for digital learning over budget years/cycles.”
The CPS Office of Teaching and Learning increased its staff and hired level-specific professional learning specialists to train teachers at Skyline. External partners helped develop the structures needed to expand delivery across the district.
“For technical platforms, we leverage asynchronous professional learning and microcredentials to award digital badges to teachers, school leaders, and district staff who complete the appropriate technical professional learning modules,” Thorstenson says. “These are continually updated to keep up with new developments and ensure all stakeholders are aware of the recommended workflows for planning, teaching, delivering and grading assessments.”
