The Philadelphia School District is spending $70 million on new curricula. Here’s a primer on the coming changes.

The Philadelphia School District has committed $70 million to new teaching tools for math, reading, and science — a linchpin of Superintendent Tony B. Watlington Sr.’s long-term plan to boost achievement citywide.

Watlington has said that the district is spending on “the best-in-class, research-based curricula in reading, math, and science that exist in the United States of America.”

In order to reach Watlington’s goal of Philadelphia becoming the fastest-improving big-city district in the country, the Council of Great City Schools in its study of the district concluded that curriculum and instructional resources were central to turning around its academic struggles: Just 34% of students meet state standards in reading and 16% in math.

The district, officials said in documents presented to the school board, is “presented with a monumental opportunity to invest in high-quality core instructional resources that not only align with the Common Core State Standards and best practices, but also meet our rigorous standards for cultural and linguistic inclusivity.”

Over the years, Philadelphia had gotten away from using a single, centralized curriculum — an issue in a city where students often move from school to school, sometimes multiple times in a single school year.

Here’s a primer on the coming changes:

This spring, the school board signed off on up to $20 million for new math resources for students citywide. Illustrative Mathematics, a curriculum offered by an Arizona-based company called K-12 Imagine Learning LLC, will provide the K-12 resources.

For its English Language Arts materials, the district will pay up to $20 million split between Imagine Learning, for the EI Educational Curriculum for K-8 students, and McGraw Hill/StudySync, for students in grades nine through 12.

The school system is taking advantage of pandemic-related federal relief money to pay for the materials. It received $1.1 billion in onetime funds over several years.

Teachers will start using the new math materials in September. The new English curriculum will debut the following school year.

Science materials have not yet been chosen.

“Right now, our focus is on implementing the math core instructional resources,” said Nyshawana Francis-Thompson, the district’s chief of curriculum and instruction. “We are in the process of further vetting the science resources.”

Materials for English language learners and special education students will also be purchased at some point in the future; the $70 million should cover the outlay on all the resources, Francis-Thompson said.

District schools had been using three different sets of instructional resources — all purchased in 2016 — before the latest purchase.

Science curriculum was last replaced more than 20 years ago.

Teachers, families, and other community members were invited to weigh in on prospective curriculum vendors at events held in March and April. More than 3,000 people provided feedback in some form, which informed the process and what was ultimately chosen, district officials said.

District officials stress that they are not replacing their framework, just the instructional resources. The text-based, culturally responsive reading curriculum written by district staff, including teachers, is valuable and not going away, Francis-Thompson said.

“As the district continues to incorporate the new high-quality resources, it remains committed to honoring the expertise and input of teachers in this process,” Francis-Thompson said. “The goal is to ensure a seamless integration of the new materials while preserving the strengths and cultural responsiveness of the existing curriculum framework.”

Implementing the new materials “will require significant learning, not just for teachers, but for every layer within the organization, including our families,” Francis-Thompson said.

More than 450 math teachers engaged in Illustrative Math training last week, but some won’t begin until they return to work just before the school year starts.

Teachers will begin using the materials in the fall, Francis-Thompson said, but “they won’t be at full implementation until they have time to go through using the materials with their students. In regards to teachers seeing the materials, all teachers were invited to be a part of selecting these resources and all have received access to view and engage with the materials through an online account. We will also be offering different virtual and in-person opportunities.”

There will be professional development at the district and school level, on-demand webinars, and many other opportunities, Francis-Thompson said.

Mary Thorp, a fourth-grade teacher at Watson Comly Elementary in the Northeast, said the material feels relevant to her students, and appears academically solid. It’s heavy on manipulatives (physical objects that students can use to help solve problems), and stresses access for all students.

“It’s 2023, it’s post-COVID, and we have the money to put into a curriculum that helps with the equity piece and the access piece and all of the things that we’ve come to terms with in terms of marginalized populations,” said Thorp.

When she saw the fourth-grade math box, Thorp said, she got excited. Homework is de-emphasized, Thorp said, but there’s a focus on enrichment, on helping parents interact with the materials.

“We get to rethinking meaningful math experiences at home for parents,” Thorp said. “This is a curriculum that will help guide our instruction, but I think the district will trust us to use best practices.”

Jordan Humble, a teacher leader at Sayre High School in West Philadelphia, had his first hands-on interaction with Illustrative Math at a listening session last week.

“I was a big fan,” said Humble, who has taught in Philadelphia for two years but spent 10 years prior as a teacher and academic coach in another state. He liked that the curriculum builds in a lot of literacy components, and believes that the materials move the district away from the way many adults learned math, by a teacher lecturing, then asking students to repeat and memorize. There’s a lot more problem-solving and hands-on work.

“It’s going to be something completely new, pedagogy-wise, it’s going to take time,” Humble said. “I think that it does require a level of trust at all levels of the district, starting with the classroom teacher. We have to trust the curriculum; we have to see value in this.”

Humble said he had been worried that the curriculum would require more screen time of learners who are burnt out from screen time, learn better with pencil and paper, or don’t bring their devices to school, but learned that the resources can be used with pencil and paper or online.

There are guidelines and explicit instructions to guide teachers, which some teachers — particularly those new to the profession — like, but this is not a “use-this-or-else,” Humble said: “It’s really whatever the teacher needs.”

Rachel Eshun, who teaches students struggling with math at Barry Elementary in West Philadelphia, is pleased that every school in the city now has access to the same materials, and after diving into a training session, “I’m impressed,” said Eshun. “I think any change comes with some kind of headache, so I probably have colleagues who are saying, ‘Here we go again, new superintendent, change.’ But I, for one, am excited about this change.”

Like Thorp, Eshun likes the shift away from homework — there are no sheets of practice problems for kids to take home, but enrichment and family engagement opportunities.

“Homework is inequitable,” Eshun said. “Who says that you have the parent to go home and do this with? They’d rather you go home and read a book for a half-hour rather than drill and kill to do these practice problems.”

Lauren Overton, principal of Penn Alexander in West Philadelphia, is “very very excited” about the district-wide pivot to Illustrative Math. Her school — which receives extra funding per student from the University of Pennsylvania — has been piloting the program for three years.

“It is really built to be more conceptual and more engaging for students around mathematics discussions,” Overton said. “This program is robust, and it gives the teachers routines and practices that are going to benefit the students for years to come.”

Yes, Overton said, “it is a tight turnaround,” but the district is working on a pacing guide and scope and sequence aligned to standards, and there will be training along the way.

Some teachers have voiced fear about the future English language arts curriculum. Kristin Luebbert, who teaches humanities at the U School, a district high school in North Philadelphia, asked the school board to reconsider using StudySync.

StudySync includes significant online components, a worry for some. Many students — and their families — don’t want more screen time, Luebbert said; plus, WiFi signals at some schools are spotty, many students don’t bring their Chromebooks to school, and some don’t work.

“Instructionally — not to mention socially/emotionally — our students do not need any more screen time,” said Luebbert. “As a reading specialist, I can tell you that our high school students who need extra support with reading skills do not engage well or authentically with texts online. Most of my struggling readers ask me for paper copies of texts and articles, which I happily provide.”

Francis-Thompson said StudySync’s online resources and digital access to textbooks are meant to support instruction. “The benefit of having digital resources allows teachers and students to have on-demand access to instructional resources at all times,” Francis-Thompson said. “Screen time was a huge concern when that was our primary means of providing continuity of instruction during a global pandemic. The district recognizes the importance of balancing screen time and is committed to addressing this concern.”