Uncommonly Engaging? A Review of the EngageNY English Language Arts Common Core Curriculum
This resource reports on a review of the EngageNY ELA curriculum. It asks the questions, “Is it a high-quality product? Is it well aligned to the Common Core? Is it teachable?” It provides an in-depth review of EngageNY’s alignment to the CCSS ELA standards by grade band along the following dimensions:
Text complexity, quality, and balance
Evidence-based reading
Content knowledge and vocabulary
Writing, language, listening, and speaking
K-3 foundational reading skills (when applicable)
Instructional coherence, delivery, and assessment
This resource provides great insight into the EngageNY ELA curricular materials. Overall the authors of this review find them to be of high quality. From the conclusion: “EngageNY’s ELA materials offer a high-quality, comprehensive resource for educators teaching to the Common Core State Standards and may offer an excellent (and freely available) alternative to other programs that do not meet the criteria for alignment to the Common Core as thoughtfully or comprehensively.” In this resource, each set of ELA grade band curricular materials has its strengths and weaknesses described on various dimensions.