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26% of core curriculum and 25% of EdTech purchasers note that available information/ evidence doesn’t seem applicable to their district context.
Pragmatic
Through research we unearth 4 common barriers faced by evidence creators.
01
Individuals are less likely to feel that a piece of evidence resonates with them if it doesn’t relate to their real-world circumstances.
We’ve read the educational research on what makes a good curriculum but living it with the kids is most important, context specificity. We have a lot of parent groups and site-council and leadership teams who give input.
— Director, Curriculum, Instruction,and Assessment, CA
02
Individuals are unlikely to use evidence if they deem the evidence as being too general.
In a Discrete Choice Experiment, 60% of individuals preferred an article title with a school district’s population numbers, relative to 40% who preferred an article title describing a “larger school district”.
A lot of contextualization is needed to start conversation [about products].
— Director of Technology & Assessment, IL
03
Individuals may, over time, develop an unbalanced focus for specific student groups and believe that only certain groups would benefit most from a particular material.
26% of core curriculum and 25% of EdTech purchasers note that available information/evidence doesn’t seem applicable to their district context.
We only look at materials that represent whole students — different cultures and ethnicities.
— Executive Director of Teaching,Learning and Accountability, MO
04
Decision-makers highly prioritize or only seek out evidence that is aligned with pre-existing state or other educational standards.
24% of core curriculum and 15% of EdTech purchasers note that a challenge to using information/evidence is the limited flexibility to consider new evidence given state requirements.
One of our musts is that the curriculum must align with Common Core and standards.
— Assistant Superintendent, IL
A principle as a solution
Based on these barriers, we came to understand that evidence should be
Pragmatic
Articulate real user experiences and outcomes
Evidence should articulate real users and their outcomes. When fostering relatability, focus on the contexts and diversity shared by the user groups.
Make your evidence pragmatic
Explore the tools on our toolkit that will help you to enhance your evidence availability.
Explore other principles
Have questions?
We work with organizations of all kinds to develop customized solutions to social challenges.
This project was built in partnership with The Decision Lab, a socially-conscious applied research firm that generates transformational change for people, products, and organizations using behavioral science.