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School districts often invest significant time and money into purchasing new math curriculum resources, but all too often, those materials end up collecting dust—or worse, being implemented in ways that dilute their impact. In this episode, we unpack what comes after the purchase. How do you move from adoption to actual transformation in the math classroom? 

We explore what the research says about effective math curriculum implementation, the common pitfalls that undermine high-quality math tasks, and actionable steps districts can take to ensure materials are used as intended—supporting deeper learning and equitable access for all students in mathematics.

Key Takeaways:

• Buying the resource isn’t the finish line—it’s the starting point of a longer implementation journey.
• Effective professional learning and ongoing support are essential for helping teachers use materials as intended for math impact.
• Improper use or over-scaffolding can unintentionally lower the rigor of high-quality tasks.
• Clear vision, modeling, and consistent messaging from leaders create the conditions for successful implementation.
• We share insights from implementation science and education research to guide your next steps.
• Regular feedback loops and math classroom observations help ensure that implementation is both effective and responsive.

Resources:

• Register for the Make Math Moments Virtual Summit
• Make Math Moments Problem Based Lessons & Units

Attention District Math Leaders:

Not sure what matters most when designing math improvement plans? Take this assessment and get a free customized report: https://makemathmoments.com/grow/ 

Ready to design your math improvement plan with guidance, support and using structure? Learn how to follow our 4 stage process. https://growyourmathprogram.com 

Looking to supplement your curriculum with problem based lessons and units? Make Math Moments Problem Based Lessons & Units

Yvette Lehman: In today’s episode, we are going to unpack a situation that probably many of our listeners are familiar with where you’ve now purchased a resource for your district. And the question is kind of now what? So we’ve possibly spent a significant amount of time and resource actually selecting the high quality instructional material. We’ve dished out tens or hundreds of thousands of dollars to purchase the material. And now the work is in, in, you know, in fairness, just starting because now the work is supporting the implementation of that high quality instructional material in our classrooms routinely.

Jon Orr: Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. And I think that’s, you this is the thing that I think we either overlook or we just take for granted is that we’re going invest in all of the work to pick the right one. And if we do pick the right one or pick a right resource, maybe it’s a tool even, is what are we planning for next steps? Like, what does the next layer look like? Because if I think that I’m just going to slide this in,

and give everybody a copy or give everyone access or give everyone this tool in their in their room to use that it’s actually going to fix some problem that we have, then then we need to actually like, take some steps backwards. Because first you have to define like, what is the problem I’m actually trying to fix? And is this does this thing actually help me do that? And if we assume so, what am I doing to actually ensure that this

will fix the problem and what are the timelines around my expectations around that? There’s a lot to unpack here, guys. I’m excited to dig in. Yvette, what are we seeing as some possible hiccups around here?

Yvette Lehman: I’m going to, read my mind. So what we often hear as two barriers, one scenario is that we’ve invested in a resource and it’s sitting on a shelf collecting dust, or if it’s digital, we have limited login and usage data. The other scenario that we’re hearing across many districts is that they’ve purchased a resource, but teachers are basically morphing that resource to suit their style of teaching.

Jon Orr: I know what’s happening here. What you just said to me, was like, know, know, what’s happening in that situation is that many teachers, especially teachers who are like us that taught for a really long time, that were like, I have a new resource. Okay, that means to me, maybe my pacing changes. And they’re using it as a pacing guide.

this is, I’m supposed to teach this and then this and then this. I have stuff for that. let me see what they have. No, I’m gonna go over here and I’m gonna just pull from my catalog, but I’ll still follow the same pacing. And so I’m modifying what the curriculum is, what this curriculum or this resource is actually helping me to achieve by just doing what I’m gonna do.

Kyle Pearce: Right. I might even go a step further, John. So yeah, the pacing is different. Now it’s like, oh shoot, chapter one does this instead of what I was doing or what the last resource did. But then when they open it up, I’m picturing, you know, I remember me doing this the first couple years of teaching where I went and I looked for the red boxes. You know, everyone know the red boxes, like key concepts. It would have maybe the key idea, the the formula, the procedure, the

This is what all the in the the four pages before this what we were trying to lead you to is this box right here and then I would try to teach that box now when I say teach I would try to have kids mimic me showing them what’s in that box right which could have been long division it could have been you know correlation coefficient you know for those who teach data management you know it doesn’t matter what the concept is but it’s like I’m actually missing. all of the reasons why we actually selected this resource as our next move as a district or as a school.

Jon Orr: That’s what I was going say is that this is the problem if we think that just supplying the resource or the curriculum or the textbook is going to fix a certain issue that we’re trying to fix. it’s in a way can be used as a foundational floor as long as we dedicate

strategies and implementation strategies throughout the year to help us get realistic about the level of implementation. Because now you’re hearing, this is the big buzzword we hear every, almost every single day I would say I hear this, right, is the fidelity of the curriculum. We have to teach to the fidelity of the curriculum, means like we’re teaching the way it’s supposed to be taught. I think we need to really get real about the level of support

we have to structure and plan for and dedicate resources to, to get to where we wanna go with that curriculum. Because we’re not say adding in, like if you, let’s say you were like saying like, we’re gonna invest in hundreds of thousands of dollars to buy this. But like, if you’re not like also matching that with the support you’re gonna provide, it’s like, you’re not probably gonna see the level of impact that you thought this was gonna actually get you.

Yvette Lehman: So let’s dig into some of the recommendations from research. So what do we do? And so you kind of started to mention it, John, it’s like, we have to have systems of support in place that are going to support the implementation. And one thing that the research is telling us is that oftentimes, imagine you go to a training on a new tool. Usually, you know, it’s a full day of training, everybody comes together and we focus a lot on the what and the how.

It’s logistics. It’s, you know, where you’re going to find this, how to navigate here. If it’s a digital tool, we’re getting people comfortable with the platform and we’re really, you know, exposing them to the lesson structure and all of those things. And that’s important to start. Like that is step one, just a high overview of how the tool, you know. Yeah, so sure.

Kyle Pearce: Otherwise it automatically will go on the shelf, right? Or stay in the LMS or something,

Yvette Lehman: But that is, you know, the bare minimum likely not going to result in either implementation or implementation with fidelity, because at the end of the day, teachers have to understand the why. So if you’re using this high quality instructional material to make shifts in instructional practice, that can work. When you have a really, really good resource.

The teacher can actually build their content knowledge and shift their pedagogy if they implement with fidelity. I think about my own experience with Context for Learning. Using Context for Learning the way that it was designed and intended transformed my understanding of conceptual math because the resource itself was so strong. so when we think about professional development around the implementation of a resource,

We need to think about what we always suggest, right? Which is a coordinated system of varying levels of support that definitely include modeling, coaching, collaboration, professional collaboration periods where teachers are on multiple touch points. Teachers are unpacking the lessons together. They’re looking at the unit. They’re looking at the why. And you you mentioned an example, Kyle, that I think was a perfect example. You know, one of my favorite topics, long division.

Yvette Lehman: In the grade five revised Ontario curriculum, the way that they approach long division is actually beautiful. It’s very conceptual. The way that they describe it in the teacher supports is that they’re going to move students from the array model using partial products to the flexible algorithm. Okay. It’s a beautiful progression. It’s really rooted in understanding. Resources here in Ontario have followed that progression and implemented lessons in that sequence.

But imagine I haven’t done that learning myself. I don’t even know how to use the array model for division. So then I go through the unit and I pick and choose the tasks and questions that lend themselves to the long division algorithm and I just teach those.

Jon Orr: Because you’re cherry picking what you know and what you believe is important about what you want students to know about that math concept.

Kyle Pearce: Well, and something that’s really interesting here. what you just gave is a beautiful, well, it’s not beautiful, actually. It’s a horrible picture of what it means to not be teaching with fidelity when we look at that. And if you want a definition, that is a great exemplar of what that looks like. And I want to back up for a second, too, because you had mentioned context for learning being one of these resources that you can learn a ton.

it often gets stuck on the shelf because it’s a much harder resource to do the cherry picking that John’s talking about, meaning you can’t just flip through that book and find the thing that you’re familiar with and grab it. So what a lot of people do is they just put it back on the shelf because they’re like, none of this is familiar to me. And therefore I’m out. I just don’t know what’s going on here, right? Or they’re thinking, I don’t have the time to take a chance on this.

resource here, right? And unfortunately, for resource and curriculum writers, they’re in a position where they’re trying to make it as accessible for educators as possible. But in doing so often opens the door, it invites this lack of fidelity that we’re describing here, right? Like it’s almost like as a means to try to give these, we’ll call them like familiar fence posts.

right? And I remember, you know, Mr. Hillman used to say that in our district there, you’ve had used to talk about fence posts and, know, like that familiar fence post is like, it allows you a starting point. But if you’re not willing to move away from that pole, that post, and try to figure out the rest, then we’re going to be doing a lot of the same. And the reality is, if you pick up any old curriculum resource in your school in your district,

And if you actually give it a good look, you’ll notice that a lot of the things that we beat, we’re talking about, we’re talking about conceptual understanding. A lot of these ideas were in those resources. They were just being skipped over and we can continue to buy more resources, newer, flashier, better looking, you know, organized to better fit the standards now. And the reality is, is if we’re going to continue

Kyle Pearce: doing the same things as we’ve articulated here, we’re not going to get anywhere. So let’s keep digging here. Like what, what can we do now?

Jon Orr: Hmm. Well, well, I was just going to add on here. And I think this is another lens to think about here, because I think what you’re saying, what we’ve just kind of recommended is that we do need to invest heavily in helping our teachers understand the why, but also the how and the when and the where of using that resource. I think what sometimes, and we hear this when we meet with our district leaders or district partners or people who are,

trying to figure out how to build sustainable math programs and math improvement plans is that they focus a lot on trying to get teachers to say, use that curriculum. And then all of a sudden it’s like, shalt use this curriculum. And almost like flip to the other side where all of a sudden it’s like, that’s our goal. We want everyone to use this. But all of a sudden is it, if we’re not focusing on the right things, then the focus becomes just following this guide that

we don’t really know what we’re doing anyway. And I think there’s some issues there to consider. Like, you’ve got like a quote about rigidity and the, you know, whether this is really what we’re trying to do in our classrooms.

Yvette Lehman: Yeah, and I love this quote where basically what it’s saying is that fidelity does not equal being rigid with the content. It just means that we’re honouring the integrity of the curriculum, of our standards, of the expectations. We are, an example where we’re not having fidelity is imagine that the lesson isn’t designed to be task-based, where students are positioned to do the reasoning and a variety of strategies are encouraged, but instead we’re

pre-teaching a strategy ahead of time and funneling everybody to that one solution, therefore diminishing discourse, removing thinking, that’s not fidelity. But what we’re also saying, not saying either, is that you have to teach this lesson this day in this order, no deviation from the plan. Of course, we want people to be able to use their professional judgment to decide that they need an extra day on this concept.

or that the task itself wasn’t culturally relevant for their students. So they’re going to change the context so that it is more relevant. Or they find that maybe, you the way that it was introduced wasn’t conceptual enough and they want to add in a manipulative. Like those are all instructional choices that are going to enhance the curriculum versus reducing the thinking and the cognitive demand of the tasks to fit our own comfort level, to fit what we’re familiar with and what we’ve always done.

So let’s talk about some other strategies that leaders can do if they’re in this position. The one that we’re gonna recommend actually starts at the beginning of the pilot process. So imagine you have teachers who are piloting the resources that are up for selection. Think about, can we have representation from every site, every building? And the reason that that is important is that if you leverage the pilot,

as because typically there’s money right around the pilot and around the resource selection process. If you could get a teacher from every site, that teacher then becomes the teacher leader in their building to support the rollout and implementation of the new tool. They’re the ones that are there every day championing the resource, helping their colleagues, being willing to model. When we actually place that teacher leader in the building, if we identify them from the start,

and through the pilot build their capacity and their understanding behind the why, or even just routines and structures for how to unpack a unit or a lesson. Now you’ve placed that person back into their building and they’re the one who’s there every day, next to their colleagues along for this journey. So one of the things that we can do, particularly let’s say if you don’t have money, like there’s no time for PLCs, there’s no time for training.

Can we leverage the pilot process to build teacher leader capacity so that ideally every building has somebody doing this work?

Kyle Pearce: I love it. I love it. think too, you know, if we, look at some of this work that we’re doing as we’re selecting a resource, being very clear as to why we’re selecting that resource and how it aligns with our vision, with our objectives that we have as a district is really key. And that’s going to mean that everyone in the supporting role, that’s our administrators, that’s our coaches and such are going to have to

know and understand why we’ve selected this resource and specifically how it’s going to address some of the content pieces that maybe we haven’t done so well with in the past so that there is some clarity around when I am looking through that resource because the reality is a pilot process, any type of, you know, actual introduction of this resource, we’re not going to be able to give them 100 % support on

every single piece of material inside of that curriculum. So being there to help them and model for them along the way, I think is going to be critical, but it also means that we have to be really clear about what it is that we’re hoping to see and understand. And especially if we have administrators who are trying to monitor how well the uptake is on this new resource.

they too need to understand. may not have to be able to teach the content themselves, but they need to be able to identify when it’s working and maybe when it isn’t right. And I think it’s, it’s really easy for us to see when there’s different pedagogical moves taking place in a classroom, but it’s all much harder for a district leader or an administrator in a building to be walking around and to really understand whether

The content in that resource is being taught with fidelity on this day or this unit or this month or this semester.

Jon Orr: Yeah, I think our, you know, we need to make sure that we are including those, our administrators and our leaders of our buildings and our districts in say this process, because like what you’re saying, Kyle, it is essential that these alignment is there. And we need to make sure that we can leverage those people to, you know, continue the work and make sure that we dedicate the resources to the work and making sure that this becomes the priority of where we’re trying to move, because without that alignment,

you know, that the money that we invested in this resource, you know, even though we as say, coordinators or coaches can dedicate time and resources to trying to implement this, we do need to make sure that the prioritization is there at the school level. So that that that resource can be utilized the way it’s intended to be utilized and the appropriate priority level is given to it as as as say we unpack say our school improvement goals.

Yvette Lehman: So let’s summarize some of our recommendations. So I think that the first one was that we can’t assume that this is going to happen automatically. So if we are positioning ourselves to purchase, alongside that purchase needs to be a plan for implementation. And that plan needs to include support and focus on the why. And so in an ideal scenario, which most people don’t find themselves in, but I like to sometimes talk an ideal and then we can backtrack from there.

In an ideal scenario, teachers are coming together routinely with the support of a skilled facilitator to unpack the learning, to unpack the standards, to unpack the assessment, to unpack the lessons so that they are well positioned to understand the why when they go to implement with their students, particularly the first time around. mean, one tip of advice may be for our leaders, if you’re thinking there’s no way I can do that with every single unit, that’s impossible. What if we picked

one unit at every grade level that was a critical high leverage concept and engaged in that process or with some grade levels this year and others next year but either way we have to have a plan for rollout we have to have a plan to support the why and the metacognitive process that goes into planning what should i be considering when i’m unpacking a unit when i’m unpacking a lesson we talked about the roles of teacher leaders in the building and so sometimes that’s an easier ask maybe it’s possible to build capacity of 30

It may not be possible to build capacity for 500, but can I identify one person in every building that I can provide some additional support to so that they’re positioned to support their colleagues in the building? We talked about the critical role of administrators. It’s really hard to do an observation and provide feedback. It’s really hard to bring the information back to the district if we don’t know what it should look like when it’s being done effectively with fidelity. And kind of our closing comment. is that if we’re relying on just compliance, if we’re saying things like, we bought the resource, you’re a professional, we put it in your hands.

The reality is it’s probably just not happening and you don’t know that it’s not happening. Like you, even if you think that teachers are implementing with fidelity, they likely aren’t because we probably aren’t monitoring the right things either.

Kyle Pearce: You know, everything you’ve said there and summarized is so important and so critical. I, you know, the, piece that I want, you know, our leaders, our school leaders, our teacher leaders to be thinking about is the fact that, you know, you said something about, you know, I know that it might be difficult or I know there isn’t the time to go through, every unit or to do as much as maybe we want or wish we could do.

But we also have to look at it the other way and say, if we don’t have the time, if we’re not willing or able to commit the time, then how do we anticipate or expect that our teachers are going to somehow find the time to do it on their own? Right. And I mean, I think what this is is really looking to find a balance between what is realistic and what can we do and achieve together. And that might mean that a rollout of a new resource may

be in small chunks, right? So to have an expectation that we’re going to have, you know, fidelity across the entire curriculum along all this resource for, you know, in one or two years is probably a very difficult thing to realistically achieve, right? So how do I break it down? How do I make it much more bite size? Because again, if there’s not enough time for me or for the district leaders, then

I don’t know where the time is going to be found for the educator as well, right? And I think if we think about that, we can stay realistic in our goals and we can actually meet them.

Jon Orr: Yeah, no, well said. Like, like I think when you reverse engineer the amount of support that is needed to have a teacher adopt a new resource or a new curriculum or a new strategy, it’s multiple touch points for each and every teacher to make that happen. And so when you start to, you know, reverse engineer how you can, you can provide that, those touch points and what you’re capable of as a, as a district or a school and what your resources you have access to. Like when you get real about

what that looks like and sounds like and what you can commit to, you have to then get real about what impact you actually will achieve by the end of the year. And the other thing that you touched on that is that part of that and synced with that reality of where you could end up if you dedicate the appropriate level of support to implement this is how will you know it’s actually occurring? You have to know, otherwise you’re gonna go through a year where we did some stuff.

But I don’t know if it’s actually translating into the way that I thought it was going to translate in our classrooms. And if I’m just waiting for student data, know, standardized test data to tell me that it worked, then it’s, you know, you’re relying on the wrong things. So we do need to strategically have plans around how to bring in this resource appropriately, that how do we dedicate appropriate level of support based off our constraints.

To make sure we get the impact we want which means we have to define that impact we want and how well we measure it by the end of the year these are all essential items to creating change and impact on math improvement and Hopefully, you know you had some big, you know big takeaways I know that we did when we started this work and you’ve got some takeaways to take away today and if you do You know want to take a deeper dive you want us to kind of help you with an audit and look at your unique situation head on over to

MakeMathMoments.com forward slash discovery. You can hop on a call with us and we can unpack this together with you and give you some actionable next steps on your math improvement plan journey.

FULL TRANSCRIPT

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