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EXPLORING THE STATE OF TEACHER SUPPLEMENTATION IN UNITED STATES K–12 EDUCATIONIlse WhiteOctober 2023

2A Learnovate ReportExploring the State of Teacher Supplementation in United States K–12 EducationforAbout the authorIlse White is a learning experience researcher with the Learnovate Centre at Ireland’s Trinity College Dublin.As a researcher, Ilse consults and collaborates with a wide variety of clients to help them understand and improve learning design and employee-development challenges in their organizations. She cares deeply about enabling great learning experiences that contribute to the development of the learner and to the performance of the organization they work in.Prior to Learnovate, Ilse accrued 15 years of experience in learning design, learning strategy, and technology-enhanced learning for the purpose of people development in multinational organizations.Ilse has an MA in business communication from the Radboud University in Nijmegen, the Netherlands, and a postgraduate qualification in learning technology and management from Dublin City University. A Dutch native, she has adopted Ireland as her forever home and lives there with her husband and three children. Cover image: A close-up of a teacher sitting at her desk preparing her lesson for the day. © SolStock / Getty Images.

EXPLORING THE STATE OF TEACHER SUPPLEMENTATION IN UNITED STATES K–12 EDUCATION3Table of ContentsExecutive summary .............................................................................................................................................41. Introduction ......................................................................................................................................................52. Most teachers supplement ............................................................................................................................53. Why do teachers supplement? ......................................................................................................................64. How teachers supplement ............................................................................................................................75. The effectiveness of supplementation .......................................................................................................116. The risks of supplementation......................................................................................................................127. The influence of online supplementation markets ...................................................................................138. Impact of supplementation on the landscape ............................................................................................15Discussion ...........................................................................................................................................................18Conclusion ..........................................................................................................................................................20References ...........................................................................................................................................................21

EXPLORING THE STATE OF TEACHER SUPPLEMENTATION IN UNITED STATES K–12 EDUCATION4Executive summaryThis report explores the current state of the instructional materials market, in particular supplemental materials. It identifies to what extent supplemental materials meet quality standards, and provides insights on the attitudes, behaviors, and use of supplemental materials by K–12 teachers. Where possible, we paid particular attention to the literature and data as it applies to grade 6–12 social studies teachers.The availability of supplemental materials is ever growing, particularly through large, often revenue generating, virtual resource pools and markets. Supplemental materials are so easily and readily available that there have been large increases in teachers’ use of virtual resource pools (Kaufman et al., 2018). It is estimated that around three-quarters of teachers regularly use supplemental materials in their teaching practices.Teachers will often look for supplemental materials for a specific purpose. Teachers supplement to fill a perceived need in their contexts, their students, or themselves. Often, their goal is to increase student engagement or to offer more-personalized learning experiences. In choosing supplemental materials, teachers most commonly cite the resources being free, topical, easy to implement, and the added benefit of the inclusion of professional development materials (listed in order of importance) as their reasons for selection. The use of supplemental materials has also led to teachers taking on the role of curriculum curators, self-scaffolding materials for use in the classroom at a large scale (Hu & Torphy, 2020).Interestingly, teacher characteristics such as age or experience influence the types of materials chosen, and in general, teachers have quickly developed patterns of curriculum adaptation and modification and have established firm go-to approaches (Drake & Sherin, 2006). For example, teachers might use a single source when finding their materials, might select materials with a particular aesthetic, or might only select materials that are highly rated. The quality of supplementation can vary greatly though, in some cases raising questions about the actual benefits of supplementation to teaching practice.Many researchers have expressed a concern about the quality of supplemental materials. Overall, studies show that the quality and effectiveness of online supplemental materials are lacking, and warnings have been issued by some researchers that just downloading resources from the internet is not a substitute for good pedagogy. An important finding by Torphy et al. (2019) suggests that the quality of teachers’ chosen resources predicted student test results, with more rigorous resources leading to higher test scores. This raises the need for more-extensive investigation of teachers’ supplementation habits, as there is a real risk that low-quality supplementation can cause potential harm to students and teaching if teachers choose materials without stro ng pedagogical underpinnings or that contain untruths and harmful content for underrepresented minorities, for example. Many researchers argue that what drives the online supplementation market is financial gain, and content creators and for-profit online supplementation markets do not assume responsibility for the educational integrity of content. An additional concern is that teachers are not always able to be the critical consumers they are expected to be as professional educators. The most recent research looks at ways to develop this new curriculum curation skill set and implement it at pre-service and in professional development education. If this development

EXPLORING THE STATE OF TEACHER SUPPLEMENTATION IN UNITED STATES K–12 EDUCATION5continues effectively and is supported and guided by curriculum-demand influencers (a new group of actors in the instructional materials landscape whose goal is to support educators as they seek, identify, and demand high-quality instructional materials), the instructional materials landscape could change significantly to the benefit of the student. 1.IntroductionThis report is a review of the literature on comprehensive, supplemental, and free curriculum in the K–12 education sector in the United States. The objective of the review was to deepen the understanding of the quality, use, and implementation of the different types of curricula in the US education system. In addition, it provides a thorough understanding of the benefits and underlying motivations of teachers and schools to leverage a specific kind of curriculum. Learnovate took on the following charge:•Setting the stage:•Build a picture of the state of curricula in the US education sector by exploring thedefinitions, characteristics, and data of the different forms of curricula. The objective is tobetter understand the use, cost, quality, and adoption of the curricula.•Explore the state of curricula alignment with standards:•To what extent are textbooks aligned with curricula standards and what is the quality ofthat alignment?•Uncover the different kinds of supplementary materials that exist, how teachers are usingthem, and why.•Explore motivations and barriers for teachers and schools to leverage supplementarycurricula in their teaching practices.•Identify areas where teachers can be supported in the better use and implementation ofsupplemental curriculum.2.Most teachers supplementOne of the main conclusions that can be drawn from the literature is that supplementation and the use of supplemental materials in K–12 education is widespread and growing in popularity and influence. It is estimated that three-quarters of K–12 teachers regularly choose to use supplemental materials in their teaching practices. (Silver, 2022)2.1 Prevalence of supplementation Teacher curriculum supplementation is best understood as any premeditated, additive change that a teacher makes to their official curriculum materials. Silver (2022) conducted a comprehensive systematic review on the use of supplementation and states that the vast majority of US teachers supplement their officially adopted curriculum materials with unofficial materials. This is in large part due to the changing relationship between teacher and curriculum over the past decades. The explosion of the internet, and the standardization brought on by school-level implementation of the Common Core Standards in the mid-2010s, allowed for the rise of virtual resource pools and markets that have transformed how teachers use curricula (Silver, 2022).

EXPLORING THE STATE OF TEACHER SUPPLEMENTATION IN UNITED STATES K–12 EDUCATION6The move to remote and hybrid schooling during the COVID-19 pandemic led to another period of growth for supplementary content websites, with some (Teachers Pay Teachers among them) reporting revenue increases of up to 20% in this period (Marcin, 2020).Supplementation is not new, and Hodge et al. (2019) state that the rise of virtual resource pools with millions of inexpensive, ready-made, always-available materials ranging in scope from single activities to full lessons and unit plans has contributed to sweeping changes to the organizational ecology of curriculum materials. Because the materials are so easily accessible and available, it has given rise to large increases in teachers’ use of virtual resource pools (Kaufman et al., 2018). For example, Teachers Pay Teachers claims that more than two-thirds of teachers in the United States have used its materials, a statement supported by independent, nationally representative teacher surveys (for example, Opfer et al., 2017).2.2 Teacher curriculum supplementation is massive in scopeDue to shifts in the curriculum market, the publishers of textbooks are no longer the major developersof curricula, which has led to teachers increasingly becoming curriculum curators. Teachers are tasked with selecting high-quality resources from an unregulated ocean of available options and need to scaffold the learning experiences on their own (Hu & Torphy, 2020). The prevalence of supplementation and availability of supplementary content should make researchers, educators, and policymakers sit up and pay attention, as the influence on the education system of this practice could be (or perhaps already is) significant. Gaining insight into what teachers supplement and why will help gain deeper understanding of how enactment of these resources impact teaching and learning.3.Why do teachers supplement?3.1 Teachers supplement for specific reasonsNearly all relevant research asserts that teachers supplement for specific reasons (Silver, 2022). They supplement to fill the needs they perceive in their contexts, their students, or themselves. Teachers often seek out unofficial curriculum materials because their schools have not provided them with all the materials they need to enact the officially adopted curriculum. At times, the school actively supports supplementation. (Marple et al., 2017; Sawyer & Myers, 2018).The motivations to use supplemental materials are diverse, but increasing student engagement is by far the most cited. This suggests that teachers might find the officially adopted textbooks don’t hold the interest of their students.Sawyer, Dick & Sutherland (2020), found that teachers adapt official and supplemental materials to increase student engagement. Examples of adaptation strategies include aligning with specific learning needs, aligning with learning standards, adjusting textbook difficulty, correcting textbook shortcomings, or providing students with better assessment options and additional instruction methods.Teacher-based motivations for supplementation include saving time, having a sense of professional autonomy, the desire to collaborate with other educators, and being able to diversify their teaching practices. However, these motivations are not evenly distributed across teachers. What is emerging from the research is that in general, teachers are using supplemental materials to solve a problem they encounter when they attempt to teach with the official curriculum alone.

EXPLORING THE STATE OF TEACHER SUPPLEMENTATION IN UNITED STATES K–12 EDUCATION73.2 Textbooks and supplemental curriculum materials The importance of textbooks in teaching practice that is asserted in the research leads us to question how good textbooks are. Based on Silver’s (2022) analysis of the literature on the quality of textbooks, the research appears to be inconclusive. Some studies show that some textbooks are better than others for improving student outcomes on standardized tests. Other studies claim that student achievement cannot be solely attributed to the textbook they use, if at all. The interesting insight that Silver offers is that perhaps the discussion on which textbooks are best is less relevant in comparison to looking at how teachers use and implement them. Kaufman et al. (2020) categorized teachers as “by the book,” “DIY teachers,” “modifiers,” or “cobblers” with respect to their use of real-life and virtual curriculum materials. Kaufman et al. found that only 26% of teachers in their sample enacted their curriculum “by the book.” The study quotes research by Blazer et al. (2019) and Polikoff et al. (2018) that shows the diminishing role of the textbook. The primary focus of most teachers is now more on nontextbook materials. Silver concludes that the lesser role of textbooks paves the way for teachers to increasingly adopt supp lemental materials. He also states that evidence suggests that the textbook’s importance to teachers’ enacted curriculum may be diminishing, which, he argues, gives way to teacher-adopted supplemental curriculum materials. 4.How teachers supplement4.1 Obtaining supplemental materialsTo obtain materials, teachers often use virtual resources pools, teacher blogs, professional organizations’ websites, their Twitter/X networks, colleagues, Google searches, and more. They may also create the supplemental materials themselves (Silver, 2022). The research suggests that teachers make their sourcing choices purposefully, but the use of individual platforms suggest that teachers’ supplementation goals vary by platform. They may, for example, use Teachers Pay Teachers (TPT) and Pinterest for supplement acquisition but turn to Twitter/X to keep informed about important issues in education and as a sounding board for ideas on how to approach their supplementation activities (Frank and Torphy, 2019; Silver, 2022).4.2 Teacher supplementation usage patternsTeachers were adapting and modifying official curricula with new materials well before online supplementation became ubiquitous. They saw it as a way to engage in a dynamic design process aimed at saving time or more effectively engaging their students. Brown (2002) and Recker et al. (2004) argued that specific teacher characteristics such as years of experience influence the types of materials they tend to use and how they use them. They also found that a teacher’s patterns of curriculum adaptation and modification tend to remain constant. Teachers tend to have consistent go-to approaches for when and how they adapt their official curricula (Drake & Sherin, 2006). These habits do not always benefit the quality of the content curated, with studies reporting that teachers can be uncritical about the quality of the materials they download and that the modifications they make to official curricula tend not to be particularly educationally meaningful (Forbes & Davis, 2010; Grote-Garcia & Vasinda, 2014; Rodriguez et al., 2020). 4.3 Specific supplement features influence teacher choiceSilver (2022) highlights a key finding across the broad curriculum literature that specific features

EXPLORING THE STATE OF TEACHER SUPPLEMENTATION IN UNITED STATES K–12 EDUCATION8of supplemental curriculum materials matter for their effectiveness, and therefore should affect how teachers use them. For example, materials that are aligned with the Common Core curriculum or materials that have a clear approach to scaffolding the learning. However, teachers tend to base their choices on other features of the materials that are not related to the quality of the content. For example, teachers select supplemental materials based on metadata such as ratings and comments. The number of ratings or comments a resource has is by far more predictive of the number of downloads of that resource than the rating itself or the content of the comments, whether they are positive or negative. Findings from these studies show that teachers are influenced by a specific feature of a supplemental material that is irrelevant to the quality of that material. Another feature that is likely to influence the selection of materials among supplementers, especially from virtual resource pools, is “cuteness.” Sawyer, Dick, & Sutherland (2020) found that visual appeal is a major consideration of supplement creators and even low-quality materials have “cute” elements incorporated (Harris et al., 2020). Gallagher et al., (2019) and Grote-Garcia & Vasinda (2014) found that teachers (preservice, in particular) have prioritized cuteness as a feature of supplemental materials above educational quality in their downloading decisions.4.4 Making sense of teacher supplementation behaviorIt is important to understand teacher supplementation behavior better. Silver (2022) uncovered attempts to by researchers to categorize behaviors and approaches to curriculum supplementation to get a better understanding of how teachers supplement. However, these attempts fall short of capturing supplementation in a comprehensive way. More recently, researchers have investigated the idea of developing teachers’ “critical curation” abilities, with the objective of improving teacher practice and behavior around curriculum enactment using supplemental materials. This move is influenced by the evidence that the quality of supplementation might not be satisfactory and very little remains known about specific teacher supplementation behavior.4.5 Curricular noticing Dietiker et al., 2018) refer to the set of skills required to take advantage of the opportunities in a curriculum and in curriculum materials as curricular noticing. They analyzed the approach teachers take to familiarizing themselves with curricula in textbooks and identified three phases: attending, interpreting, and responding (see Figure 1).CurricularAttendingCurricularInterpretingCurricularRespondingFigure 1: The Curricular Noticing Framework (Dietiker et al., 2018).

EXPLORING THE STATE OF TEACHER SUPPLEMENTATION IN UNITED STATES K–12 EDUCATION9Curricular attending describes the skills involved in viewing information within curriculum materials to inform the teaching and learning (of mathematics, in the case of this study). They are the skills of searching, looking, locating, surveying, and taking in materials visually before interpreting them. What a teacher looks at can be haphazard and indiscriminate. This is referred to as instrumentationby Gueudet & Trouche (2009). When teachers are influenced by the educational goals and purposes of the interaction, they refer to it as instrumentalization.Curricular interpreting refers to the skill used by teachers to make sense of the materials they look at. It involves connecting the ideas found in the curriculum materials with the teacher’s knowledge of teaching, such as subject-matter knowledge and pedagogical-content knowledge. It also includes making sense of the materials in relation to what has been taught before and what will be taught in the future. Teachers’ interpretation of curriculum materials is dependent on their experience, goals, and background knowledge.Curricular responding describes the skills involved in making curricular decisions based on the interpretation of materials. In this phase of interaction with materials, teachers decide what they want to do and how they want to do it, considering their interpretation of what the curriculum has to offer and whether it aligns (or not) with the experiences in which they want to engage their students. Curricular responding is likely to occur in patterns based on teachers’ identities as learners and teachers, and is likely to change as teachers learn through curricular enactment. Choppin (2011) referred to this as learning adaptations.Dietiker et al. (2018) argue that for teachers to make strategic and informed decisions of how curriculum materials can support student learning, curricular noticing is fundamental to being a professional teacher. 4.6 The Teacher Curriculum Supplementation FrameworkThe general conclusion we can draw from Silver’s findings (Silver, 2022) is that typical use of supplemental materials by teachers is far from ideal. The materials are of poor quality and are used without teachers being trained to consider them with a critical eye. Silver stresses that it is essential that we better understand teachers’ supplementation decisions. To this point, he has developed the Teacher Curriculum Supplementation Framework (TCSF) seen in Figure 2. It shows researchers the antecedents and effects of teachers’ supplementation and should help to gain insight in how to better support the use of supplementation by teachers.

EXPLORING THE STATE OF TEACHER SUPPLEMENTATION IN UNITED STATES K–12 EDUCATION10• Engage student• Decrease lessonplanning time• Enact lessonsnot in officialcurriculum• Etc.Reason•On teachers• On studentsEffects•According toagreed-uponcriteria(academicgrowth, academicmastery, criticalawareness, etc.)EffectivenessTeacher Curriculum SupplementationproducedetermineContextual FactorsContextual Factors• Virtual resourcepool• Self-created• Teacher blog• Etc.Source• Minutes per day• proportion of allmaterials• Frequency• Etc.Use Pattern• Images•Computer vspaper• Rating• Etc.Supplement FeaturesFigure 2: The Teacher Curriculum Supplementation Framework (Silver, 2022).The framework was developed with a definition of supplementation to be using materials or activities that a teacher has added to the official curriculum. The model assumes that the teacher carries out the supplementation and that it is not prescribed at the school or district level. The model also applies to any type of teacher. Its main characteristics can be described as follows: •The model incorporates four dimensions of supplementation that emerge from the literature:reason, source, use pattern, and supplement features.•Central to the model is that supplementation has a cost for the teacher in either time or moneyspent to add an activity or lesson to their curriculum without there being an institutionalexpectation that they do so.•The model also assumes that teachers do not supplement without there being a specificreason. The reason might be broad, but there is always a reason to act and supplement that isspecific to the teacher’s context.•The TCSF model is also flexible about the source of supplementation if teachers sourcematerials purposefully.•Teachers’ use patterns (the ways in which a teacher enacts or plans to enact supplements inthe classroom), can inform which supplemental materials a teacher selects and the effects ofthat teacher’s supplementation.•Teacher supplementation is also influenced by specific features of the supplementationmaterials.The envisioned purpose of the TCSF model is to better understand teacher supplementation behavior and encourage further research on the topic, in particular because supplementation has become so widespread, and the practice is still growing (Silver, 2022).

EXPLORING THE STATE OF TEACHER SUPPLEMENTATION IN UNITED STATES K–12 EDUCATION115.The effectiveness of supplementation5.1 Low quality of supplemental materialsOverall, researchers find that the quality and effectiveness of online supplemental materials is lacking and have warned that simply downloading resources from the internet is not a substitute for good pedagogy. Examples of common issues with the quality of online supplemental materials that researchers found include:•conceptual errors•low rigor•only basic procedural knowledge is required (in mathematics)•tended to have lower cognitive demand•required only memorization and no higher order thinkingIn addition, resources were found to be academically weak and contained no clear learning objective (Silver, 2022).Torphy et al. (2019), found that the overall quality of a teacher’s pinned Pinterest resources predicted test scores. Teachers with more rigorous materials had students who scored higher. This further shores up the argument that teachers’ supplementation habits should be more closely investigated, especially because we know that supplementation is adopted by most teachers.5.2 Intended and enacted curriculumTo better understand teacher supplementation behavior, it is worth considering the skill set teachers need to review content critically and their relationship with intended and enacted curriculum: the difference between what is prescribed versus what is integrated into their teaching practices.As we might imagine, the intended curriculum as it is written in textbooks and the enacted curriculum that is taught are two different things. The relationship between teacher and textbook is bidirectional, with curriculum materials themselves often informing instruction in ways just as powerful as a teacher’s own context and areas of expertise (Silver, 2022). The argument here is that curriculum materials (textbooks) serve educative roles for not just the student, but also the teacher. Even though textbooks can be flawed and lacking in terms of being able to provide a targeted learning experience, analyzing the content of the textbooks along with understanding the teaching context, teaching skills, and where supplementation might be beneficial are important capabilities for teachers to develop.Teachers and educators must develop an awareness of how they, as teachers, are participating in a system that has potential but is flawed. As for-profit players in the system have no incentive to invest in monitoring quality (Shelton et al., 2020), it is up to teachers and teacher education institutions to ensure teachers have the awareness and tools to engage responsibly with online educational marketplaces. Teacher education and teacher professional development in combination with teacher agency appears to be the best path forward to work against powerful platform forces so that the benefits outweigh the drawbacks when it comes to online educational marketplaces (Shelton & Archambault, 2022).

EXPLORING THE STATE OF TEACHER SUPPLEMENTATION IN UNITED STATES K–12 EDUCATION126.The risks of supplementation6.1 Potential harm to teachers and teachingSilver (2022) highlights that the rise of teacherpreneurs1 and edu-influencers on Pinterest, TPT, and various other social media platforms has led to a “neoliberal marketization” of teaching which could leave teachers disillusioned about their profession and perhaps cause them to leave teaching altogether.” Several studies (Attick, 2017; Bartell et al., 2019; Pittard, 2017) reveal that capitalistic ideals are prominent in spaces that offer supplemental materials. The risks that are identified as a result are that there appears to be a perception that teachers can purchase materials to be “good enough” teachers. Many posts promote products that promise teaching success when consuming (and purchasing) the materials being offered. It tells the story that consumption of online market materials is a way to achieve teaching success. The findings indicate that teachers’ online interactions are strongly driven by the desire or perceived need to purchase materials to become better teachers. Whether that is a problem (Pittard, 2017) or progress (Boitnott, 2015) is up for debate, but more recent literature and research recommends measures be taken to improve conditions and behaviors around supplementation to ensure the effect is positive.This includes research from Hu and Torphy (2020) who distinguished between teachers’ “thick” (purposeful and human-led) and “thin” (inscrutable and algorithm-led) supplement curation. They argued that both teachers’ and search algorithms’ curation must be improved to realize the full potential of virtual resource pools.6.2 Potential harm to studentsThis report discussed the overall poor quality of supplemental materials in general. While there are exceptions to the rule, a similar lack of quality has been identified related to cultural relevance and specific learning needs support. A study by Polikoff & Dean (2019) revealed that only 4% of supplemental resources in a sample of 328 top-rated English Language Arts materials contained support for teaching students with disabilities or other specific learning needs. Another study of top-rated US history resources on TPT found that almost one-third address painful parts of history without gravitas and would invite students to embody racist, sexist, or xenophobic roles as part of role play (Harris et al., 2021). A similar finding of trivializing Black history was found in a study by Rodriguez et al. (2020). A recent study by Shelton et al. (2023) found that the lack of quality of the best-selling US history resources found on TPT pose some degree of potential harm to students. Across different types of activities offered, the researchers observed problematic treatment of Black/African and Indigenous/Native communities as well as women, immigrants, and Jewish communities. Some of the simulation-style activities invited students to embody racism, classism, sexism, and xenophobia. The activities did not provide guidance for leading discussions on controversial topics, trivialized marginalized communities, omitted marginalized groups’ perspectives and roles, included graphic images without warning, and presented controversial or political issues in leading, polarizing and/or oversimplified ways (Shelton et al., 2023).Shelton et al. conclude that even though curricular marketplaces could be a place for innovation, the opportunity has not been realized in the case of the best-selling US history activities. It would 1 Teacherpreneurs are current and former educators who market their original classroom materials and ideas online (Shelton & Archambault, 2018).

EXPLORING THE STATE OF TEACHER SUPPLEMENTATION IN UNITED STATES K–12 EDUCATION13take a considerable amount of modification by a thoughtful and critical teacher to remedy the issues observed. 6.3 Supplement creators are a homogenous groupThere is a growing body of research on the characteristics of creators of supplemental materials—so-called teacherpreneurs. The picture that is emerging from those empirical studies is that the majority are mostly white (89%), female (92%) teachers (72%) with 10 or more years of teaching experience (63%) who completed college coursework in education (95%) (Shelton & Archambault, 2019a). Silver (2022) points out that there are teacherpreneurs from other backgrounds and minorities as well, but that there is a gap in the empirical research available. A homogeneity of content creators will likely be reflected in the lessons and materials they produce. This could lead to materials that have a cultural bias and a lack of representation and cultural diversity. Teachers who are selecting the materials could add to this challenge of homogeneity because they would select the materials with which they themselves identify. As a group, those teachers would likely have the same make-up as the teacherpreneurs who are selling the materials. It is therefore important for the broader education community to pay specific attention to the ways in which teachers are supplementing.7.The influence of online supplementation marketsIn an ideal scenario, teachers would practice supplementation as critical consumers of content, leveraging skill sets such as curricular noticing (discussed in Section 4). If those or similar skills are leveraged, supplementation could make a meaningful, positive contribution to teaching practice and learning. However, as observed earlier, the quality of supplemental materials as well as supplementation behavior of teachers each leave something to be desired. In many ways, teacher engagement with online supplementation platforms and markets influences some of the less-than-ideal teacher supplementation behaviors.Brown et al. (2023) observed that virtual curriculum markets produce siloed one-stop shops that attempt to capture users’ attention, discouraging the kind of legitimate peripheral participation and resource sharing described by the proponents of teacherpreneurship. Similar behavior is sometimes observed when teachers engage in communities of practice, where some teachers apply a smash-and-grab approach. They only engage with the community of practice to obtain a specific piece of knowledge or a specific material. They don’t share their expertise with other teaches, nor do they seek expertise or input. This is not the goal of a community of practice, where the added value is in the meaning generated through conversation, discussion, and sharing of input by the community members (Lantz-Andersson et al., 2018).Brown et al. (2023) agree with the insights from the literature on supplementation, and express concern about the lack of quality of the resources and the influence of online curriculum marketplaces on shaping curriculum design and curriculum supplementation practices of teachers. They offer an alternative model of curricular supplementation that builds on the affordances of platform technologies.

EXPLORING THE STATE OF TEACHER SUPPLEMENTATION IN UNITED STATES K–12 EDUCATION147.1 The growing influence of online curriculum marketplacesAn important observation that got Brown et al. to work on an alternative model was the growing influence of curriculum marketplaces like TPT. Researchers have seen a surge in the number of users on these platforms because these marketplaces created school-system memberships that allow educators, schools, and districts to directly purchase resources from the site (Hodge, Salloum, and Benko, 2019). As described earlier, the main objective for sites like these is to make a profit, and they have been criticized for their lack of curation. Berry (2015, p.147) argues that “teacherpreneurism is not so much about establishing new income streams for individuals as it is about promoting and spreading a new culture of collective innovation and creativity.” However, according to Brown et al., this view does not align with the capitalistic and consumptive reality of the TPT model, and the ways that low teaching salaries have encouraged educators to engage in the gig economy through TPT. 7.2 Projected learning regimesA lot of the virtual curriculum marketplaces (such as TPT, which is the most accessed and used; iXL; WeAreTeachers; and Education.com), work like similar platforms do: they make a profit by capturing a portion of purchases or subscriptions, and they collect data from user interaction to convert into a commercial asset. Decuypere (2019) calls this the “projected learning regime.” Online curriculum marketplaces have a broad situated ecology and resources on their sites are broad and diverse. The algorithmic technology of the platform informs the expected use of these resources but often forms a subjective opinion of the ideal expected user. It then presents the content and services available that are attractive to that ideal user. This means the projected learning regime of the technology (and the organizations that own the technology, not the educator) shapes different forms of users, forms of learning, and conceptions about education (Decuypere, 2019, p. 417).In response to the increased influence and usage of virtual curriculum marketplaces, and to address the challenges around the poor quality of the vast majority of resources, teacher educators have developed instruments and interventions to support teachers and teacher candidates’ information literacy for use with virtual curriculum marketplaces (for example, Gallagher, Swalwell, and Bellows, 2019). 7.3 Toward critical examination of online curriculum resourcesBrown et al., (2023) argue that a better approach to engage in a critical examination of online resources is required. The conceptual framework they propose builds on the affordances of platform technologies to advance a democratic, just, and sustainable sociotechnical educational future where teachers do not have to pay teachers. We have summarized Brown et al.’s findings in Table 1, below. It illustrates how curricular marketplaces shape curriculum development and curriculum supplementation practices of teacher candidates in elementary US social studies. A key finding from their research is that curricular marketplaces function as sociotechnical intermediaries between instructors and teacherpreneurs to facilitate the circulation of elementary social studies resources.

EXPLORING THE STATE OF TEACHER SUPPLEMENTATION IN UNITED STATES K–12 EDUCATION15Table 1. Conceptual framework on the workings of online curriculum markets (created based on the model put forward by Brown et. al., 2023).The projected learning regime of online curriculum marketsSituated technology of Teachers Paying TeachersDiscourages exploration and community connection.Algorithmic technologySuggests subjectivities that outline a practice of curricular consumption. Educators are consumers, sellers are producers.User subjectivityProduced by the platform where sellers are meant to be fun, proactive, and in possession of shared aesthetic tastes, and buyers are taught to consume.Traditional conceptions of supplementation identify a process of discovery, translation, and adaptation (Silver, 2021). Online curriculum markets, as a space for curriculum supplementation, structure the act of supplementation as a purchasing choice. The providers of those platforms have no incentive to develop tools or build communities of innovation and practice that might help address the challenges around quality and standard alignment. It will be up to scholars, teacher educators as well as educators and teachers to do this.Brown et al.’s recommendation is for teacher educators to train teacher candidates to actively participate in the development of online communities of practice that are open and transparent. They also believe that the field of US elementary social studies education should invest time and energy in the development of online curricular cooperative platforms that facilitate sharing, conversation, and network development.Curation is an important professional skill that educators engage with daily, one on which they may have few professional opportunities to reflect. A curriculum platform cooperative could provide pathways to contribute to social studies curricula that reflect teachers’ histories and lived experiences. It would also allow for curriculum making to align the process of curriculum development with the kinds of acts of democratic participation that social studies educators seek to cultivate in their students (Brown, 2023).8.Impact of supplementation on the landscapeIn addition to the impacts on teachers and classroom practice, supplementation has also impacted the overall curricular materials landscape in the United States. With the introduction and adoption of the Common Core State Standards (CCSS) in 2010, a shift occurred in the curriculum marketplace that challenges the dominance of textbook publishing companies. Today, a variety of nonprofit organizations and for-profit corporations bid for market share and there is a much more complex set of actors offering and demanding instructional materials (Hodge et al., 2019) and attempting to better meet the needs of educators. It is not yet clear which types of organization will emerge as dominant in the new organizational ecology.8.1 The instructional materials landscape in the US A pre-K–12 industry report (SIMBA, 2022) analyzed the K–12 instructional materials market considering various market environmental factors, such as the lingering impact of the COVID-19

EXPLORING THE STATE OF TEACHER SUPPLEMENTATION IN UNITED STATES K–12 EDUCATION16pandemic and the ongoing digital transformation in education. The report describes the instructional materials landscape as fragmented. While there are several big, full-service players, there is also an increasing number of smaller players (new and established) that specialize in various content and service niches.Some strong trends in the instructional materials market can be seen:•Increased spending on educational materials with leading providers. Many districts andadoption states returned to purchase instructional materials again in the 2021/2022school year. Federal funding made available through the Elementary and Secondary SchoolEmergency Relief (ESSER) Fund contributed to this. These funds must be obligated by 2024,leading to a fiscal cliff that might cause a significant slowing in the purchase of instructionalmaterials from then on.•Increasing demand for digital tools and solutions that can work in all scenarios: in-person andhybrid classrooms as well as remote-learning instances. Schools have increasingly betterdigital infrastructures and higher comfort levels with digital learning solutions. However,there is still room for development and improvement. The report predicts that this will openopportunities for (other) suppliers of instructional materials to provide classroom and districtsolutions.•Many educators who have seen the benefits of using technology are identifying specific needsaround efficiency, personalization of learning, support of student-led learning, teacher support,decision-making data, integration of data sources and follow-up actions. Digital solutions areattractive because they are more flexible and, in many ways, a better fit for today’s pedagogy.•Recovering learning loss resulting from the COVID-19 pandemic has been a key concern, andteachers and students are looking for effective and time-efficient remediation, study help, andpersonalized acceleration tools for use both during and outside of school hours.8.2 Increased industry alignment to meet educator needs There has been increased attention to meet the needs of teachers:•Teachers need professional development available on-demand to meet specific needs.•Teachers would benefit from adult SEL to help them manage mental and emotional issuesfaced by their students.•Teachers need one-stop shops where they can go for all their needs, and that integrate data,lessons, interventions, and other materials.•Teachers need solutions that free up more instructional time during the school day, both forprofessional development and student learning.Any solution needs to be flexible and work in different educational settings (in-person, hybrid, and remote), and needs to be adaptable for students of diverse backgrounds and all levels of needs. In addition, teachers and students would benefit from solutions that integrate community and facilitate communication with families. According to the SIMBA report, many of the key suppliers’ pre-K–12 instructional materials reflect those trends in the industry and developing needs of teachers.Another interesting trend noted in the SIMBA report is the mergers and acquisitions activity in the sector with several multi-company combinations in a bid to strengthen their positions on content offerings or to establish synergies to boost profitability. There is also an increased number of

EXPLORING THE STATE OF TEACHER SUPPLEMENTATION IN UNITED STATES K–12 EDUCATION17acquisitions that involve private equity investors. Many the mergers and acquisitions are to acquire companies specializing in literacy; STEM offerings; social-emotional, behavioral, and trauma content and support; as well as back-end capabilities such as data integration and family engagement and communication. This reflects the needs that teachers are expressing, suggesting that the industry is moving with the needs of the educators and the students they teach.It is clear that educational publishing is big business (with sales revenue of $8.96 billion in 2022, up 8.13% on 2021).2 Although it seems that publishers are attempting to meet the needs of educators, questions remain about how effective these market movements are to improve the learning of pre-K–12 students and how districts, schools, and educators navigate the complex landscape to make the right decisions for their schools and students. The market appears to be largely positive about these big moves in the industry, and it is likely that continued investment in pre-K–12 solutions will continue for the near future and will help meet the challenges in education (Simba, 2022). 8.3 The shift in supply-side and demand-side actors Hodge et al. argue that the new conditions—common standards and new providers, including those focused on OER3—have enabled new partnerships between supply-side and demand-side actors in the provision of instructional materials. The hope is that these partnerships will lead to higher-quality materials that are more responsive to state and local contexts. Various configurations of states, not-for-profits, and for-profits are taking innovative approaches to providing curriculum materials in the context of the CCSS. This includes a new set of actors: demand influencers (Hodge et al., 2019). Figure 3 shows the current relationship between curriculum suppliers, demanders, and demand influencers.DEMAND INFLUENCERSGuiding/IncentivizingCURRICULUM SUPPLIERSCreating/ProvidingCURRICULUM DEMANDERSSeeking/PurchasingPost-Common Core(2018)Transacting across variouscombinations of organizational typesFigure 3: The post-Common Core State Standards relationship between curriculum suppliers, demanders, and demand influencers (Hodge et al., 2019).The relationships and partnerships between these actors are in a state of constant flux, as illustrated in Figure 4. The group of organizations referred to as demand influencers is a set of organizations who do not supply or demand curricula but who provide information about curricula as a way of influencing purchasing behavior, and, indirectly, influencing curricular materials. These 2 WordsRated. Education Publishing Statistics. February 13, 2023. https://wordsrated.com/educational-publishing-stats/3 Open educational resources (OER) are learning, teaching, and research materials in any format and medium that reside in the public domain or are under copyright that have been released under an open license, that permit no-cost access, reuse, repurpose, adaptation, and redistribution by others. https://www.unesco.org/en/open-educational-resources

EXPLORING THE STATE OF TEACHER SUPPLEMENTATION IN UNITED STATES K–12 EDUCATION18organizations are endowment-based, government-based, and capital-based (Hodge et al., 2019). They act in the interest of educators and support them in seeking, identifying, and demanding the highest quality instructional materials. Examples of demand influencers are organizations such as EdReports, an endowment-based influencer; Louisiana Department of Education, a government-based demand influencer; and Learning List, a capital-based demand influencer.Demand InfluencersGuiding/Incentivizing TransactionsCapital-BasedSchoolSystemsEducationEmployeesGrantingAgenciesMembership-BasedEndowment-BasedGovernment-BasedEducationEmployeesCurriculum DemandersSeeking/Purchasing materialsCurriculum SuppliersCreating/Providing materialsFigure 4: Illustration of the current complexity in the curriculum marketplace based on Rowan’s 2002 framework (Hodge et al., 2019). Note: Dotted lines indicate past transactional relationships; solid lines indicate current relationships.Hodge et al. (2019) state that these demand influencers and education employees (for example, teachers who put resources on TeachersPayTeachers.com), are groups who have the potential to disrupt the existing ecology of curriculum-material provision and the existing ecology of textbook companies as the main supplier of curricula. Given the shifting landscape, the online supplementation markets are arguably having a bigger impact on the instructional materials market than ever before.DiscussionFor supplementation to achieve maximum and positive impact on teaching practices and student engagement and performance, the research shows it is important for educators and education policymakers to pay attention to a number of developments in the curricular materials area.

EXPLORING THE STATE OF TEACHER SUPPLEMENTATION IN UNITED STATES K–12 EDUCATION19Observing and responding to the changes in the curriculum landscapeTraditionally, and up until the introduction of CCSS, the curriculum market was driven by a select number of publishers who held majority shares in the textbook publishing market. The increasingly common use of digital technology in schools, the CCSS, and the COVID-19 pandemic have all created space in the market for additional players who offer alternative, custom, and increasingly digital curriculum resources. The demand is driven by teachers who more and more are looking for alternative resources that better-align to their teaching contexts, better-meet specific needs of students, and better-engage students in learning. Safeguarding the quality of supplemental curricula Increasingly, supplemental materials are offered through for-profit and not-for-profit online marketplaces where teachers and other educators can offer materials either for free or for purchase. While the diversification of available curricula could have many benefits in meeting the needs of more teachers and students, there is real concern over the quality of supplemental materials. Several researchers have shown that teachers are not necessarily critical consumers of supplemental materials, which poses a risk to the quality of teaching practices and student outcomes. Understanding the difference between prescribed versus enacted curriculaWhile the research shows that the vast majority of teachers use supplemental materials in their teaching, the research is less clear on teacher behavior and skills when it comes to how teachers enact the supplemental materials in their actual teaching practice. Research shows that teachers feel comfortable using supplemental materials, and that they integrate them in their prescribed curriculum; however, we know little about the quality of supplementation. Some research shows that teachers can adopt a grab-and-go approach and quickly develop habits around supplementation, some of which may lead to high quality supplementation, but the risk of low-quality supplementation cannot be ignored when the research shows teachers can choose materials that are not aligned to their curriculum, are not factually correct, or are solely selected for perceived cuteness or ease of implementation. Mitigating risks of low-quality supplementationTo better understand teacher supplementation behaviors and skills, more research is necessary. Silver’s framework for teacher supplementation could be a good basis for such studies. Only when a clearer view of teacher supplementation behaviors is established will it be possible to put in place supports and measures that help teachers become the critical consumers, curators, and curriculum designers they are expected to be. These skill sets will need to be developed during preservice education and throughout a teacher’s career via professional-development opportunities. Collaboration with other teachers in a community or in school would be beneficial as well to improve the demand for and availability of high-quality supplemental materials. This could shift the supply-and-demand relationship that is currently skewed toward the online supplemental material markets. Currently, the group of stakeholders called curriculum demand influencers are taking on the responsibility of ensuring that supplementation and supplemental materials have the quality necessary to change enacted curriculum and student outcomes for the better.

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Learnovate Report: Exploring the State of Teacher Supplementation in US K-12 Education