How to Monitor and Strengthen Your Curriculum Implementation for Lasting Success

Successfully implementing a new curriculum is a journey. Educators have the important task of creating a roadmap for that journey — one that requires reflection, data gathering, and a commitment to long-term goals and that ultimately leads to consistent growth and lasting academic success.

In this blog, our Savvas Educational Consulting Leadership Team recommends best practices to successfully roll out a new curriculum in year one and beyond based on both research and their own experience as educators as well as in partnering with school districts.

They offer insights on monitoring progress, gathering meaningful evidence, and building capacity, all intended to provide you with a roadmap you can use to guide your journey to positive outcomes.

Define Implementation Success and Set Clear Expectations

As you move through your implementation journey, it’s important to frequently refer back to your goals and expectations that you most likely defined at the adoption stage.

The district’s definition of success and expectations can serve as a benchmark you can refer back to throughout the implementation, and it can be used to provide continuous clarity on what success looks like for your district.

Success criteria might vary from district to district, based on their unique needs. For some, success means increasing student engagement, while others may aim for measurable improvements in assessment scores. Work closely with your team as well as the educational consultant team from the company you adopted the curriculum from to establish these criteria, so they can partner with you in reaching these specific goals.

Establishing clear success metrics allows everyone — administrators, teachers, and students — to align efforts and foster accountability.

Use Evidence-Based Decision-Making

Evidence is key to driving meaningful change in curriculum implementation. Rather than relying solely on quantitative data, like test scores, expand your evidence to include qualitative insights, such as teacher and student feedback. Some strategies include:

• Surveys and Exit Tickets: Regularly survey teachers, students, and even parents to capture a range of perspectives on how the curriculum is being received and implemented.
• Classroom Artifacts: Gather student work, classroom anchor charts, and other evidence of learning to assess how deeply students engage with the material.
• Walkthroughs and Observations: Conduct informal, intentional classroom visits to gather observations on curriculum facilitation, instructional strategies, and classroom culture.

By combining these forms of evidence, you gain a comprehensive understanding of the implementation’s strengths and opportunities for growth.

Leverage a Strength-Based Approach

When analyzing evidence, focus on strengths and build on them. Encourage school and district leaders to look at the data from an asset-based perspective and ask what’s working well. What strengths can be expanded across the district? This approach promotes a positive, collaborative culture and empowers educators to leverage their expertise and experience.

Engage in Ongoing, Job-Embedded Professional Development

Implementation is not a “one-and-done” event but a continuous process. Support from educational partners should be ongoing, offering teachers and leaders guidance through each stage. Job-embedded professional learning, where coaches work shoulder-to-shoulder with teachers in the classroom, is important to build capacity and strengthen instructional practices. Tailor the support to each school’s unique needs, focusing on developing educators’ skills and building the capacity for sustained, independent growth.

Prepare for and Embrace the Implementation Dip

Adjusting to a new curriculum can present challenges, often referred to as the “implementation dip.” This period can be marked by a temporary decline in performance as educators and students adapt to new processes. Acknowledge this dip and prepare for it by communicating expectations clearly and maintaining a steady course. With the support of your educational consultant partner, you can shorten this adaptation period and move toward successful, sustainable implementation.

The Role of Leadership in Long-Term Success

Effective curriculum implementation requires support from school and district leaders. Leaders play a critical role in maintaining momentum, fostering open communication, and reinforcing the district’s goals.

Encourage leaders to stay engaged in classrooms, check in regularly with educators, and be transparent about progress and challenges. By maintaining a continuous planning cycle, leaders can ensure that the initial successes of the implementation phase are not only sustained but also built and expanded upon in the years to come.

A Framework for Lasting Success

Successful curriculum implementation is an ongoing commitment enriched by evidence-based decisions, a strength-focused perspective, and proactive and engaged leadership. By following these best practices, you’ll not only maximize the impact of your investment but also build a lasting framework that supports educators, engages students, and ultimately enhances learning outcomes.

Throughout each step of your implementation process, you’re shaping a more dynamic, adaptable educational environment that will last for years to come.

Meet the Savvas Educational Consulting Leadership Team

This blog was based on interviews with the Savvas Educational Consulting Leadership Team. Meet its members:

Allison is an educational consulting manager who is responsible for the operational management and quality assurance of consulting services across a region spanning 18 states. She has a background in supporting the implementation of successful instructional frameworks both domestically and internationally for over 15 years.

Amber is a Savvas Partnership Plus manager who oversees consultants serving districts as long-term partners (12+ months) as they foster change in teaching and learning through Savvas curriculum implementation support, professional learning, and instructional coaching. She has a 15-year background in education.

Heather is an educational consulting manager for the New England and New York markets. She has over 27 years of diverse experience at the classroom, school, district, collegiate, national, and international levels.

Hershene is an educational consulting manager who works with schools and districts around the Southeast, including Florida, the Southwest, and Tennessee Valley Regions, providing support in the implementation of various core curriculum and intervention programs. She has more than 20 years in education.

La Keshia is an educational consulting manager for the Midwest and Mid-Atlantic regions who has an array of experience in public schools as well as the publishing and assessment sectors of K-12 education. She has served as a district administrator in Detroit Public Schools, supporting school turnaround and in its Office of Innovation.

Lee Anne is the Savvas vice president for educational consulting and is responsible for leading our team of education consultants who support our national and international partnerships. She has been in education for 23 years and brings her passion for serving all students through a differentiated and strengths-based approach to this role.