The Washington state legislature found that the recent adoption of Common Core standards provided an opportunity for the Office of Superintendent of Public Instruction to identify a library of current, high-quality, openly licensed courseware that could be accessed by K-12 school districts statewide. The question of quality is one of the overriding issues in the OER field. To address that issue, Washington state has developed a process for evaluating Common Core-aligned OER materials. In April 2013, groups of math and ELA educators convened to review OER materials in Algebra 1 and select ELA units. Results of this review as well as all the review tools are available to share as districts consider utilizing open resources. This session will cover the rubrics, process, and outcomes used in the evaluation process.

1. EVALUATING OER QUALITY – A CLOSER LOOK
Open Education Conference 2013
Barbara Soots
Digital Learning Department
Office of Superintendent of Public Instruction
barbara.soots@k12.wa.us
OSPI OER PROJECT

2. POTENTIAL ROADBLOCKS
Finding target resources
Access and security issues
District policies that don’t recognize OER as an option
Evaluating quality and alignment
CC BY
Rhino Roadblock by Chris Ingrassia
http://www.flickr.com/photos/andryone/445139454/in/photostream/

3. WASHINGTON K-12 OPEN EDUCATIONAL
RESOURCES PROJECT
“The legislature finds the state's
recent adoption of Common
Core K-12 standards provides an
opportunity to develop a library
of high-quality, openly licensed
K-12 courseware that is aligned
with these standards.”
CC BY NC
Washington State Capitol – Olympia by MathTeacherGuy
http://www.flickr.com/photos/mathteacherguy/

4. WHY REVIEW OER?
Help educators select
high quality materials
Provide information for
materials adoptions
Identify gaps in
Common Core
alignment
digitallearning.k12.wa.us/oer

5. WHAT OER TO REVIEW?
Unlimited access and redistribution
Permission to adapt
Defined content area and grade band scope

6. OVERVIEW OF RESOURCES

7. HOW TO EVALUATE QUALITY?
CCSS Worksheet
Publishers’ Criteria
EQuIP Rubrics
Achieve OER Rubrics
Reviewers Comments

8. EVALUATION TIMEFRAME
Math: 5-9 hours per curriculum
Each reviewer assigned 3-4 math courses
ELA: 3-5 hours per unit
Each reviewer assigned 8 units
30-40 hours total effort
CC BY
hourglass by gingertammycat
http://www.flickr.com/photos/99027078@N00/

9. COMMON CORE STATE STANDARDS:
Big Shifts in Math
Focus strongly where the standards focus
Coherence: Think across grades and link to major topics
within grades
Rigor: In major topics, pursue with equal intensity:
conceptual understanding, procedural skill, and
application

10. COMMON CORE STATE STANDARDS:
Big Shifts in ELA
Building content knowledge through content-rich
nonfiction
Reading, writing, and speaking grounded in evidence from
text, both literary and informational
Regular practice with complex text and its academic
language

11. OER REVIEW REPORT
“CCSS aligned OER are emerging
platforms for mathematics curricula.
They show significant promise as a
viable selection in the future but are
still evolving and not yet mature.”
“Educators can reliably consider many
of the OER ELA units that were
reviewed for use in their classroom
and be confident that the units can
be reasonably adapted to meet the
CCSS…”
https://digitallearning.k12.wa.us/oer/review/2013/report/OSPI_OER_Report_2013.pdf

12. NEXT STEPS
Grant program for
adaptation and/or
implementation of
reviewed material
Request for Proposals
New OER review cycle
Geometry/Integrated Math 2
9th-10th grade ELA units

13. CONSIDERATIONS FOR WIDE-SCALE
SHARING OF RESOURCES
Share metadata about quality resources
Learning Registry
Establish commonalities in defining quality
Achieve
Student Achievement Partners
Work towards giving educators a deeper understanding
of who owns copyright and encourage open licensing

14. RESOURCES
WA OER Review results and library of materials:
http://digitallearning.k12.wa.us/oer/library/
Full report from 2013 review:
http://digitallearning.k12.wa.us/oer/review/2013/report/summary.php
OER Communication Toolkit: https://digitallearning.k12.wa.us/oer/resources.php
EQuIP: http://www.achieve.org/EQuIP
Achieve OER: http://achieve.org/oer-rubrics
Student Achievement Partners Achieve the Core: http://www.achievethecore.org/
CCSS Publisher’s Criteria: http://www.corestandards.org/resources
Washington law re: OER: http://apps.leg.wa.gov/RCW/default.aspx?cite=28A.300.803
Achieve OER Policy Brief:
http://www.achieve.org/files/OERInstitutePolicyBriefFINAL1.pdf

15. CONTACT INFORMATION
OSPI OER Website: http://digitallearning.k12.wa.us/oer
Twitter: waOSPI_OER
Email: barbara.soots@k12.wa.us