Frequently Asked Questions

Who is CEMD?
The Center for Education Market Dynamics (CEMD) is a nonprofit education market intelligence organization dedicated to improving academic outcomes for historically underserved students (Black, Latino, and Indigenous students, multilingual learners, and students experiencing poverty) by expanding the adoption and use of high-quality teaching and learning solutions in the K–12 market.

How does CEMD collect data on district curriculum selections?
At the systems level, in order to improve student access to high-quality instructional materials (HQIM), we need better insights into where and how these materials are making their way to districts. CEMD uses several data collection methods to gather information about district selections for core curriculum. These include manual research of district websites, direct communication with district offices, and examination of other publicly available sources.

How often does CEMD collect data on district curriculum choices?
CEMD collects district curriculum selection by academic year, refreshing the entire data collection on an annual basis.

Is this data publicly available?
View CEMD’s Market Explorer to gain a closer look at the most frequently chosen curriculum for elementary and middle school by districts across the country. CEMD provides more detailed data by request, in an anonymized fashion, to school districts and mission-based organizations. For more information contact us at info@cemd.org.

Is my school district included in this data?
CEMD currently collects curriculum insights from over 2,000 districts in the United States (US), with emphasis on districts serving significant percentages of historically marginalized students. To learn if your district is included in the analysis or to provide insights on your district’s curriculum choices, please contact us at info@cemd.org.

Are districts required to report curriculum selection information?
Most states do not have policies requiring districts to publicly report their curriculum choices, giving districts wide latitude over whether and how they publicize this information. In practice, districts do often share this information locally in order for families and community members to have insight into the selected instructional materials. CEMD gathers this data for analysis at the national level.

What is the Impact Core?
The Impact Core is a CEMD data collection of over 900 districts in the US with an intentional focus on large, urban districts. Altogether, this sample represents around 52% of students in the US, and it’s purposefully over-indexed on historically underserved students. Descriptive data from the National Center for Education Statistics is used to identify qualifying districts.

Why does CEMD focus on tracking curriculum selection in the largest districts across the US?
Focusing our data collection on a set of the largest districts in the nation gives us insights into the instructional materials that the majority of historically underserved students in the US have access to. By nature of their size, the districts in the Impact Core also exert notable influence on the national curriculum market. Their choices provide meaningful demand signals to curriculum providers and have the ability to impact the curriculum choices of other districts. These market insights can help the education sector improve outcomes for the country’s most underserved students.

How is the prevalence of a given curriculum calculated?
The prevalence of a curriculum is based on the number of districts that selected that curriculum (among the set of districts being analyzed) and is expressed as a percentage of all districts with curriculum selection data for the given subject and grade band.

What is a curriculum “product series”?
A product series includes all editions and copyright years of a given curriculum, which can sometimes hold different quality ratings. Because curricula often have multiple versions, from different copyright years to state-specific products, we find that looking at the prevalence of product series is the most accurate way to understand the true market reach of a curriculum.

How does CEMD determine the quality of district-selected curricula?
CEMD uses EdReports ratings for grade-level alignment to categorize curriculum products by quality. EdReports stands as the recognized standard for curriculum quality review in the US, with 42% of school leaders reporting that their district has used EdReports to select, adapt, and implement curriculum.¹

How does CEMD apply quality ratings to curriculum selection data?
Given that districts can vary in the information they provide, CEMD uses the available information to determine a product series, and where possible, a product edition. From there, the related EdReports rating is applied for that product edition.

• Products without a rating are categorized as “unrated.”
• When a district-stated specific edition is unclear, but all products in that series have received a high-quality, aligned rating from EdReports, CEMD classifies the selection as high-quality. CEMD introduced this update in the 2023–24 data collection to more accurately represent the footprint of HQIM in district selections.

What does “Unspecified” mean in CEMD data?
A curriculum selection is categorized as “Unspecified” when we cannot confirm whether the district’s selection is of an aligned product or not—typically when a series has multiple editions with varying quality ratings.

What does “Unrated” mean in CEMD data?
“Unrated” refers to curricula that EdReports has not yet reviewed due to recency, market demand, or state-specific editions.

¹ According to the RAND AIRS (2023), 52% of school leaders report having heard of EdReports, and 42% of school leaders report that their district has used EdReports to select, adapt, and implement curriculum.