How One District is Using Data to Strengthen Their Curriculum 

District leadership was seeking an objective way to evaluate new curriculum resources and reduce reliance on anecdotal feedback.

Freehold Township School District was piloting a new middle school math curriculum resource and wanted a clearer, more consistent way to assess its effectiveness. Previous discussions were often shaped by individual teacher experiences, making it difficult to compare options and build confidence in final decisions.

EAB provided a structured rubric to help the district evaluate curriculum resources using consistent, data-driven criteria.

Freehold Township leadership partnered with EAB to design and implement a curriculum selection toolkit designed to evaluate programs across key areas such as standards alignment, student engagement, and access and equity. Teachers used the rubric to assess both the existing and pilot curricula elements, rating each on a scale of 0-3 across multiple criteria. The pilot engaged teachers directly in the evaluation process and produced aggregated scores allowing the district to compare options in a more consistent and transparent way.

Structured curriculum evaluation revealed insights that challenged assumptions and strengthened decision-making within the district.

The aggregated rubric data told a different story than anecdotal feedback alone. While teachers initially spoke less positively about the new curriculum resource, their rubric scores rated it higher than the existing program. This gave district leaders greater confidence and provided a clear data-backed rationale for the decision. The district plans to use the toolkit for future curriculum pilots, creating a more consistent and objective approach to program evaluation.