by Bob Berkman
May 2, 2024
Non-profits and States Push for More Coherence, Quality and Alignment to Curriculum
Rockville MD, May 2, 2024 – As the use of supplemental materials in the classroom continues to increase, a variety of efforts are being initiated by educational non-profits, states, and school districts to better ensure that supplementary instructional content selected by teachers will be of high quality, aligned to appropriate subject standards, and that these materials will aid and not detract from creating a more coherent learning experience for students.
That is one of the key findings from Simba’s just released State of the K-12 Supplemental Materials Market 2024, a detailed analysis of how schools and teachers find and use these “extra” teaching materials and an examination of the overall market. Simba’s own analysis estimates the 2024 total fee-based supplemental materials at $4.62 billion and forecasts the segment to increase to $4.98 billion by 2026.
Simba has found several complementary forces behind the continuing increase in the use of supplementary instructional materials. These include the ongoing growth of availability of online digital materials; the efforts by teachers to find the right materials necessary to instruct students with special or different needs not found in the core materials; and attempts by educators to find new ways to engage students.
In addition to these findings, the Simba report also reviews and updates ongoing concerns related to problems in the quality of unregulated free online supplemental materials, which were noted in Simba’s previous State of K-12 Supplemental Materials Market report published in June 2022. Since that time there has been increased efforts to help ensure that teachers find and identify High Quality Instructional Materials (HQIM) for all of their teaching, including their use of supplemental resources.
The report also looks at current and strengthening trends shaping the direction of supplemental materials. This includes the increasing influence of politics and culture on the acceptability of what has sometimes been called “contentious” instructional content, noting the decision by Florida to not only prohibit discussion of certain topics, but also what now qualifies as an acceptable supplemental source. Notably, Florida approved instructional materials published by PragerU, whose website states that “Woke agendas are infiltrating classrooms, culture, and social media.” PragerU has been criticized for its instruction on slavery, climate change and other topics. Another trend is the integration of generative AI into supplemental materials; here Simba notes that AI’s usage in supplemental is occurring but is still at a very early stage. In fact, as of April 2022 its primary impact on this market is that products that have previously been categorized as personalized, are now being rebranded as AI.
The report also provides profiles of leading publishers of supplemental materials. Among the firms covered are Discovery Education; Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, Imagine Learning, McGraw Hill, Renaissance Learning, Savvas, Scholastic and Stride Learning Solutions
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