Curriculum Materials and Resources
Materials embody choices about voice, difficulty, access, privacy, and agency. Selection is therefore a professional judgment, not a shopping decision.
The official Element
Element 3E: Teachers select, use, and adapt standards-aligned instructional materials, evidence-based resources, and varied technologies to increase content and social–emotional learning options that are accessible, equitable, and culturally responsive and sustaining for each student.
What this Element asks of an educator
Materials embody choices about voice, difficulty, access, privacy, and agency. Selection is therefore a professional judgment, not a shopping decision.
Read together, these indicators ask educators to make curriculum materials and resources visible in planning, teaching, student experience, and follow-through. The aim is not to display every indicator in every lesson, but to understand the full range of the Element and select a focused practice to develop with evidence.
Official Example Indicators—and an SDLA reading
The Commission presents Example Indicators as illustrations rather than a comprehensive or required checklist. Their sequence shows the breadth of this Element and gives teachers, mentors, and coaches a shared language for focused development.
Employ the full range of materials
Official indicator: Employ the full range of materials, resources, and technologies provided by the school and the district to support students in meeting individual and collective learning goals.
Select and use materials and tools that are needed…
Official indicator: Select and use materials and tools that are needed for effective in-person and remote learning experiences.
Use specific materials
Official indicator: Use specific materials, resources, and technologies to support differentiated student learning of the subject matter content and skills.
Use learning materials and resources that reflect diverse cultures
Official indicator: Use learning materials and resources that reflect diverse cultures, races/ethnicities, and languages to support socially and emotionally relevant subject matter content and skills.
Review materials and resources for bias and thoughtfully consider…
Official indicator: Review materials and resources for bias and thoughtfully consider whether they are appropriate for learning experiences directed toward meeting intended content and equity outcomes.
Developing the practice
Clarify the disciplinary purpose
Name the important idea, practice, misconception, and kind of thinking students must develop.
Build meaningful access
Use accurate representations, culturally relevant contexts, and responsive supports while preserving the intellectual destination.
Review resources critically
Examine alignment, representation, accessibility, bias, privacy, and the work students—not the tool—will do.
Evidence worth noticing
- curriculum or lesson annotations showing concepts, practices, representations, and anticipated misconceptions
- student explanations that connect or transfer disciplinary ideas
- material-review notes addressing alignment, access, representation, bias, and technology governance
- work samples showing how supports preserve rather than replace the target learning
Evidence caution: No single artifact proves accomplished practice. Interpret evidence in context, center student experience and learning, use multiple sources, and avoid collecting identifiable information that is not necessary.
A pinch of data integration and digital learning
Digital systems can organize information, improve access, coordinate work, or shorten a feedback loop. They are valuable only when the educator can explain the human decision they support, the information they require, and how privacy, accessibility, equity, and professional responsibility are protected.
California student data privacy laws
Add privacy and governance to instructional-material and technology selection.
Questions for reflection and coaching
- Where is curriculum materials and resources already visible in my practice, and what evidence supports that judgment?
- Which students experience the current approach differently from the way I intend?
- Which official indicator names the most important next area for growth?
- What is one affordable, manageable adjustment I can test, and what will I look for afterward?
- Whose perspective—student, family, colleague, specialist, or community partner—would improve the next decision?
Continuum of Teaching Practice: Element 3E
This Element-specific continuum describes how practice develops from Emerging through Innovating. Compare the teacher-practice descriptions with the related evidence in students’ experience, then identify a current strength and a purposeful next step.
How to understand and use this continuum for professional growth
- Begin at Emerging and read across. Practices described at earlier levels carry forward even when they are not repeated.
- Use evidence gathered over time to identify the description that most closely reflects current practice.
- A teacher may be at different levels in different Elements, regardless of years in the profession.
- Changes in students, content, grade level, school, or responsibilities may appropriately shift practice in either direction.
- Use the continuum for reflection and goal setting, not as a stand-alone observation or evaluation instrument.
Select a level to expand it. Select it again to return to the full comparison.
Teacher practice
The teacher demonstrates a basic understanding of using standards-aligned instructional materials and evidence-based resources accessible to some students.
Evidence in student experience
Teacher practice
The teacher uses instructional resources that consider the range of learners to enhance accessibility.
Evidence in student experience
Students use instructional materials and begin to make connections between instructional resources and learning outcomes.
Teacher practice
The teacher consistently chooses, utilizes, and modifies standards-aligned instructional resources responsive to students’ cultural and linguistic backgrounds and social-emotional needs.
Evidence in student experience
Students make connections between instructional resources, their social-emotional learning, and goals to meet learning outcomes.
Teacher practice
The teacher combines a range of standards-aligned instructional resources to promote a cohesive and inclusive learning environment responsive to each student’s cultural, linguistic, and social-emotional learning needs.
Evidence in student experience
Students make connections to their backgrounds, achieve the learning outcomes, and utilize the instructional resources to address their content, linguistic, and social-emotional learning needs.
Teacher practice
The teacher advances the learning experience by integrating culturally and linguistically sustaining practices and resources that foster self-directed learners who can effectively utilize diverse resources to meet their content, linguistic, and social-emotional learning needs.
Evidence in student experience
Students are self-directed learners who utilize instructional resources to meet their content, linguistic, and social-emotional learning needs.
Source and attribution: Continuum language reproduced from the California Commission on Teacher Credentialing, Continuum of Teaching Practice (2025), aligned with the California Standards for the Teaching Profession (2024). This publication by the Commission on Teacher Credentialing is not copyright. It may be reproduced in the public interest, but proper attribution is requested.