The purpose of this project was to look at the adoption and implementation of K-12 core instructional materials in math and English Language Arts (ELA) and to explore business models for the successful and sustainable publishing of such open educational resource (OER) materials. The following conclusions came of out of this research:

• The primary purchase consideration of all parties interviewed as a part of this project is product quality, especially in terms of addressing the needs of the new standards.
• The adoption process in the K-12 core curriculum market is complex and expensive to participate in.
• Marketing and sales efforts are critical in K-12. Just having a superior product, even a free one, is not enough.
• State adoptions are less important than they have been in the past and are likely to continue to decrease in importance.
• Even where states still have adoptions and/or control funding, there is a great deal of latitude on the part of districts.
• Price is not a significant factor in district decision making with the possible exception of when there is no money available, in which case adoptions are generally suspended.
• Districts are willing to pay for premium product additions such as customization, assessments, data gathering and analysis, and professional development, and in fact find many of these features essential to adoption.
• In addition to a high quality product, it is essential that publishers support their product through implementation support, customer support, and professional development.
• While awareness of OER in K-12 is growing, definitions of “OER” vary, and by and large, open licensing is not perceived as a significant benefit.
• A still small but growing number of districts are creating their own curriculum and using a variety of instructional materials, including OER and teacher-created resources, for that.
• There is ambivalence among K-12 leaders about various aspects of open practice.
• Sustainability is a key consideration to OER publishers and is not easy given the high development and implementation costs of K-12 core curriculum. Several OER publishers, however, have reached sustainability through the sales of complementary products.
• There is a tension for publishers between reaching sustainability and maintaining the values that underlie work in OER. Districts consistently reported that quality is their primary criteria for selecting a program and that cost is not a factor. OER publishers are experimenting with a variety of business models, including drawing on partnerships and revenue from product sales, to establish sustainability.

The purpose of this project was to look at adoption and implementation processes for comprehensive K-12 core curriculum and instructional materials for math and ELA with a goal of informing OER developers and publishers in this market, including the K-12 OER Collaborative.

To achieve this goal, state and district adoption processes were researched, and interviews were conducted with state and district staff members about their current procedures and future plans. In addition, they were questioned about specific items of interest to the OER community, including cost-intensive sales and implementation support, pricing considerations, perceived benefits of OER, and receptivity to various possible marketing and positioning statements. In addition, information available on various state and district web sites was reviewed.

In all phases of this project, the work was framed specifically in the context of core curriculum in math and ELA, not in the context of educational technology.

A list of survey questions used with each group is available in Appendix 1.

A secondary goal of this project was to explore possible business models for OER developers and publishers in this market. This was pursued in part by interviewing various organizations participating in or interested in the OER market for K-12 core curriculum.

This data was then viewed in light of the experience of the author of this report and other available information to formulate the recommendations presented.

Keywords

business model · K-12 · OER adoption · OER implementation · OER model · OER sustainability · professional development