High-Quality Instructional Materials

Through conversations with educators, we’ve heard two challenges consistently emerge: identifying an evidence-based, high-quality curriculum is difficult, and materials can be expensive and inaccessible.

Our pilot will examine whether a high-quality curriculum can be adapted for Arkansas and made available as an open educational resource at low or no cost. It will also help identify which professional learning and supports educators need to use HQIM successfully.

Following a competitive process, we selected Focus on Early Learning for the pilot’s curriculum. Developed by the Boston Public Schools Department of Early Childhood and its partners, Focus on Early Learning is a nationally recognized, comprehensive curriculum that supports children’s development across intellectual, social-emotional, and physical domains while addressing learning standards in approaches to play and learning, English language arts, math, social studies, science and engineering, and the arts. Focus on Early Learning has demonstrated positive impacts across all domains of early childhood development and learning.

Building on this strong foundation, our project team will adapt the curriculum and relevant resources to align with Arkansas’s Child Development and Early Learning Standards (ACDELS).

Beyond bringing a best-in-class, affordable curriculum to Arkansas, this project is about learning what successful use of HQIM should look like. Participants will join an innovative community of practice, where they will receive ongoing support and share direct feedback on what’s working, what’s challenging, and what should be improved. This feedback loop is critical. Our project team will use this data to refine the curriculum, professional learning, and other supports for future statewide scale.

Our pilot is planned for the 2027–28 school year and will include approximately 20 licensed early childhood program classrooms, primarily those serving four-year-old children. Our project team will select sites to reflect the diverse, mixed-delivery early childhood system. Programs serving children from low-income families will be prioritized.

Participating providers will receive, at no cost:

• Focus on Early Learning curriculum materials adapted for Arkansas
• Professional learning to prepare educators for implementation
• Coaching, ongoing support, and collaboration with other educators

In return, pilot participants will be active partners in the learning process, helping us strengthen the model for Arkansas.

Our project is intentionally designed to facilitate broader statewide access to high-quality, affordable instructional materials. During the 2026–27 school year, our project team will adapt the curriculum, develop professional learning and implementation systems, recruit pilot providers, and prepare educators. Participating classrooms will utilize the curriculum while our project team and an external evaluator gather feedback and identify opportunities for improvement. The findings will help pinpoint what educators and providers need to implement HQIM successfully and sustainably.

An Open Educational Resource (OER) is a free, openly-licensed learning and teaching tool that can be accessed and adapted by educators. OERs are made widely available to Arkansas educators through national repositories, institutions of higher education, and the Arkansas Department of Education.

Pilot participants will be selected from licensed early childhood programs across Arkansas, with a primary focus on providers serving four-year-old children. A limited number of mixed-age classrooms may also participate as the pilot design is finalized.

Priority will be given to programs serving children from low-income families, including those participating in School Readiness Assistance (SRA), Arkansas Better Chance (ABC), Early Intervention Day Treatment (EIDT), Head Start, and Early Head Start. Additional eligibility requirements and application details will be shared when recruitment begins.

Pilot participants will be asked to:

• Implement Focus on Early Learning 
• Participate in professional learning opportunities
• Engage in implementation support activities throughout the pilot
• Collect implementation data 
• Share feedback about their experiences to help improve future implementation efforts

Specific expectations and timelines will be shared before participation begins.

At the conclusion of the pilot, OEC and CELS will review participant feedback and pilot results to better understand what supports educators need to successfully implement high-quality instructional materials. What we learn through this pilot will help guide future decisions about expanding access to HQIM and OERs in Arkansas.