Episode 87: From Guesswork to a Plan: The Power of Resource Audits

Too often, we place our hope in a new curriculum or resource to fix instructional challenges—only to find gaps, misalignment, and frustration months later.

In this episode of the Compass PD Podcast, Dr. Carrie Hepburn explores why no single resource is ever enough—and how a simple resource audit can shift your system from reactive to intentional.

You’ll learn:

• The predictable problems that arise when resources aren’t audited
• Why gaps, misalignment, and lost instructional time occur
• Practical steps for auditing your current materials
• What to look for to ensure alignment, coherence, and realistic implementation

This episode will help you move from “hoping it works” to having a clear plan—so your curriculum, instruction, and assessments actually work together to support student learning.

Transcript

Predictable Problems Without An Audit

How To Audit Standards Alignment

Units And Pacing Reality Check

Lessons And Assessments Quality Check

Why Audits Get Avoided

Enhancing A Resource Without Replacing It

Planning To Break The Adoption Cycle

Closing And Listener Invitation

SPEAKER_00 0:14

Hello, hello, hello, and welcome to the Compass PD podcast where we dive into evidence-based practices and research-driven strategies that empower educators and leaders to make a lasting impact. I'm Dr. Carrie Hepburn and I am your host, and I'm actually all on my own today. Today we are going to explore resource audits. This is a subject that I'm hoping I can change many people's minds on, because not everyone feels like it's worth the time, and not everyone feels like it's something that's important and needs to be done. So my goal today, by the end of this podcast, is to sway you if you're in that camp that you're like, we probably should start considering auditing our resources. So we will be exploring resource audits, and I'm hoping that this will be a subject that resonates with many of you. I think this has been coming up time and time again because when we work with districts on their curriculum and resource adoption cycle or their comprehensive plans that they're developing, or in strategic planning, there is like this overwhelming hope that whatever resource we purchase, high-quality instructional material that we purchase, that it's going to solve all of our instructional and learning problems. And I see that over and over again. And it's something that we work really hard to educate people on how a single resource isn't going to fix or solve the problem. So I want to share with you today why I want to shift the narrative that we must be diligent in our exploration and audits of high-quality instructional materials or resources, because not one resource on its own is enough. And when we take the time to audit our resources, it allows us to make a plan and shows our organization that we are knowledgeable, that we've spent time digging into what they're using, and that we aren't going to leave them on their own to try to just figure it out. So in this episode, we'll kick off with predictable problems that arise when we don't audit our resources or make a plan. And then I'll give you some tips on how to audit a resource, things that I look for, and then the challenges and solutions that you will run into if you're not auditing your resources. All right, let's kick off. Let's kick this off with some predictable problems. One of the things that we run into is that there's typically a gap or area of weakness in a resource that we're using. And when that gap or area of weakness comes to light within the organization, with our teachers who are implementing the resource, it immediately starts to decrease their confidence in the resource. So when we're able to be upfront with what we know about the resource, it lets them know that we're aware and they don't have to try to solve the problem. So what happens with teachers is as soon as they find there's there's an area, a gap or an area of weakness, they solve the problem, right? And they'll solve it at the building level, they'll solve it in the grade level, they'll solve it at the classroom level. And all of those are different. So they'll start filling in those gaps or areas of weakness with resources that they have available to them or that are easily available to them. And a lot of times those are the resources, the very things that you are trying to get them away from, or it's it's less reliable resources, or resources that haven't been vetted and aren't vertically aligned, maybe not aligned with your standards, or your beliefs about that particular content area and um and how instruction should happen in said content area. So those that's going to start minimizing your vertical alignment immediately. So that's a predictable problem that comes up. Another predictable problem that happens is it's when we're not auditing our resources, we'll notice there's there's minimal coherence. So when we aren't looking, especially if we change resources as students hit a certain grade span or a certain level in their instruction, um student learning will be disrupted. And so when you are aware that you're changing resources and how one is different from the other in that vertical alignment, you can make a plan with the teacher that the students are leaving, and then the teachers that the students will be going to so that you can help with that coherence. Not in that coherence vein again, also is that we spend a lot of time catching students up on lost content because of a change in a resource, or because in that gap or area of weakness within a resource, um, teachers are using different things or not filling that in at all, which is really uncommon. And so the next level, the next grade level has to fill that in. All of that leads to lost academic momentum. So, what does it look like when we're auditing a resource? The first thing that we do is we have our Excel spreadsheet or a sheets. If it's in Google, we have that and it's K-12 or pre-K-12, whichever works best for you. And we have each tab has its grade level. And on those tabs, with their grade level, we have all of their standards listed out. And so the first thing that we look for is the alignment to state standards. So we count up how often a standard is taught. We even try to list that out based on units. So imagine that you have a unit one column, unit two column, unit three column, and so on. And that within each of those columns, you're you're you know, counting out and explicitly stating like how often the resource says that standard's taught. And it gives you, it allows you to just kind of visually start to see. Um, I will see like how often a standard's taught, what standards are or not taught, what ones are considered deemed a high priority by the resource. And so we'll use like conditional formatting to set up this mathematical equation to determine like if it's green, orange, or um red. So we'll do that so that we're able to share that with our with our districts. And then as we look at that alignment to state standards, we'll look at it vertically too, so that we can see if there's a vertical alignment. And then we look to see if the areas of importance in that content area are prioritized by that particular resource. Another thing that we do when we're auditing the resource is we look at the number of units and lessons taught. So is that number realistic? So are there 385 lessons in a particular resource? And if there are, for say English seven, what we know is that our teachers are not going to get through half of that, right? So we have to make a plan. Um, when you look at those units and lessons, do they the amount of minutes that are needed to execute that? Does that align with what we currently have? Do we need to think about changing our schedules? Is that going to extend or go faster than we think based on what the resource says it would take? Um, and then at times we have to go in and we have to develop a scope and sequence. So, an example being the particular resource that has like over 380 lessons, we had to go through the resource unit by unit and identify what units needed to be taught. In this particular situation, the final unit of the year, which is 380 less 300-ish lessons later, um, was on research. Like kids were doing independent research, they were learning how to research, they were doing um informational writing. That's the only time students in English 6 through 12 would be getting research and informational writing if teachers hit that. So we had to develop a curriculum that outlined the scope and sequence of how the units would be taught to ensure that students were getting research in their English class. And we also had to go through and say, these are the lessons that are must-d's, and this is the amount of time that you will spend on each unit, and then outline like how that looks in the scope and sequence. Along that audit vein, the third way that we audit the resources, we look at the units lessons and the assessments. And we look at those lessons, we don't look at every single lesson, but we try to look at lessons at the beginning, the middle, and the end of various units and notice are they aligned with evidence-based practices. So, say I'm teaching English or reading and elementary, I'm going to be looking for explicit and systematic instruction, right? In all of my courses, I should be looking for gradual responsibility of release, that model where students are doing the work. Another thing that I look for is are students engaged and doing the work? Is it boring or is it engaging content? What are the things that they're having access to and being asked to do? Or is this something that we're going to need to work with our teachers and teach them about instructional strategies to bring it to life? Finally, under like lessons and assessments, I think about the lessons and the end-of-unit assessments. Are those lessons preparing students for the end-of-unit assessment? And then are those end-of-the-unit assessments preparing students for the high-stakes assessment that they will take in our state? So just to kind of recap that resource audit piece, we look for alignment to state standards, we look for the number of units and lessons, and then we look at lessons and assessments to make sure that they're doing what we need them to do. And then I want to tell you like why people don't typically do resource audits. And this happened this year. So more than once, but recently this year. And a lot of times it's because we're afraid of what it's going to tell us. Um a district that we work with very closely recently got a new resource two years ago. Their teachers are bought into it, and so they just want that to be the only thing that they need. They don't want to have to think beyond that resource because right now it feels really good. And if they feel that there are areas of weakness, then what happens then to the teachers and how they're going to feel? So one of the things that we were able to tell them because we've done focus groups with all their teachers and gotten really comprehensive lists of all the things that teachers are being used, using in their instruction, is that your teachers are already supplementing, and then share with them just like this really robust list of how they're supplementing for those gaps and those areas of weakness. And so now what we're doing is saying, okay, we have this audit, it wasn't what we hoped in a couple of places, like there isn't any writing instruction that's explicit, and there's not any instruction in this area, but what we're going to do is we're going to, as a district, do this. We're going to get really, you know, intense instruction on writing and how to teach writing explicitly and systematically. And we'll use our resource that we have in reading. We're going to be building in writing lessons to support that. So we're not throwing out the resource, we're continuing what we already love about it, but we're going to enhance it, right? In another district that we worked with, like they struggled because their resource did not have explicit reading strategies. So kids weren't, they loved the content, they loved the novels, they loved, you know, the stuff that they were studying, but they weren't explicitly teaching students reading strategies in order to do the work independently. So we were able to go in with some evidence-based practices and teach them some strategies that were going to help their kids have that. We didn't ask them to like change everything. We're just enhancing it, we're making it better. And so that's a lot of times what people are afraid of is they're afraid of what they're going to find. And then another thing that we run into a lot is it takes a lot of time to do it. And it does. And when I was in the curriculum department, it was a lot of work. I will a hundred percent transparent. So people don't think it's worth the effort. But I want to remind you of those predictable problems that happen that people are going to start filling in any gap or weakness that they're seeing. And it will come out in the data eventually. Within a couple of years, you'll start to see those gaps or areas of weakness. Even if you see a spike, it'll level off, or things will just, you know, they won't continue. Okay. So they're going to start filling it in, and then you're going to lose the fidelity of the resource, and student learning is going to be disrupted because there's not going to be any coherence. And so we want to make sure that we take the time and the effort to do this really important work. This is something we do all the time. So if you're like, we want somebody else to do it, give us a call. We'd be happy to help with that. But you can do it as well. So one of the things I think about when I think about the importance of resource audits is Winston Churchill once said this. He said, He who fails to plan is planning to fail. What will happen is when we're not doing this work and making this plan, is we'll just get a new resource. And we'll be stuck in that just constant resource adoption cycle every five years where things aren't consistent. There, we're not, we're not able to get really good at it because we're constantly changing, constantly adding, constantly, you know, like it's just like this constant whirlwind. And so you want to make a plan and and it sets you and your staff up for success. And most importantly, it sets your students up for success. So I hope you found this to be helpful as you navigate your journey in education. Please feel free to share your thoughts or experiences because I would love to hear from you. And if you found if you found today's episode for suddenly for some reason I can't speak, if you found today's episode valuable, consider sharing it with a colleague who might benefit from this message. Thank you for joining me on the Compass PD podcast. Remember, at Compass PD, we believe every educator has the power to inspire, change, and transform student learning. Stay focused, stay inspired, and keep making a difference.