A review of five high school textbook math series by EdReports, "a non-profit that bills itself as the 'consumer reports' of instructional materials in schools” has found that only one is actually aligned to the Common Core Standards though all five claimed to be, The Seventy Four said.

"In a review of five high school math textbook series—it previously issued reports on K-8 materials—the organization found only one that merited high marks on all criteria; another that partially met expectations on two standards, and three others that fell short of expectations,” said The Seventy Four.

Many experts consider one of the big reasons behind the controversy surrounding the Common Core in the years after its implementation to be the nationwide failure to provide schools with properly aligned materials.

Last month, The Gates Foundation, considered one of the driving forces behind the inception of Common Core, acknowledged a challenging roll-out of the standards in its annual letter.

The Foundation’s CEO Sue Desmond-Hellmann said a national lack of resources to supplement the standards significantly hindered the standards’ success. The Foundation said it was committed to providing digital materials aligned to the standards to teachers going forward.

EdReports, the non-profit behind the latest study of Common Core materials, is actually funded in part by the Gates Foundation.

"With funding from the Gates Foundation and others, EdReports initially released reports last year on elementary and middle school math materials, finding mixed results. Its latest review focuses on five series of high school math textbooks,” The Seventy Four said.

Materials are judged by educators who are enlisted and trained by EdReports to determine "the extent to which the material covers the standards and whether content is connected so that students can understand the relationship between different concepts.”

Publishers have both in the past and in response to this review called EdReports’ methods of analysis invalid and unreliable. Such publishing companies include big names like Pearson, College Board and Carnegie Learning.

The only company to receive a favorable review from EdReports is the nonprofit publishing company CPM Educational Program.

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Nicole Gorman, Senior Education World Contributor

6/29/2016