Visit Classrooms

Our Knowledge Matters School Tour has had the honor of visiting top districts to see inspiring work with knowledge-building curriculum.

These classroom stories highlight the many benefits of this powerful approach to teaching and learning.

A teacher works with two students on a computer
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Benefits

Curricula

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Diana Roach – Tipton County Schools, Brighton, TN

“I am so excited. Every year it gets richer and deeper and thicker and more invigorating for the students and myself. We learn new things.”

12/02/2022

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John Combs – Tipton County Schools, Brighton, TN

“If we make a big purchase with this taxpayer money and we don’t use the materials, that is not being a good steward.”

12/02/2022

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Monica Wilkins – Tipton County Schools, Brighton, TN

“I see students using vocab that they would not have used prior to being exposed to these read alouds and to these content-rich units.”

12/02/2022

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Varissa Richardson – Tipton County Schools, Brighton, TN

“How can we continue to support our kids during Tier 1 instruction? We’ve added some things during Tier 4 time that supports Tier 1 instruction.”

12/02/2022

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LaTasha Bolton – Tipton County Schools, Brighton, TN

“We were not just given all of this and told to make it happen. We had leadership and training. When we go in by ourselves, we know what to do.”

12/01/2022

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LaTasha Bolton – Tipton County Schools, Brighton, TN

“The things that the district and TNTP have given us allow us to actually teach the knowledge and the skills.”

12/01/2022

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Michelle Cooper – Tipton County Schools, Brighton, TN

“We’ve had fewer and fewer students that are Tier 3 level in upper grades. We don’t have any 5th graders that are Tier 3 for reading.”

12/01/2022

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Carrie Shipley – Hamilton County Schools, Chattanooga, TN

“It helps to have that uniform language. Something I firmly believe is that the best ideas come from the forging fires of collaboration.”

11/15/2022

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Carrie Shipley – Hamilton County Schools, Chattanooga, TN

“I have the knowledge and skills to teach them to read, and I feel confident in what I am giving them. It makes me feel hopeful I’m affecting change.”

11/15/2022

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Sonia Stewart – Hamilton County Schools, Chattanooga, TN

“There was a commitment to reduce variability in classrooms across grade levels and schools and to really dose up our instructional leadership team.”

11/15/2022

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Courtney Baker – Hamilton County Schools, Chattanooga, TN

“It is giving everybody the same information and exposure that they would not be having otherwise.”

11/14/2022

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Jennifer Whalen – Hamilton County Schools, Chattanooga, TN

“A core value of this building really is joy. We want kids to come and love school and be joyful, and we want teachers to be joyful.”

11/14/2022

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Dameeka McClish – Murfreesboro City Schools, Murfreesboro, TN

“Teachers have been really excited about the collaboration and the academic talk that the students are building.”

10/13/2022

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Lacey Nunley – Murfreesboro City Schools, Murfreesboro, TN

“You know you have the quality, and it is proven and researched. Now the delivery is up to you.”

10/13/2022

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Martin Ridgely – Murfreesboro City Schools, Murfreesboro, TN

“There were times in my career I thought, ‘This is hard. I don’t feel like this is working.’ I don’t feel that way now. Every year I get better.”

10/13/2022

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Courtney Mobley – Murfreesboro City Schools, Murfreesboro, TN

“He went through that second year, and it was just magic.”

10/12/2022

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Dameeka McClish – Murfreesboro City Schools, Murfreesboro, TN

“Students are becoming content experts….in kindergarten, they can tell you eveything you want to know about trees.”

10/12/2022

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Deming Wehby – Murfreesboro City Schools, Murfreesboro, TN

“‘Hard’ shouldn’t necessarily have a bad connotation…it shows the depth of the curriculum and how much more is required of my students.”

10/12/2022

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Kim Inglish – Murfreesboro City Schools, Murfreesboro, TN

“Kids have bought into ELA. They think what we’re doing is worthy of their time.”

10/12/2022

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Megan Mayton – Murfreesboro City Schools, Murfreesboro, TN

“In the beginning I thought, ‘I don’t want to read a script. I’m a teacher. They hired me to do my job.’ But I have learned that it is so much more.”

10/12/2022

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Quinena Bell – Murfreesboro City Schools, Murfreesboro, TN

“When teachers really understand what they are teaching, then you don’t have to do as much reteaching. So the payoff first starts with the students.”

10/12/2022

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Quinena Bell – Murfreesboro City Schools, Murfreesboro, TN

“A culture shift overall in the building feels good and feels different – we have the same language, and we speak the same language.”

10/12/2022

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Kristin Goncalves – Boston Public Schools, Boston, MA

“Kids are just consuming texts.”

06/07/2022

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Kristin Goncalves – Boston Public Schools, Boston, MA

“We saw a huge increase in how students were speaking, reading, writing about the text independently.”

06/07/2022



Media Type
Curricula

Press Release
National Campaign to Celebrate High-Quality Curriculum Selection by NYC Schools as District Embarks on Historic Improvements
The Knowledge Matters Campaign will visit two districts: Bronx 11 and Brooklyn 19.

05/30/2023

Articles
Graves County Schools, Mayfield, KY
Kentucky District Devastated by Tornado Is a National Model for Science Teaching

05/12/2023

Articles
Rio Rancho Observer: New Math Materials All Add Up At Vista Grande Elementary
"I am blown away by the quality of instruction here.”

04/29/2023

Articles
Lafourche Parish School District, Thibodaux, LA
Louisiana District Ravaged by Hurricane & COVID is Bouncing Back with Science

04/18/2023

Articles
San Marcos Unified School District, San Marcos, CA
In California, ‘Slow and Steady’ Is Winning With a Tougher Science Curriculum

04/11/2023

Press Release
National Campaign to Visit New Mexico to Spotlight Districts Implementing High-Quality Math Curricula
New Mexico is part of a network of 13 states being supported by the Council of Chief State School Officers (CCSSO)

04/07/2023

Articles
Tipton County Schools, Covington, TN
Using High-Quality Curriculum Doesn’t Mean You Can’t Still Have Fun Learning

02/07/2023

Articles
Hamilton County Schools, Chattanooga, TN
New Curriculum Adoption Helps Tennessee District Achieve Joy in Classrooms

01/24/2023

Video
Melissa and Lori Love Literacy Podcast featuring Barbara Davidson
Episode 139: Knowledge and Comprehension with Daniel Willingham and Barbara Davidson

01/14/2023

Articles
Murfreesboro City Schools, Murfreesboro, TN
Students in This Tennessee District Are More Literacy-Proficient Post-Pandemic

01/10/2023

Press Release
National Campaign to Visit Schools Transforming Science Instruction with the Help of High-Quality Science Curricula
Visits seek to shine a light on the role science can play in the effort to build students’ background knowledge.

01/05/2023

Press Release
National Campaign to Visit Tennessee Schools to Highlight Exemplary Literacy Instruction
“Our continued spotlight on Tennessee is absolutely warranted."

09/26/2022

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Delaware Delivers: Three Delaware districts implement HQIM
"We have built a community amongst ourselves in which we learn these skills from one another."

07/07/2022

Articles
Brandywine School District, Wilmington, DE
Quality Curriculum Is Not Enough: Committed Educator Supports Are Key

06/23/2022

Articles
Appoquinimink School District, Middletown, DE
In Delaware, How a District 'Started Slow to Go Fast' on a New Math Curriculum

06/16/2022

Articles
Caesar Rodney School District, Wyoming, DE
With the World Shut Down, Bringing a Global Prespectiive to Math Class Changed Everything

06/14/2022

Articles
Lebanon Special School District, Lebanon, TN
How Literacy Skills Developed for English Language Learners in Weeks, Not Months

06/06/2022

Articles
Milan Special School District, Milan, TN
School Director's Belief that All Students Can Learn Is Long-Held and Personal

05/31/2022

Articles
Elizabethton City Schools, Elizabethton, TN
How Grade-Level Literacy Doubled in Just 2 Months in a Rural Tennessee District

05/23/2022

Video
Knowledge Matters Campaign Tour Visit, Brandywine School District, Wilmington, DE
"The content hasn't changed, the teachers are still teaching, but students are doing much more of the thinking."

05/04/2022

Social Media
See a second grade foundational skills lesson in Milan Elementary
From practice with sounds to practice with decodable readers, a look at a foundational skills lesson in a Milan second grade classroom.

04/05/2022

Social Media
Hear from teachers about improved reading progress and stellar student work
Come for the knowledge-rich lessons, stay for the stories of kindergarten reading and writing progress from Lebanon teachers in this inspiring thread.

03/30/2022

Articles
Town Square Live: National campaign caps excellence in math tour at Springer
“The curriculum we use forces teachers to really listen to the kids."

03/30/2022

Social Media
Experience our visit to Brandywine School District in Wilmington, DE
Our tour of Springer Middle School and their implementation of Illustrative Mathematics.

03/29/2022