WorkflowK–12 Teaching, Curriculum & MTSS

Instructional Materials Adoption Review

Instructional materials adoption with every publisher claim checked against the pages, and every committee score left to the committee

Every bid scored on the same rubric, and every publisher claim checked against the pages.

See one case, screen by screen ↓
demo1,100claimsin seven publisher bids, each tested against the pages it cites; 35 were not supported
demo36of 42 cellswhere the committee already agreed, accepted in one step so the meeting goes to real disagreement
demo$620,100over six yearsfor a supplement one bid's books depend on, left out of its price
target100%of publisher alignment claims tested against the pages they cite
In short

What is Instructional Materials Adoption Review?

Instructional materials adoption review is the work a district committee does to choose the core materials for a subject: reading every publisher's bid, scoring it against a rubric and the state standards, reaching consensus, and taking a recommendation to the board. Instructional Materials Adoption Review puts seven agents in front of the reading and checking, with every lesson mapped to the standards and every publisher claim tested against the pages, while members, the chair and the board make every decision.

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Updated

The problem

Why instructional materials adoption leans on the publisher's word

Instructional materials adoption is how a school district chooses the core materials it will teach a subject from for the next six to eight years. For a K–5 mathematics adoption that can mean seven publisher bids, 38,042 pages of teacher editions, student books, correlations and price sheets, and a committee of teachers, specialists, principals and parents reading them at night on top of their own work. Nobody can open every lesson a correlation lists, so the publisher's own map to the state standards is trusted rather than checked.

Then the curriculum adoption process runs on paper rubrics and long meetings. Members argue every criterion of every bid, including the ones they already agree on; split scores go unexplained; a supplement left out of the price, or a sales representative's email to a member during the restricted-contact period, surfaces only when a board member or a losing bidder asks. The board packet and any bid protest file are rebuilt by hand from emails and spreadsheets. Instructional Materials Adoption Review puts seven agents in front of the reading and the checking, and keeps every score with people.

demo38,042pagesin seven bids for one K–5 mathematics adoption
estimated1,230hoursof committee reading, at about 30 hours a member
demo2ndof 7where one bid ranked on its listed price and the members' medians, before the supplement was priced in; it finished last
Where an adoption's weeks go, from bid closing to the boardestimated
By hand16 weeks
With the solution8.4 weeks
  • Checking every bid for the RFP's required items1 → 0.2 wk
  • Reading samples and checking correlations against the books5 → 3.5 wk
  • Consensus meetings on every criterion of every bid3 → 1 wk
  • Writing the recommendation and assembling the board packet2 → 0.5 wk
  • Public review before the board hearing3 → 3 wk
  • Rebuilding the record when a bidder protests2 → 0.2 wk

Estimated split of a K–5 adoption's calendar weeks, by hand and with the agents, from the work as districts describe it and the sample adoption's own dates. Members still score on their own and the public review period is set by law, so those rows barely move — our arithmetic, kept modest.

How it works

How a bid becomes a board decision

Seven agents read every page, map standards, test publisher claims and show where scores split; members score, the chair records, the director verifies.

What comes in
Data in5 systems · procurement, samples, standards, curriculum, board agenda
Agents at work
Intake agent38,042 pages
Alignment agent148 standards, page cited
Then
Rubric agentevidence per cell
Claim Check agentclaims vs the books
Then
Spread agentwhere scores split
Conflict agentdisclosures, contacts
Then
Board Packet agentnotes, notice, memo
A person decides
Members score alonechair records · director verifies
What comes out
Committee scores
Board packet
Protest file
One case, step by step

One K–5 math bid, through instructional materials adoption to the board packet

Marlow Bay Unified School District is adopting K–5 mathematics under RFP MB-2026-114: seven bids, a 41-member committee and about 21,000 students. Here is what happens to Bid D, Bright Numbers K–5, screen by screen, in the working solution.

  1. 01Bids closed

    Every bid and every sample page, from the procurement system

    Intake agent

    The RFP closed Friday, September 4, at 2:00 p.m.; one response arrived at 2:14 p.m. and was returned unopened. The Intake agent pulled seven responsive bids and read 38,042 pages, with the RFP's required items present in 83 of 84. When Bid E's publisher sample portal stopped answering, the screen said so and kept what was already read.

  2. 02September 8–14

    Every lesson mapped to the standard it teaches, page cited

    Alignment agent

    The agent mapped 9,860 lessons to the state's 148 K–5 standards across all seven bids. In grade 4, Bid D teaches 25 of 28 standards in its core books, and two of the fractions standards, 4.NF.B.3 and 4.NF.B.4, are marked as taught only in a supplement outside the price.

  3. 03Finding D-031

    A publisher claim tested against the books and the price

    Claim Check agent

    Bid D's correlation, page 12, says 4.NF.B.3 is "fully addressed in Lessons 6.4–6.7". Those lessons teach equivalent fractions; adding and subtracting appears only in Fraction Studio, which price sheet line 18 lists as an optional add-on at $9.75 per student per year, not in the total. For 10,600 students in grades 3–5 over six years, that is $620,100.

    Bid price $3,184,900 + $620,100 = $3,805,000, confirmed by Purchasing Director Raymond Ostrowski on October 19.

  4. 04One click

    The page the agent read, with the line that matters

    Howard Penhallow-Ruiz · Adoption committee chair

    Clicking the citation opens Bid D's price sheet with line 18 highlighted: "Fraction Studio, grades 3–5, online · optional add-on · $9.75 per student per year · not included in the total." Every view of a source is logged.

  5. 05Wednesday morning

    Seven bids, six criteria, every member's own score

    Howard Penhallow-Ruiz

    The score spread shows each cell's 14 independent scores as dots on a 1–4 line, with the median marked and the page-cited evidence counted. Four cells are marked discuss for the 3:30 p.m. consensus session, Bid D's cost cell is out for re-scoring after the price changed, and 36 cells already agree.

  6. 06Before Thursday noon

    A member re-scores cost on her own

    Keisha Montrose · Grade 4 teacher, committee member

    Because the price changed after scoring, the 14 members who read Bid D re-score its cost alone. Keisha sees the revised six-year cost of $3,805,000, or $30.20 per student a year instead of $25.28, cited to line 18, and her own earlier sheet, never anyone else's score. She submits a 2, partially meets.

    "With the supplement it costs more than Bid A; partially meets on cost."

  7. 073:30 p.m.

    What divides the committee, and what each side read

    Spread agent

    Bid D's standards alignment drew six 4s, three 3s, three 2s and two 1s. The members who scored 3 or 4 relied on the correlation, page 12; those who scored 1 or 2, including all four grade 4 teachers on the panel, cite teacher edition page 221, the Fraction Studio modules and price sheet line 18.

    Spread agent v2.4 — it never suggests a score.

  8. 08Recorded

    The chair records the committee's score, with the reason

    Howard Penhallow-Ruiz

    After the discussion Howard records 2, partially meets, with the reason "Evidence in the pages outweighs the publisher's claim" and a consensus note drafted from the discussion. The note goes into section 3 of the board packet, and the curriculum director verifies the score at the lock.

  9. 09One step

    36 agreeing cells accepted, and a new standing

    Howard Penhallow-Ruiz

    With the split cells settled, the 36 agreeing cells are accepted in one step and all 42 committee scores are recorded. Bid A leads at 3.45; Bid D, second on its listed price and the members' medians, now ranks seventh of seven at 2.55.

  10. 10October 26

    One person at each step, from the lock to the award

    Dr. Lena Farraday · Chief academic officer

    The chair locked the committee scores, Dr. Simone Achterberg verified them, and the chief academic officer recommends a bid from a memo drafted from the locked record. The board hearing is November 19 and the vote December 10; Purchasing issues the notice of intent on December 11.

Who it’s for

Built for everyone who signs an adoption.

The same adoption, seen by five of the people who carry it — what their weeks looked like, and what they look like now.

HP
Howard Penhallow-RuizAdoption committee chair · K–5 mathematics coordinator
Adoption committee chair
Before
Runs a 41-member committee through seven bids and walks every criterion of every bid, including the ones nobody disagrees on.
Now
Opens the session on the cells that split, with what each side read one click away, and records the committee's score with a reason.
KM
Keisha MontroseGrade 4 teacher · reads three bids on top of teaching
Teacher committee member
Before
Reads bids at night and has to take the publisher's correlation on trust when there is no time to open every lesson.
Now
Scores alone from page-cited evidence drafted for every criterion, and sees her own sheets only.
SA
Dr. Simone AchterbergDirector of curriculum and instruction · verifies the lock
Director of curriculum and instruction
Before
Assembles the board packet by hand, knowing that if the board asks why, the answer has to be on a page.
Now
Verifies the locked scores against a checklist and sends a packet built from the same record.
RO
Raymond OstrowskiPurchasing director · runs the RFP, bidder contact and the award
Purchasing director
Before
Hears about a supplement left out of a price only when a board member or a losing bidder asks.
Now
Confirms the price that teaches every standard while the committee is still scoring, and approves anything sent to a bidder.
MO
Marguerite Oyelaran-ShawGeneral counsel · confirms disclosure rulings
General counsel
Before
Defends a disclosure ruling months later, reassembling the emails behind it.
Now
Confirms or returns the chair's ruling with the email, the reply and the RFP clause attached.
Built on the engine

7 agents. Each with one job, and hard limits.

Seven agents read every page, map standards, test publisher claims and show where scores split; members score, the chair records, the director verifies.

Intake agent

Pulls bids, addenda and price sheets from the procurement system, reads every sample page, and checks each bid against the RFP's 12 required items.

  • Never opens a late response
  • Never contacts a bidder
Alignment agent

Maps every lesson in every teacher edition and student book to the state standards it teaches, citing the page, and marks partly taught, only in a supplement, or not found.

  • Core books only: anything outside the bid price never counts
  • Below 0.90 confidence, a grade-level member checks the mark
Rubric agent

Drafts the page-cited evidence for and against every criterion of every bid, so all 14 members on a panel score from the same evidence.

  • Never writes a score
Claim Check agent

Tests every line of each correlation, price sheet and cover letter against the pages it names, and reads the price sheet for anything a claim depends on.

  • Reports; never changes a score
  • Pricing questions go to Purchasing
Spread agent

When scoring closes, marks the cells where members disagree and summarizes what each side cited.

  • Never suggests a score
  • Members' names visible to the chair only after scoring closes
Conflict agent

Records every member's disclosure and checks it against the bidder contact log and the gift register until the award, proposing a ruling with the evidence.

  • Proposes; never rules
Board Packet agent

Drafts consensus notes, the recommendation memo, the public notice, comment responses and the warning letter, and assembles the board packet.

  • Never sends, posts or files anything
  • Cites every fact
Members, chair and director

Score, record and verify. The agents propose; a named person decides.

Ask in plain words

Ask about any bid, cell, claim or page

The chair can ask the agents about anything in the adoption. Each answer cites its sources and opens the screen it is about; the committee decides.

Why is Bid D's alignment marked discuss?

Fourteen members scored it on their own and the scores run from 1 to 4: six gave 4, three gave 3, three gave 2 and two gave 1. The 4s cite the publisher's correlation, page 12. The 1s and 2s, including all four grade 4 teachers on the panel, opened Unit 6 and found no lesson that adds or subtracts fractions. Rubric v3 says materials outside the bid price do not count. The committee decides the score.

Does Bid D really teach grade 4 fractions in its books?

Not all of it. The correlation says Lessons 6.4–6.7 fully address 4.NF.B.3, but those lessons teach equivalent fractions. Adding and subtracting fractions is only in Fraction Studio, which line 18 of the price sheet lists as an optional add-on, not in the total. The same is true of 4.NF.B.4.

What does Bid D really cost over six years?

The bid price of $3,184,900 plus $620,100 for Fraction Studio (10,600 students × $9.75 × 6 years) is $3,805,000: $30.20 per student a year, not $25.28, and more than Bid A's $3,612,400. Raymond Ostrowski confirmed it on October 19, so Bid D's 14 members are re-scoring cost on their own.

Draft the consensus note for Bid D alignment

Drafted in the cell for you to edit, citing the correlation, the teacher edition and the price sheet. The score is yours to record; I left it blank.

Every screen

The working solution, as it ships.

13 screens from the working solution, on its sample data. Pick one to see it large.

The score spread: seven bids, six criteria, every member's own scoreA K–5 math curriculum adoption under RFP MB-2026-114: one column per publisher bid, one row per rubric criterion, and in each cell the 14 committee members' independent scores as dots on a 1–4 line with the median marked. Four cells are marked discuss for today's 3:30 p.m. session, Bid D's cost is out for re-scoring, and 36 cells where the committee agrees can be accepted in one step.
Every bid and every page, from the procurement systemSeven responsive bids, 38,042 pages read and the RFP's required items present in 83 of 84; a late response was returned unopened. When Bid E's publisher sample portal stopped answering, the screen shows the cause and what still works.
The consensus room for one split cellBid D's standards alignment, opened once independent scoring closed: all fourteen scores with the members behind them, and what divides the committee. Those who scored 3 or 4 relied on the publisher's correlation, page 12; all four grade 4 teachers on the panel opened the unit and found no lesson that adds fractions. The Spread agent never suggests a score.
A publisher claim tested against the books and the price1,100 claims in seven bids: 1,000 supported, 65 partly, 35 not supported. Finding D-031 sets Bid D's correlation for 4.NF.B.3 beside what the teacher edition teaches and what the price sheet includes: Fraction Studio is an optional add-on at $9.75 per student per year, so teaching every standard costs $3,805,000, not $3,184,900.
Every finding opens its sourceThe citation opens the price sheet the agent read, with line 18 highlighted: the supplement the books depend on is optional and left out of the six-year total of $3,184,900.
Every standard, every bid, page cited9,860 lessons mapped to the state's 148 K–5 standards across seven bids. The grade 4 map shows where each bid teaches each standard in its core books, partly, only in a supplement outside the price, or not at all; Bid D's 4.NF.B.3 and 4.NF.B.4 are taught only in a supplement. Any mark opens its pages.
A committee member re-scores on her ownWhen Bid D's price changed after scoring, its fourteen members re-score cost alone. Keisha Montrose sees her bids, the evidence the Rubric agent drafted with page citations, and her own earlier sheet, never anyone else's score.
The chair records the committee score, with a reasonCommittee score 2, partially meets, recorded by Howard Penhallow-Ruiz with the reason "Evidence in the pages outweighs the publisher's claim" and a consensus note drafted from the discussion. It goes into the board packet, and the curriculum director verifies it at the lock.
All 42 committee scores, and the weighted standingWith the split cells settled and the 36 agreeing cells accepted in one step, every cell carries a committee score. Bid A leads at 3.45; Bid D, second on its listed price, now ranks last at 2.55.
Disclosures and bidder contact, ruled and confirmed41 of 41 disclosures signed, one recusal, 212 contact log entries. When a bidder's sales representative emailed a member during the restricted-contact period, the Conflict agent proposed a ruling with the email, her reply copying Purchasing and RFP section 4.3; the chair ruled, and only counsel can confirm.
One person at each step, from the lock to the awardThe board packet is the committee's record: 42 committee scores from 588 member scores, consensus notes, claim check findings, disclosures and rulings, cost and accessibility. The chair locks, the curriculum director verifies, the chief academic officer recommends, the board votes and Purchasing awards.
Public review before the board hearing, tracked to the dayStudent editions of the recommended materials go online for public review from October 27 to November 18, 23 days against the 20 required, before the November 19 hearing; the vote is on December 10. The Board Packet agent drafts the notice, the director sends it and the chief academic officer approves it before posting.
An audit trail that answers the board and a bid protestEvery score, view, finding, ruling, approval and setting: who, what, when, why and the evidence, for people and agents alike. It exports as the board record, a bid protest file or the state certification, with personal details, student names in pilot notes and confidential pricing redacted.
Governance

Instructional materials adoption on the record: independent, cited, signed.

Nine roles, separated by dutyMembers score their own sheets; the chair records committee scores, locks and rules on disclosures; the director verifies; the chief academic officer approves the rubric and recommends; counsel confirms rulings; Purchasing awards and sends anything to a bidder; the board secretary, the administrator and an auditor who reads and exports complete the list.
Members score alone, and agents never scoreScores stay hidden until scoring closes, and the chair sees names only after that. No agent suggests, writes, changes or locks a score, by policy.
A second person on every decisionThe chair records and the director verifies at the lock; the chair rules on a disclosure and counsel confirms, and the chair cannot confirm. The agents draft; named people send the notice, the recommendation and the warning letter.
Every finding opens its pageEvery alignment mark, claim finding and piece of evidence cites a page, and a click opens the source with the line highlighted. Every view of a source is logged.
Disclosures and bidder contact watched until the awardEvery member signs a disclosure before reading a page, and the Conflict agent checks the bidder contact log and the gift register until the award. Bidder contact goes only through Purchasing.
One audit trail for the board, a protest and the stateWho, what, when, why and which evidence, for people and agents alike, with each agent's version. It exports as the board record, a bid protest file or the state certification, with members' personal details and student names in pilot notes redacted (FERPA).
Configuration

Your adoption rubric and policy, not ours

The curriculum adoption rubric, the spread rule and the records rules are settings, versioned and on the audit trail; the chair can read them without changing them.

SettingDefaultChoose from
Rubric weights (rubric v3)Alignment 30%; rigor, coherence, English learner supports and cost 15% each; accessibility 10%Must add up to 100%; the chief academic officer approves a new version
Materials outside the bid priceDo not count toward alignmentPart of rubric v3
When a cell goes to discussionScores span 3 points, or two camps of at least 4 members two points apartBoth thresholds adjustable
Scores hidden until scoring closesAlways onThe chair sees names only after close
Re-score when a price or claim changesOnThe panel re-scores that cell on its own
Agents may suggest a scoreOff by policyThe Spread agent shows the split and the evidence only
Records and privacyLife of the adoption plus 5 years (schedule CUR-07)Scores private until the lock; pricing confidential until the notice of intent
Deadlines and escalationsRe-score 3 days · ruling 2 school days · comment response 10 school daysEscalates to the chair, counsel, director or chief academic officer; 7:00 a.m. digest
Connections

Works with the systems a curriculum office already runs on

Procurement and ERP bid systembids, addenda, price sheets and the award
Publisher sample portalsdigital samples for every bid
Document managementteacher editions, student books, score sheets and the packet
Curriculum managementscope and sequence, pacing guides
State standards databasethe standards every lesson is mapped to
Board agenda systemthe packet out, board actions back
What it changes

The difference, in numbers.

Every figure is labelled: a target the solution is built to, an estimate, a typical published result, or a proven one.

target
100%
of publisher alignment claims tested against the pages they cite
1,100 claims
correlations, price sheets, letters
estimated
6of 42
rubric cells needed committee discussion; the rest were settled in one step
Every criterion arguedOnly the splits
typical
20days
minimum public review of student editions before the board hearing, tracked to the day

Sources: Florida Statutes s. 1006.283 (district instructional materials review; student editions viewable online at least 20 calendar days before the board hearing) and s. 1006.30 (reviewer affidavit), cited as an example of state law · FERPA, 34 CFR Part 99 · "target" = design goal, measured in the live solution · "demo" = seen in the working solution, on its sample data · "estimated" = our arithmetic, kept modest. Marlow Bay Unified School District, its publishers and bids, and the people named on this page are fictional — characters and sample data in the working solution.

Questions

What curriculum offices ask us.

What is instructional materials adoption review?

Instructional materials adoption review is the work a district committee does to choose the core materials for a subject: reading every publisher's bid, scoring it against a rubric and the state standards, reaching consensus, and taking a recommendation to the board. Instructional Materials Adoption Review puts seven agents in front of the reading and checking, with every lesson mapped to the standards and every publisher claim tested against the pages, while members, the chair and the board make every decision.

What is the curriculum adoption process?

The curriculum office sets a rubric, the committee signs disclosures, Purchasing issues the RFP, members read and score the samples, the committee reaches consensus, the materials go on public review, and the board hears and votes before Purchasing awards. In this solution each step is on one record: the agents read and draft, and named people score, record, verify, recommend and award.

How does a curriculum adoption committee reach a consensus score?

Members score on their own first. When scoring closes, the Spread agent shows every member's score as a dot and marks only the cells that split, with what each side cited, and never suggests a score. In the sample adoption 36 of 42 cells already agreed and were accepted in one step; the chair records each remaining committee score with a reason code and a note.

How do you check a publisher's correlation to state standards?

The Alignment agent maps every lesson in every teacher edition and student book to the standards it teaches, with the page, and the Claim Check agent tests each line of the correlation against those pages and the price sheet. A standard taught only in a supplement outside the bid price is its own category, and under the sample rubric it does not count toward alignment.

Can we use our own curriculum adoption rubric?

Yes. Criteria and weights are settings that must add up to 100%, and a new version needs the chief academic officer's approval. The spread rule, re-scoring on a price change, records retention and deadlines are settings too, versioned and on the audit trail.

How long must instructional materials be on public review before the board hearing?

It depends on state law. Florida, for example, requires student editions to be viewable online at least 20 calendar days before the board hearing, with the hearing and the vote on different dates. The solution tracks the review window to the day; in the sample adoption it runs 23 days.

Do people stay in control of the scores?

Yes. No agent suggests, writes, changes or locks a score. Members score alone, the chair records the committee's score with a reason, the curriculum director verifies at the lock, counsel confirms disclosure rulings, and nothing goes to a bidder or the public until a named person approves it.

How long does it take to go live?

The Agentic Solution Engine builds and deploys it from your requirements and documents — your rubric, board policy and a sample of past bids — and it goes live once every quality gate has passed. We will walk you through it on your own adoption first.

See it on
your next adoption.

We'll run Instructional Materials Adoption Review on your rubric and a sample of your own bids.