When I type “Central idea lesson pdf” into Google, 118 million results pop up. I sift through the options: worksheets for sale on teacherspayteachers.com, a six-page adult education lesson plan, a handful of graphic organizers, and a blog post offering a three-page PDF. None of it quite fits my needs, so I adjust my search terms and try again. It’s 2011, my first year teaching with an alternative certification. My training so far includes two weeks of professional development on classroom management, literacy programs, lesson structures, and analyzing Common Core State Standards. Add to that a handful of university courses on assessment validity, child development theories, and crafting clear learning objectives. With this hodgepodge of preparation, I piece together lessons for my students using whatever I can find online.
This experience is far from unique. Research backs up the reality that teachers spend countless hours hunting for resources. TNTP’s 2018 report, The Opportunity Myth, revealed that teachers devote an average of seven hours per week selecting or creating their own materials—a total of more than 250 hours a year. But this scramble for resources isn’t just a drain on teachers’ time; it also undermines the quality of instruction students receive. The same report found that while 71% of students completed classroom assignments successfully, only 17% met grade-level standards on those same tasks.
A decade later, not much has changed. A 2021 RAND Corporation survey showed that just 22% of high school teachers reported using standards-aligned materials, while more than 70% relied on unaligned resources or none at all. Another study revealed that 90% of elementary and 85% of secondary English Language Arts teachers developed or selected their own instructional materials. As education journalist Sarah Schwartz noted, this inconsistency means “very large numbers of students may not be getting the same rigor and high-quality instructional content as their peers in other classrooms.”
The lack of a guaranteed and viable curriculum forces teachers to build their courses from scratch. In my own experience, I selected texts I liked or that were available in the school library. I relied on pre-built lessons from Google searches. My school leadership praised this as independence and autonomy, but in hindsight, it didn’t serve my students well. I felt successful because I enjoyed the material, and the students engaged with it, but that success didn’t translate into measurable academic growth.
Teaching already involves juggling countless responsibilities: managing classroom behavior, organizing materials, navigating calendars and schedules, grading assignments, giving feedback, meeting with parents, and communicating with colleagues. Once all of that is done, teachers still face the monumental task of planning the next day’s lesson. What texts and sources will they use? What activities and materials are needed? How can they ensure coherence with previous lessons and future goals? It’s an impossible workload—and expecting teachers to act as curriculum developers on top of everything else does a disservice to both them and their students.