September 2014

K-12 Education Resources (HB 2337)

  1. Purpose: Open educational resources (OER) are free and openly licensed educational materials—textbooks and online content—thatcan be used for teaching, learning, and research. OSPI’s OER project, implementing HB 2337 (2012), is focused on:
  • Increasing district awareness of OER;
  • Providing districts with the resources to evaluate and adopt OER materials;
  • Developing a sustainable review process for existing OER materials to evaluate alignment to the Common Core State Standards (CCSS) and implementation requirements; and
  • Maintaining a catalog of reviewed openly licensed texts and lesson plans aligned to the CCSS.
  1. Number of staff associated with this program/service (indicate where applicable):

FY14 State Appropriation$250,000

FTEs1.0

Contracts21

Purpose / Value
Contract with educators to review OERs aligned with the CCSS. / $15,775
Contract with consultant toanalyze all data and ensure an unbiased review process. / $5,000
  1. Are federal or other funds contingent on state funding? No.
  1. Is continued funding needed in the next biennium?Yes.
  1. When will the project be completed? HB 2337 specifies that the section expires June 30, 2018. As we near 2018, the legislature should evaluate if a short extension is needed to fully complete the legislative goals.
  1. First year funded: FY13
  1. State funding since inception:

School Year / Amount
FY14 / $250,000
FY13 / $250,000
  1. If applicable, the number of beneficiaries (e.g., schools, students, districts) since inception:

School Year / # of districts/
# of administrators
FY13
Total / 71 districts /1400 educators
FY14 Grant program / 847 teachers / 23,017 students
FY14 presentations and meetings / 1,055 teachers, administrators, librarians, and board members
  1. Average of funding per beneficiary, 2013-14 school years: Grants totaling $90,317 were awarded to five school districts in FY14. In total, the grants served 23,017 students and 847 teachers, for a total of $3.78 per beneficiary. In addition, because the resources implemented as a result of the grant will be used for multiple school year, the benefit will continue beyond FY14.
  1. Programmatic changes since inception: A grant program was added in FY14.
  1. Evaluations of program/major findings: During FY14, the OER project:
  • Conducted a comprehensive instructional materials review of seven
    full-course secondary OER mathematics curricula and twenty secondary English Language Arts (ELA) units
  • Expanded the online library of vetted OER
  • Created a competitive OER grant program to encourage districts to adapt, develop, or implement OER with five districts sharing the $90K award
  • Hosted an OER webinar series with nationally recognized OER experts
  • Delivered OER presentations at professional conferences and meetings, reaching1055 district administrators, curriculum and technology directors, school board members, teachers, and teacher librarians
  • Helped found the K–12 Collaborative, a state-led project facilitated by the Council of Chief State School Officers, to promote the creation offull-course, high quality, CCSS-aligned, OER curricula supporting K–12 math and ELA
  1. Future opportunities: Because OER are free, districts can save money when they adopt these resources. That money can then be spent on other projects. Also, because the resources are open, adaptable, and frequently updated, districts adopting OER are likely to have materials that are high-quality and aligned to standards. As a result of the project, the state should see both a financial benefit and an educational benefit.
  1. Statutory and/or Budget language:

Budget Proviso:3ESSB 5034,Section 501 (1) (m) - $250,000 of the general fund--state appropriation for fiscal year 2014 and $250,000 of the general fund--state appropriation for fiscal year 2015areprovided solely for the implementation of chapter 178, Laws of 2012(open K-12 education resources ).

1