Custom Curriculum Development

Start Date: October 2022                             

Client: The Innovative Learners

Industry: Academic Tutoring

Website: www.theinnovativelearners.com

Introduction

Realized Curriculum Solutions partnered with The Innovative Learners in 2022 to support them with developing custom curriculum solutions for students receiving academic tutoring in literacy. The Innovative Learners requested custom curriculum solutions that were culturally relevant and aligned with the Science of Reading research and Common Core State Standards for Literacy for students in Kindergarten through 9th grade.

The Story of The Innovative Learners

The Innovative Learners is a tutoring company based in Chicago, Illinois. It's founder and CEO, Gabriell, started The Innovative Learners to support the academic development of students from underserved communities by teaching culturally relevant lessons that reflected their students' experiences. For more than 4 years, The Innovative Learners continues to drastically improve students' literacy and mathematics knowledge and skill acquisition.

The Challenge The Innovative Learners Faced

As The Innovative Learners increased their enrollment of students receiving tutoring services in the area of literacy, their CEO, Gabriell, did not have enough time to develop the custom curriculum solutions for their students. The Innovative Learners had a capacity challenge that prevented them from designing culturally relevant literacy lessons that increased the academic outcomes of their students in the area of literacy. 

Why The Innovative Learners Chose Realized Curriculum Solutions

The Innovative Learners partnered with a curriculum development company who specialized in developing custom curriculum solutions that were culturally relevant and aligned to evidence-based practices within the Science of Reading research. Realized Curriculum Solutions' founder and CEO, Leroy, had more than 10 years of professional experience as a culturally responsive special education teacher and curriculum development specialist in school districts with large populations of students of color and neurodivergent learners. Leroy's experience included being a reading interventionist with expertise in the Science of Reading research for students who were reluctant readers. Also, Leroy had a multi-year track record of developing custom curriculum solutions as a special education teacher and curriculum innovations specialist in the District of Columbia Public Schools that positively benefitted students in self-contained special education settings who were students from underserved communities.

The Results

Throughout our multi-year partnership, The Innovative Learners increased their students' independent reading levels about 2 years within one academic year. Some of their students scored above grade-level and became advanced readers after receiving the culturally relevant literacy lessons implemented by the academic tutors at The Innovative Learners. 9th grade students wrote stronger opinion essays on challenging topics like immigration policies, voting rights, and homework policies within their school district.

Take a moment to review some of the samples of the custom curriculum solutions we designed for The Innovative Learners.