Inside the Box, In Front of Students

In Part 1, she stood in her classroom, staring at a sealed box of curriculum she had never practiced with. In Part 2, the box was finally opened, pages spread across her desk as she searched for where to begin.

Now she leans over Lesson 5, pencil in hand. She circles the goal, underlines a question she wants to ask, and sketches how she will model the solution. She reads the directions aloud but hesitates, unsure which lines are meant for her and which for her students. She stumbles, starts again, and forces the words into something she thinks her class will understand. Why is this so difficult, she wonders, especially given the cost of these materials. There is no time left to anticipate student responses or likely misconceptions. This will have to do.

The next morning, she delivers the lesson. The pacing feels steady, the questions land though she and her students muscle through moments of confusion. When students falter, she improvises. By the end of class, the assessment shows little progress. She tells herself it is just the start of the year, that the interruptions were to blame, that routines will take time to hold.

Back at her desk, she notices the box is filled with tools she has never touched. Are they supplemental, or something essential she never learned to use?

Why Practice Matters for Readiness

High quality preparation begins with the candidate. If we expect teachers to deliver curriculum aligned instruction on day one, programs must move candidates beyond exposure and into deliberate, repeated practice. Simply providing access to materials is not enough. Readiness grows when candidates plan, rehearse, and receive feedback using the very curricula they will be expected to implement in P-12 classrooms.

When that practice is missing, candidates improvise. They piece lessons together from Pinterest or Teachers Pay Teachers, or they rewrite tasks without understanding the progressions they are interrupting. Research confirms this pattern: early career teachers often struggle to create high quality, standards aligned lessons on their own, especially without access to vetted materials or training on how to use them effectively. A study of first grade literacy instruction found that Teachers Pay Teachers was the most used source of materials, with Pinterest also widely used, particularly among novice teachers.

The result is a disconnect that impacts P-12 students as much as it does the candidate. Many students, particularly those in historically underserved schools, are at risk of receiving daily instruction that falls below grade level, lacks rigor, and fails to engage them. Studies such as The Opportunity Myth have long since highlighted that most students are not given consistent access to grade level content or meaningful assignments. 

By contrast, when high quality instructional materials are used well, teachers report increased confidence, greater clarity around pacing and routines, and stronger student engagement. Programs that give candidates repeated, coached practice with HQIM show measurable gains in candidates’ ability to identify, analyze, and use the materials; candidates also report that quality materials reduce planning burden and allow them to focus on instruction and student thinking. 

If the goal is day one readiness, programs cannot stop at access. They must intentionally build candidate practice with HQIM into the preparation experience from start to finish.

HQIM Readiness for Candidates

Readiness to use curriculum is not a single skill. It develops through deliberate, scaffolded opportunities in coursework and clinical experiences. Candidates must learn to identify/select/evaluate, internalize, adapt, and facilitate high quality instructional materials with fidelity, building both the judgment and the habits needed for day one readiness. This developmental approach mirrors the standards laid out in EdPrep Partners’ Performance Framework, where coursework and clinical experiences are designed to integrate HQIM and prepare candidates through practice-based development.

1. Evaluating, Identifying, and Selecting HQIM

Teacher candidates must first learn to judge what makes instructional materials high quality. This skill equips them to choose curricula that are aligned to standards, rigorous, and usable, rather than relying on convenience sources. Training with structured analysis tasks has been shown to improve candidates’ ability to identify, analyze, and use HQIM effectively.

To evaluate, identify, and select HQIM, candidates must be able to:

• Identify the standard and the lesson objective (aligned to the states’ standards)
• Check alignment to unit goals and assessments
• Examine tasks for cognitive demand and conceptual rigor
• Note embedded assessments and success criteria
• Review usability for teachers and students
• Conclude with an evidence-based judgment of quality

2. Internalizing HQIM-Aligned Lessons

Once candidates can identify quality instructional materials, they must learn to prepare lessons with clarity and intentionality. Internalization is the process of studying a curriculum-aligned lesson to understand its purpose, anticipate student thinking and misunderstandings, and plan instructional moves that reflect the lesson goals and support P-12 student learning progressions. Tennessee now requires preparation programs to demonstrate that candidates are explicitly taught to internalize HQIM lessons, signaling the importance of this skill for readiness.

To internalize HQIM, candidates must be able to:

• Clarify the lesson goal and standards alignment
• Work through the P-12 student tasks themselves
• Anticipate likely misconceptions and plan responses
• Prepare models, examples, and purposeful questions
• Decide when and how to check for understanding
• Rehearse a slice with a peer and adjust pacing and language

3. Adapting HQIM for Rigor and Access

Candidates must also learn to make strategic adaptations that increase access without reducing rigor. Adaptation is necessary to meet diverse student needs, but untrained teachers often dilute lessons in ways that lower expectations. Research shows that additive, targeted adaptations can strengthen outcomes, while removing core demands undermines learning.

To adapt HQIM, candidates must be able to:

• Name the core instructional goal that must remain intact
• Use student work or observation to identify the need for change based on students’ needs, accommodations, etc. 
• Choose a precise move such as scaffolding, pacing, or discourse structure
• Preserve the intended task demand and grade level expectation
• Plan how to check the impact on P-12 student learning
• Review evidence and decide to keep, revise, or revert

4. Facilitating HQIM-Aligned Instruction

The culmination of readiness is the ability to deliver lessons responsively and with fidelity to their intent. Facilitation brings together judgment, preparation, and adaptation in real time, requiring candidates to manage pacing, engage students, and adjust based on evidence. High quality materials improve outcomes only when taught well, and observation systems now expect teachers to demonstrate these skills when using adopted HQIM.

To facilitate HQIM, candidates must be able to:

• State the lesson goal and connect activities to it
• Use questioning and modeling to surface P-12 student thinking
• Elicit evidence of learning and respond in the moment
• Maintain cognitive demand while supporting access
• Keep pacing purposeful and transitions efficient
• Close with an assessment aligned to the objective

Effective facilitation of HQIM still includes effective facilitation of each of the core methods, and instructional & content pedagogies. 

Putting it All Together

Each part of this series has illustrated how candidates, teacher educators, and programs can move beyond access to prepare for real readiness with high quality instructional materials. For candidates, readiness is not a single step but a developmental arc that begins with identifying quality, moves through internalization and adaptation, and culminates in facilitation.



To support programs that want to see this progression clearly laid out, we have included an appendix. The appendix provides a consolidated table of What Strong HQIM Integration Looks Like for Candidates, outlining the purpose of each developmental skill and the specific actions candidates must be able to demonstrate. Programs can use this reference as a practical tool for coursework design, clinical coaching, and performance assessments.

Taking Action: Building HQIM-Ready Candidates

There are practical steps programs and teacher educators can take now to begin strengthening candidate readiness with high quality instructional materials. These actions lay the foundation for the specific teacher educator and programmatic practices, structures, and processes that will be explored in Parts 4 and 5 of this series.

Up Next: Strong HQIM Integration for Teacher Educators

Candidates should not have to outpace the people who are responsible for developing them. Faculty, clinical supervisors, and mentors shape how candidates experience HQIM through the developmental opportunities they provide, skills they model, the feedback they provide, and the expectations they reinforce. In the next part of our Beyond Access series, we will explore what strong HQIM integration looks like for teacher educators - the daily preparation practices that will make “curriculum readiness” a reality for every candidate.

Let’s make teacher preparation better together.

Appendix 

What Strong HQIM Integration Looks Like for Candidates