A new RAND report finds that 30% of K-12 teachers think that mandated state learning standards are too difficult for their students. Teachers working in low-income districts, as well a less experienced teachers, are more likely to believe state standards are too challenging for their students.

What happens in these classrooms?

Student learning suffers.

The National Council on Teacher Quality has this take:

“This finding is problematic because, especially in math, if teachers think the instructional materials are too challenging for their students, they spend less time using them—and then students may be taught skills or knowledge that is below their grade level, disjointed, or even misaligned with research-based approaches to instruction. (It’s worth noting that this finding did not hold for ELA, but that may be because less than half of teachers surveyed reported using their required or recommended ELA materials for at least 75% of class time—meaning they’re using other materials for quite a lot of the time).”

RAND based its findings on the 2023 American Instructional Resources Survey, which focuses on on the usage of, perceptions of, and supports for instructional materials used in English language arts, mathematics, and science kindergarten through grade 12 classrooms across the U.S.

Here are the key findings from the report:

• Three in ten K–12 teachers consider the curriculum materials that are required or recommended by their schools or districts to be too challenging for the majority of their students.
• Teachers in high-poverty schools and less experienced teachers were significantly more likely to report that their materials were too challenging for their students.
• Math teachers who reported that their required or recommended materials were too challenging were significantly less likely to use these materials for 75 percent to 100 percent of their classroom instructional time.
• Teachers who reported that they had been using their required or recommended materials for less than a year were more likely to consider those materials to be too challenging for their students.
• Teachers who reported that their professional learning helped them use their materials to meet student needs were less likely to consider their required or recommended materials to be too challenging for students.