OER Project Grants

Open Educational Resources (OER) are teaching and learning materials that are free to use, adapt, and share in order to better serve all students.

As more districts develop or adapt OER, we have a tremendous opportunity to share resources across districts via our OER Commons Washington Hub, promoting equitable access to standards-aligned, quality instructional materials. This grant opportunity is in support of that goal.

In choosing our grantees for this year, priority consideration was given to projects that integrated content or addressed areas currently lacking in standards-aligned OER. Additionally, consideration was given to projects developing resources that could be delivered remotely or in a blending learning environment.

2023-2024 OER Project Grant Awards

Tribal and School District Partnerships 

Mount Vernon School District

This project aims to develop a comprehensive set of K-12 lessons centered around calendar events requested by local tribes, fostering cultural awareness, understanding, and respect among students. The project will involve a collaborative effort between educators, local tribes, and community stakeholders to ensure the lessons align with the cultural significance of these events. The curriculum will be self-contained, providing teachers with ready-to-use materials, resources, and guidelines to effectively engage students across different grade levels.

The lessons will incorporate various educational approaches, such as historical narratives, interactive activities, art projects, storytelling, and guest speakers from tribal communities. By exploring the historical context, cultural traditions, and contemporary issues related to each event, students will gain a deeper understanding of the significance of these occasions and the contributions of indigenous peoples to their community and the nation.

Internationalizing Classrooms Through the Sustainable Development Goals

World Affairs Council - Seattle

As the world has become increasingly interconnected and interdependent, it is essential that teachers and students have access to relevant, interdisciplinary global education resources that are standards based. Building upon work from previous OSPI grant funding that created a series of multi-day lessons on the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDG), the project team will develop another series of lessons (and translated materials) on six additional SDG. These lessons will supplement the other lessons we have created and are easily adaptable for grade-levels and context. The UN Sustainable Development Goals (or "Global Goals") can be effectively integrated into many different contents areas that provide students with a more holistic and meaningful learning experience.

This OER curriculum and professional development will help educators deepen student understanding of local and global issues, support standards-based, interdisciplinary learning, and provide high quality resources in an under-represented content area.

Japanese and Spanish Level 1 Curriculum

Lake Washington School District

Teacher teams that have received professional learning on curriculum design for language instruction aligned to WA State World Language Standards will continue to build out four units for Level 3 curriculum in Japanese and Spanish and refine previously created units.

Units are thematic, aligned to the AP Language and Culture Themes, and incorporate authentic resources. They are organized by the three modes of communication and require teachers to leverage research-based high-impact instructional strategies for language acquisition. Units include essential questions, performance targets, intercultural focus, unit goals, performance assessments, activity guides, and additional suggested resources and methods and will be shared with districts around the state

Unlocking Literacy Instruction for Students with Disabilities

Special Education Technology Center - Central Washington University

 

In this project, we plan to develop, adapt, and implement accessible online modules for teachers and teacher prep programs to enhance instructional practices and expand learning opportunities for diverse learners.

Previously, this project created six modules in the Unlocking Literacy Instruction for Students with Disabilities suite, focused on K-2. This project will build on that work to create an introductory module to set the stage and an additional two modules to extend literacy instruction to older kids using age-appropriate content and grade level standards.

The project team will implement, adapt, and add teachers’ artifacts to existing modules in collaboration with teachers across Washington state.

Project-based Washington State Civics Curriculum

Educurious

Project-based Washington State Civics Curriculum

With support from OSPI, Educurious has spent two years collaborating with teachers from six Washington districts to codesign a comprehensive OER Washington State History course for middle school, and a corresponding guide for making localized adaptations (in development). This PBL course presents critical issues in an anti-biased way, is interdisciplinary, integrates Since Time Immemorial resources, and aligns with the Washington State Standards for Social Studies. This project builds on that foundation to design a unit in the course that directly addresses the civics strand of the Washington State Standards for Social Studies, including the state constitution and tribal sovereignty and effectively support the entire civics strand for the Washington State-focused social studies standards.

After an implementation field test, the unit will be published to the OER Hub. We anticipate this project will have impacts on 1) the availability of high-quality standards-aligned Washington State history and civics materials for teachers and students to access; 2) student learning, civic engagement, and identification with content.

Explore grantee efforts on the Washington OER Hub and Washington Hub Highlights.

Past Grant Awards

2020-21 | 2021-22 | 2022-23 | 2023-24

Final Grantee Reports

2020-21 | 2021-22 | 2022-23

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