commonlit 360 research

Is CommonLit research-based?

Commonlit is proven to be an effective, engaging, research-based reading program., research behind commonlit.

• CommonLit is entirely research based . The program is designed to nudge teachers to use best practices in adolescent literacy instruction. Learn more about the practices CommonLit promotes here .

Research on CommonLit

CommonLit was the result of a research study conducted at Harvard Graduate School of Education in 2014 by founder and CEO, Michelle Brown. Since then, research has remained a cornerstone of the organization, and CommonLit has received multiple research grants to devote to ongoing rigorous evaluation research. Partnerships with external evaluators, such as Consortium for Policy Research in Education (CPRE) at Columbia University and Learn Platform, help to ensure the quality of CommonLit’s research agenda. A few key findings, outlined below, speak to the effectiveness of the CommonLit program. 

For the most up-to-date information on CommonLit effectiveness, please visit the Impact page.

CommonLit Digital (CLD)

• In a study of 26k students during the 2021-2022 school year , higher levels of usage of CommonLit Library lessons was linked to accelerated learning gains up to 2x what is typically seen in an academic year.

360 Curriculum 

• Of the various studies that have been conducted on the effectiveness of the CommonLit 360 Curriculum, a study of CommonLit 360 in NYC schools illustrates the reading achievement results of middle schools students in New York City. The results showed statistically significant gains in reading achievement across all grades. Fidelity to the program was a predictor of better outcomes, with demographic subgroups showing improvement on par with their peers. Additional studies have been conducted in rural settings and nationwide , further demonstrating the relationship between CommonLit 360 use and student reading growth. 

CommonLit Español (CLE)

A Spring 2023 study of teachers who participated in professional development on CommonLit Lecciones Guiadas (Guided Lessons) found that: 

• Students of teachers participating in professional development on the use of Lecciones Guiadas outgrew students in the comparison group.
• Teachers reported that completing the Lecciones Guiadas increased students’ reading comprehension and students’ self-efficacy for reading.
• Teachers reported that Lecciones Guiadas increased student motivation and engagement.

Want to take CommonLit instruction to the next level? Unlock benchmark assessments, school- and district-wide data, trainings and more with School Essentials PRO. Learn more about School Essentials PRO here.

Related Articles

• Is CommonLit really free? Is there a freemium or premium version?
• I am an educator without a school-issued email address. How do I sign up for CommonLit?
• I am a parent. What is CommonLit 360?

Study of CommonLit 360 Shows Gains on Reading Achievement

Grantee: CommonLit

Study Type: Correlational Study

Principal Investigator: Mathematica

Project Description: This is a retrospective correlational study of student academic performance based on data from 113,825 students in 313 schools who had access to CommonLit 360 instructional materials, including School Essentials PRO student assessment materials (e.g., professional development, administrator data dashboards, benchmark assessments), during the 2021-22 school year. The research team examined the relation between teacher utilization of CommonLit materials and student academic achievement and other student-reported outcomes for those students taught by teachers with high levels of utilization (defined as those teachers who taught at least 10 lessons from CommonLit instructional units) compared to those with low levels of utilization.

Key Findings: Students with teachers highly utilizing CommonLit 360 saw more statistically significant academic growth in reading than students in comparison group classrooms. Teachers who taught more CommonLit 360 units of instruction saw 2.1 months greater growth in their students’ reading skills than students of teachers in the comparison group. Students in the high utilization group grew 0.27 standard deviations, which represents more than expected learning in one school year (Hill et al, 2007), with an overall effect size of +0.07 difference between the two groups.

Study Citation: Retrieved from https://blog-content.commonlit.org/new-study-of-commonlit-360-demonstrates-positive-gains-on-student-reading-achievement-and-teacher-practice/.

Full report here .

The Key Findings above were reproduced from the published report and do not necessarily reflect interpretation of Overdeck Family Foundation staff.

Research Repository

A collection of research funded by Overdeck Family Foundation.

Summaries of Research Grants

Courtesy of BEAM

As a leading education funder, we are dedicated to advancing the belief that “evidence matters” through novel, methodologically sound, and actionable research that uncovers programs and models with the potential to positively improve outcomes for all children. We believe research is a key way to increase awareness of what’s effective and to impact evidence-based decision-making and practice across our main grantmaking areas: early childhood, hands-on STEM education, and K-9 programs that include supporting educators and student-centered learning environments.

Aligned with our core value of “learn better, together,” Overdeck Family Foundation is committed to promoting transparent research practices by lifting up timely findings of the research we fund. We update this page as research is concluded and published, ensuring transparency for the field and our grantees.

Research Areas

Early childhood.

Validation and knowledge generation studies in the field of early childhood.

K-9 Education

Research into what works for students and educators in the classroom.

Out-of-School STEM

Validation and knowledge generation studies on the impact of out-of-school STEM.

Research into cross-cutting topics across the education sector.

Bright by Text - Sparking Connections: Evaluations of Mobile Messaging on Response Caregiving

This report summarizes studies of two similar 12-week mobile messaging programs designed to help parents of young children support their children’s development: Bright by Text and Consejos de Univision.

Implementing CenteringParenting Model With an Urban Pediatric Population to Measure and Improve Clinical Outcomes and Parent Satisfaction

This is a retrospective unmatched comparison group study of CenteringParenting, a group healthcare intervention for families and their children.

COVID-19 Relief Bolstered U.S. Child Care Programs in Crisis

This study by the Bipartisan Policy Center reports on an 11-state survey of a random selection of representatives from approximately 1,100 child care centers and 1,200 family child care homes regarding respondents’ experiences with business closures, enrollment, revenue, staffing, and other factors related to the availability of U.S. Congressional relief packages during the COVID-19 pandemic: The CARES Act of March 2020, the CRRSA Act of December 2020, and the ARP Act of March 2021.

Effect of Family Connects' Universal Postpartum Nurse Home Visiting Program on Child Maltreatment and Emergency Medical Care at 5 Years of Age: A Randomized Clinical Trial

This is a randomized controlled trial of Durham Connects (later renamed Family Connects), a universal home visitation program for families with a newborn child designed to improve children’s wellbeing through a series of nurse home visits, risk screenings, and referrals to community resources.

I-LABS - Dual-MEG Interbrain Synchronization During Turn-Taking Verbal Interactions Between Mothers and Children

This is a correlational study of brain activity of 23 mother-child pairs as measured by dual MEG (magnetoencephalography) machines during various verbal interactions.

I-LABS - Language Experience During Infancy Predicts White Matter Myelination at Age Two

This is a correlational study of parent and child language skills and youth brain development in early childhood for 22 parent-child pairs, as measured by home recordings of parent-child verbal interactions and estimates of white matter myelination as derived from quantitative MRI when the children were two years old.

I-LABS & LENA - Language Input in Late Infancy Scaffolds Emergent Literacy Skills and Predicts Reading-Related White Matter Development

This is a correlational study of parent and child language- and reading-related skills in early childhood for 53 parent-child pairs, as measured by the Language ENvironment Analysis System (LENA) and other measures of language development.

LENA - The Impact of a Language-Based Intervention, a Two-Part Study

This is a small randomized controlled trial of LENA Grow, a language-based coaching program for early childhood teachers designed to improve communication skills.

LENA - The Relationship Between Conversational Turns and Student Achievement

This is a secondary correlational analysis of data derived from a randomized controlled trial of a 13-week parenting course that was designed to encourage verbal interactions between parents and their young children, with the goal of improving kindergarten readiness.

Effect of Nurse-Family Partnership's Intensive Nurse Home Visiting Program on Adverse Birth Outcomes in a Medicaid-Eligible Population: A Randomized Clinical Trial

This is a randomized controlled trial of Nurse-Family Partnership, a nurse home visitation program for first-time mothers during their pregnancy and until their children’s second birthday.

The Effect of Exposure to Reach Out and Read on Shared Reading Behaviors

This is a correlational study that aims to leverage existing survey data from parents of children ages six months to five years old who had brought their child to a well visit at one of 427 pediatric clinics in North and South Carolina.

University of Nebraska - Nebraska Spotlight: Key Findings That Highlight Connections Among Early Childhood Development, Families and Communities

This is a survey of a representative sample of 2,500 Nebraska families with young children ages birth to five years. The report focuses on children’s development and family characteristics to examine strengths and disparities by various subgroups of families (e.g., urban versus rural). Illustrative topics include families’ economic and food security, neighborhood characteristics, parenting demands, home learning environments, and parental mental health. The survey took place online between July 2022 to January 2023.

Young Mathematicians in Worcester Evaluation

This is a pre-post study of Young Mathematicians-Worcester (YM-W), a preschool math program serving young children and their caregivers in Worcester, MA.

Teaching Lab Professional Learning Series: Supporting Teachers to Deliver High-Quality, Equity-Oriented, and Curriculum-Aligned Mathematics Instruction

This is a descriptive, mixed-methods study that examined implementation of Teaching Lab’s Professional Learning Series with mathematics educators across New Mexico in spring 2021. The content was delivered virtually to 48 teachers across an eight week period. The study also examined pre-post changes in teachers’ math pedagogy, self-efficacy to deliver high-quality instruction, and quality of teachers’ instruction.

The Canopy Project - Evaluating the Impact of Innovative Schools

This is a landscape scan conducted by The Canopy Project, which used qualitative data and review of internal and external quantitative data on school performance to achieve three aims.

This is a retrospective correlational study of student academic performance based on data from 113,825 students in 313 schools who had access to CommonLit 360 instructional materials, including School Essentials PRO student assessment materials (e.g., professional development, administrator data dashboards, benchmark assessments), during the 2021-22 school year. The research team examined the relation between teacher utilization of CommonLit materials and student academic achievement and other student-reported outcomes for those students taught by teachers with high levels of utilization (defined as those teachers who taught at least 10 lessons from CommonLit instructional units) compared to those with low levels of utilization.

EdReports - State of the Instructional Materials Market: Use of Aligned Materials in 2022

This is a descriptive study that sought to understand the degree to which school districts used high-quality instructional materials in 2022, as well as the factors associated with adoption of these materials.

EdTech Evidence Exchange - EdTech Context Inventory: Factor Analyses for Ten Instruments to Measure EdTech Implementation Context Features

This is a methodological paper that explores the reliability of various measures of the context in which educational technology is delivered (e.g., instruments measuring teachers’ beliefs about and knowledge of educational technologies).

Education First - Strategic School Staffing Solutions

This is a landscape scan of strategic staffing models, conducted by Education First, which aimed to learn how to better meet the needs of students by redesigning critical adult roles and ensuring that those roles are attractive, sustainable, and professionally rewarding.

Khan Academy - Use of MAP Accelerator Associated With Better-Than-Projected Gains in MAP Growth Scores

This is a correlational study that examines the relation between math achievement and student engagement with the MAP Accelerator, an intervention developed by Khan Academy and NWEA to support students’ personalized learning in math based on the prior math achievement.

Does Teacher Professional Development Improve Student Learning? Evidence from Leading Educators' Teacher Fellowship Model

This is a quasi-experimental difference-in-differences study of Leading Educators, a teacher professional development program designed to improve students’ math and English language arts achievement.

The Impact and Implementation of Leading Educators' Chicago Collaborative Teacher Professional Development Program

This is randomized controlled trial (RCT) of Leading Educators, a teacher professional development program designed to improve elementary- and middle-school students’ math and English language arts achievement. Read more

New Jersey Tutoring Corps School Year 2022-23 Efficacy Report

This is a pre-post descriptive study examining growth in literacy and math skills for the 500 students who received in-school tutoring through the New Jersey Tutoring Corps during the 2022-23 year.

Next Education Workforce - Team-Based Staffing Models Can Make Schools Work Better for Both Learners and Educators

This is a policy paper and literature review on the state of the U.S. education workforce.

OnYourMark - The Effects of Virtual Tutoring on Young Readers

This is a randomized controlled trial (RCT) of OnYourMark Education, which provides high-impact virtual tutoring for 20 minutes a day, four days a week, to students in kindergarten through second grade.

PERTS - Learning Conditions Are an Actionable, Early Indicator of Math Learning

This report sought to quantify the relationship between math achievement and learning conditions in the Elevate framework, and explore variability in conditions over time.

Examining PowerMyLearning's Family Playlists' Impact on Student Social Emotional Learning and Science Mastery through Short-Cycle RCTs

This reports on a series of short-cycle randomized controlled trials (RCTs) of PowerMyLearning’s Family Playlists.

Impact of PowerMyLearning's Social Emotional Learning Program: 2021-2022 Mid-Year and School Year Analysis

This is a pre-post study of PowerMyLearning’s Social Emotional Learning (SEL) program—Nurture Student Growth Through Social Emotional Learning—which serves teachers, students, and families with children in first through sixth grade with the goals of addressing challenging behaviors and supporting family wellbeing.

Effects of a Quill.org Intervention on Paragraph Revision

This is a randomized controlled trial (RCT) of Quill, a free, open-source digital platform that provides research-based writing instruction to students.

Saga Education - Not Too Late: Improving Academic Outcomes among Adolescents

Researchers from the University of Chicago conducted two separate randomized controlled trials (RCTs) of Saga Education, which offers high-dosage tutoring to support student learning. The studies aimed to evaluate the impact of Saga’s two-on-one tutoring model—delivered by trained paraprofessionals—on high school students’ math performance.

Effects of ST Math on Growth in Math Performance at the Grade-Level

This is a matching study with retrospective data, conducted by a researcher at the MIND Research Institute, which leverages data from 2018-19 through 2021-22 to estimate the impact of ST Math, a game-based, instructional software designed to boost math comprehension through visual learning, on third, fourth, and fifth grade students’ math performance in California, measured at the grade level.

Engaging Families Leads to Student Academic Gains and Increased Attendance: How TalkingPoints Improved Outcomes in a Large Urban School District

This is a retrospective quasi-experiment of TalkingPoints, an online platform designed to facilitate communication between teachers and families whose primary language is not English.

TNTP - Unlocking Acceleration: How Below-Grade Level Work is Holding Students Back in Literacy

This reports on a retrospective correlational study of more than three million students in kindergarten through 12th grade who accessed the ReadWorks free online library of nonfiction passages and associated question sets from the 2018-19 through the 2020-21 school years.

UPchieve - Report on Impact of Online Tutoring on Math Achievement

This reports on a series of small randomized controlled encouragement design studies, quasi-experiments, and pre-post studies that assessed the impact of weekly email reminders and five dollar financial incentives on (i) student take-up of UPchieve, a free online tutoring platform for economically-disadvantaged students, and (ii) student math achievement.

Efficacy Analysis of Zearn Math: Findings from implementation in Louisiana

This is a matching study with retrospective data that aimed to estimate impacts of using Zearn Math—a computer-based math platform that provides individualized supports to students—at the recommended dosage on students’ math performance.

Efficacy Analysis of Zearn Math in DC Public Schools

This is a set of retrospective correlational and quasi-experimental studies of student math performance based on data from students in grades one through six who used the Zearn Math learning digital platform during the 2018-19, 2020-21, and/or 2021-22 school years.

Zearn - Catching Up and Moving Forward: Accelerating Math Learning for Every Student

This is a retrospective correlational study of more than five million instances of student math performance based on data from the 600,000 students in first through seventh grade who (i) used the Zearn math learning digital platform during the 2020-21 and 2021-22 school years and (ii) had multiple instances of repeated “struggle” with math content during the two-year study period, as defined by instances in which a student repeatedly answered a math question incorrectly following in-the-moment online support.

Camp Invention - Invention Education as a Context for Children's Identity Exploration

This is a descriptive pre-post study of Camp Invention ® , a virtual summer enrichment program for students in kindergarten through sixth grade that utilizes science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) principles and hands-on learning to encourage student interest and achievement in STEM.

DiscoverE - Messages Matter

This is a report on a series of national online surveys of high school students and parents.

FIRST® Longitudinal Study: 2022 Survey Results (108-Month Follow-Up)

This is a correlational study reporting on how enrollment in FIRST is associated with a range of STEM-related outcomes nine years after youth initially participated in the program.

Museum Digital Engagement: Before, During, and Beyond the COVID-19 Pandemic

This is literature review and narrative report on a series of virtual events sponsored by the Association of Science and Technology Centers in 2021 and 2022 that describes how the COVID-19 pandemic affected science centers’ and museums’ digital programming.

RAND - Expanding Afterschool Opportunities: Connecting STEM Afterschool Providers and Schools

This is a mixed methods descriptive survey, which aimed to understand how district and school leaders partner with external organizations to provide STEM afterschool programs.

WNET - Cyberchase’s Impact on Environmental and STEM Learning

This is a pre-post descriptive study constructed to understand potential benefits of Cyberchase on children’s STEM knowledge, attitudes, and behaviors.

Access to Afterschool Programs Remains a Challenge for Many Families

This reports on a nationally-representative survey of 1,489 adults who are the parent or guardian of a school-age child who lives in their household regarding access to and satisfaction with afterschool programs in their community.

Afterschool Rising to the Challenges Brought on by the Pandemic

This reports on an online survey of between 914 and 1,445 afterschool program providers regarding the ways in which the COVID-19 pandemic affected afterschool programming for school-age children.

Learning Heroes' Parents 2022 - Hidden in Plain Sight: A Way Forward for Equity-Centered Family Engagement

This is a national online survey of 1,405 parents, 300 teachers, and 317 principals who work in public elementary, middle, and high schools.

Opportunity Insights - Diversifying Society’s Leaders? The Determinants and Causal Effects of Admission to Highly Selective Private Colleges

This is a QED study that leverages multiple sources of data to understand inequities in admission to highly selective colleges and universities by family income.

Opportunity Insights - Social Capital I: Measurement and Associations with Economic Mobility

This is a correlational study that examines the relations between the degree of interconnectedness of friend groups, measures of civic engagement (e.g., volunteering), and socioeconomic status (SES, as defined by a machine learning algorithm-generated index comprised of, for example, average income in an individual’s neighborhood and level of educational attainment).

Downloadable Resources

• Publisher Background 6-8 Publisher Background 6-8
• Publisher Response 6-8 Publisher Response 6-8
• Technology Information 6-8 Technology Information 6-8

CommonLit 360 6-8

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EdReports reviews determine if a program meets, partially meets, or does not meet expectations for alignment to college and career-ready standards. This rating reflects the overall series average.

Alignment (Gateway 1 & 2)

Materials must meet expectations for standards alignment in order to be reviewed for usability. This rating reflects the overall series average.

Usability (Gateway 3)

Key areas of interest.

This score is the sum of all points available for all foundational skills components across all grades covered in the program.

The maximum available points depends on the review tool used and the number of grades covered.

Learn more about EdReports’ educator-led review process

Additional Publication Details

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• Overview Overview
• 6th Grade 6th Grade
• 7th Grade 7th Grade
• 8th Grade 8th Grade

Report Overview

Summary of alignment & usability: commonlit 360 6-8 | ela, ela 6-8.

The instructional materials for CommonLit 360 6-8 meet the expectations of alignment, building knowledge, and usability.

The materials include anchor texts that are well-crafted, content-rich, and rich in language and academic vocabulary. The tasks, questions, and assignments are connected to the texts students read and require students to collect textual evidence. Units are grouped around topics/themes to grow students’ knowledge over the course of the school year. Throughout the program, there are culminating tasks and research opportunities that require students to expand and show their knowledge and understanding of the topics/themes in each unit. Instructional time is spent on questions, tasks, and assessments that are aligned to grade-level standards, and by the end of the academic year, most standards are addressed. The implementation schedules align with the core learning and can reasonably be completed in the time allotted. 

There is sufficient support provided for teachers to implement the program with fidelity. The materials provide comprehensive teacher guidance and correlation information to the ELA standards. In addition, the materials include explanations of the instructional approaches and include and reference research-based strategies. While the materials include include some strategies, supports, and resources for diverse learners to work with grade-level content, guidance is general and lesson-specific guidance is lacking.

The visual design of the materials supports learning and is easy to navigate, as the student materials mimic the teacher materials.

Text Quality and Complexity

Building Knowledge

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Ongoing Projects

CPRE is the evaluation partner for CommonLit’s Office of Elementary and Secondary Education (EIR) project,  CommonLit 360: Expanding Access to a Content-Rich Digital English Language Arts Program to Accelerate Learning Among Underserved Students . The five-year project, which will run from 2023-2028, will develop, refine, and evaluate CommonLit 360, a promising and scalable program designed to accelerate literacy development among underserved students and build teacher capacity to utilize research-backed routines in English Language Arts instruction for grades 6-10. CommonLit 360 includes: 1) an OER content-rich digital English Language Arts curriculum; 2) embedded digital formative assessments; 3) on-demand teacher professional development; 4) data for schools to drive continuous improvement, and; 5) 24/7 tech support. Through this project, CommonLit aims to further develop the platform technology and refine the program services to support fidelity of implementation. The implementation of CL360 will involve approximately 60,000 students per year and almost 80 schools across four school districts. The combined impact and implementation study will involve two distinct though interrelated research strands. The first strand will entail a cluster randomized controlled trial to estimate the causal impact of CL360 on student literacy development. A second qualitative strand will examine aspects of CL360 and its implementation in these schools, with a particular focus on variability in program efficacy across grades, schools, and districts.

Through its  Accelerating Student Success  (AS) initiative, the Robin Hood Foundation aims to promote learning among 50,000 K-12 students, with priority given to schools in eight high-poverty NYC community school districts during the 2021-22 and 2022-23 school years. It seeks to do so through two high-leverage approaches—High-Quality Instructional Materials (HQIM) and High-Dosage Tutoring (HDT)—implemented across several grade-levels and subject areas. CPRE is evaluating the initiative’s processes and outcomes in partnership with the Center for Public Research and Leadership (CPRL) at the Columbia University Law School. The evaluation entails two distinct though interrelated research strands. The first will employ quasi-experimental quantitative methods to estimate the impact of the interventions on student outcomes, while a second qualitative strand will examine aspects of the interventions and their implementation to unpack and explain the quantitative impact findings. 

Teacher Residency at Teachers College is an 18-month graduate-level teaching residency program that aims to recruit academically talented individuals from diverse backgrounds and prepares them to teach children and youth attending high-needs, urban schools in New York City. CPRE is conducting an independent evaluation of the program to document and evaluate its effects on teacher retention and classroom practice. This work is funded by the U.S. Department of Education.

CommonLit 360 How Cape Fear MS builds confident communicators with CommonLit 360

Taryn Quaytman

One glance into Melissa Merritt’s ELA classroom was all that was needed to recognize something special: Eighth grade students sat clustered at table groups, fervently debating the fine line between art and graffiti.  

Meaningful, student-led discussion is a hallmark of CommonLit 360 , and facilitating this discussion is an art Cape Fear Middle School teachers have mastered.

While discussion is often seen as an add-on to core instruction, eighth grade ELA teacher Jessica Mills views it as an integral part of learning for middle schoolers. “They’re not kids, and they’re not adults yet. Sometimes they get sort of brushed off and people don’t listen to their opinions.” Noting the impact this can have on students’ self-esteem, Mills states, “They have a right to be heard. They have a voice.” 

For Cape Fear Middle School teachers, CommonLit 360 brings students’ voices to life.

Engaging topics that ignite student interest

When the school’s principal, Bobby Simmons, enters a classroom, he conducts calculations. “The first thing I do when I walk into a classroom is look for engagement,” he explains. “So if you have 25 students in a classroom, how many out of 25 are engaged? You can get a quick percentage.”

Since implementing CommonLit 360, Simmons’ calculations have been  simplified. Entering classrooms now, he says, “I’m finding a hundred percent engagement for our kids.”  

Yet when Pender County first adopted CommonLit 360 , it took some time before teachers climbed aboard. “I’ll be frank,” Mills admits. “I was one of the teachers that was like, ‘I hate being told what to do.’” But as teachers watched student engagement peak, they knew something was resonating with their students.

This was evident in Melissa Merritt’s classroom as students immersed themselves in CommonLit 360’s argumentative writing unit: “Graffiti – Art or Crime?” Over the course of the unit, students sought to answer the question, “Is graffiti a work of art or a crime to be punished?” To build background knowledge on graffiti's controversial history, Merritt led students through one of CommonLit 360’s signature lessons, a Related Media Exploration . Students read legislation regarding graffiti, reviewed graphs on the public’s perception of graffiti, and determined whether a series of photographs represented art or vandalism.

“I like how with the Related Media Explorations, you start off with videos and it catches their eye,” Merritt remarks. “I like how it gets them engaged at the beginning, but then you pull in the graphs that they need to analyze. There’s a good balance with videos, graphs, charts, surveys, or analyses.” 

Throughout the unit, students also complete reading and writing lessons, vocabulary activities, and perhaps most noteworthy for middle school students - a debate.

“Middle schoolers love debates because they love to argue, they’re always right, and they’re going to tell you that all the time,” Merritt states with a smile. “I don’t have to worry about student engagement.”

Intentionally-designed units that build students’ confidence

Since adopting CommonLit 360, student engagement isn’t the only area that has shined. At Cape Fear Middle School, students’ confidence has surged.

“When I came in, students lacked confidence in their written expression,” Mills explains. “They also lacked a lot of personal confidence.”  

After implementing CommonLit 360, there has been a noticeable change. “I’ve seen growth in their confidence in their abilities,” seventh grade ELA department chair Dana Elliott notes. “They are more confident in answering questions and risking a mistake. They’re not afraid to share their opinion or answer, even if it’s wrong.”

This increased openness reflects a goal of CommonLit 360’s intentional design. “I like that the units have an encompassing idea,” Elliott states. “I think that helps students a lot with understanding what the lesson is about. They’re able to see how one concept grows through the unit.”

In addition to centering 360 units around engaging central ideas, every lesson builds skills students will need for their final Culminating Task . “At the very beginning of each unit, we tell them what they’re going to be doing at the end,” Merritt explains. “It’s good for them to see that it’s a process. It’s gradual steps.” 

As lessons build on one another, students acquire the knowledge needed to formulate and refine their opinions. This boosts their confidence and sets the stage for compelling classroom discussions, like the one in Merritt’s eighth grade classroom.

Whether students are researching the risks and rewards of social media, debating the ideal school start time, or distinguishing between art and vandalism, one thing remains the same:

Students are discussing topics that matter to them and developing the confidence needed to share their voices with the world.

“If I had to say it in one word,” Mills says, “I would say CommonLit is impactful. My students understand the concepts better. They understand the flow of what Language Arts is, and they understand themselves.”

Interested in bringing CommonLit 360 to your school?

Connect with our team to learn how you can bring CommonLit 360, rated all-green by  EdReports , to your school or district today.

Chat with CommonLit

CommonLit’s team will reach out with more information on our school and district partnerships.