This mixed-methods dissertation study analyzed curriculum and teachers’ enacted instruction to determine if there was overlap between the evidence-based practices in teachers’ enacted practice and those that were also contained in the curricular materials. Participants in this study were kindergarten through third-grade teachers (n=25) from different school districts in Michigan (n=4), who participated in a larger study on literacy coaching. Data included video of teachers’ enacted instruction, collected twice during the 2020-2021 school year, and teacher’s manuals from the curriculum used in all four districts. A content analysis was conducted on units of writing curricula (n=18) from the four participating districts as well as 2300 minutes of teachers’ enacted instruction. Using descriptive statistics and qualitative methods for comparison, results from these analyses included that teacher practice varied within districts and across districts. Most curricula included presence for most of the evidence-based instructional practices, while two of the four curricula had higher quality markers consistently than the other two curricula. Additional analysis found there was not a clear correlation between the presence and quality of the curriculum and teachers’ enacted practice in most cases. The district that had the most alignment between curriculum presence and quality scores and teachers’ enacted instruction had some unique circumstances that suggest further research is warranted to determine why teachers’ take up, adapt, or drop instructional practices from their curriculum resources when teaching writing.
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