So many to choose from! 3 tips for selecting high-quality, supplemental digital resources

It’s a familiar drill for many teachers: you’re prepping your plans for the week, thinking about how to approach your content and digging through all the resources your core program has to offer. Based on recent formative assessments, you know you have a small group of students who will need scaffolding to access the content and a few students who have mastered the basics and are ready to dig in at a deeper level. Your core program lessons are fine, but the suggested support and enrichment activities either aren’t robust enough or don’t focus on what you know your students need. So, it’s off to the internet and down the rabbit hole of supplemental digital resources. Suddenly, an hour has passed (or maybe two, or three) and you are still trying to find that “just right” resource for what your students need.

Been there, done that?

If that sounds familiar, you’re not alone. A 2025 report from RAND found that the majority of teachers “mix and match” materials from a variety of sources, with 97 percent using at least one supplemental product at least once per week. On average, teachers in the study reported regularly using two curriculums and five supplemental resource materials. As the report highlights, “Although this pattern of mixing and matching is not inherently negative for instruction and student learning, it requires teachers to spend more planning time to figure out how to combine materials, and it is more difficult to support through professional learning and other resources that are often curriculum-specific.”

Quantity of supplemental digital resources is not an issue. A 2025 report from the Center for Education Market Dynamics (CEMD) found 350+ supplemental math products in use across 1,700 districts. The quality of what’s out there remains a big question, however. A 2019 study by the Fordham Institute focusing on supplemental materials for high school ELA found that the majority of the materials reviewed were either mediocre or very poor, were not cognitively challenging, had weak standards alignment, and offered little support for teaching diverse learners.

Despite both the increase in usage of supplemental materials and the research about the impact of high-quality curriculum materials, teachers are rarely trained or given support to help them select appropriate high-quality supplemental materials. Additionally, supplemental resources rarely go through the more rigorous selection process that core curriculum undergoes. CEMD notes, “Supplemental materials are often chosen in a more ad hoc manner. Districts may purchase multiple resources to fill gaps, and schools or teachers may adopt additional site-based tools independently. Contracts are often shorter (one-year with renewal options), and many ‘freemium’ products are designed to gain teacher buy-in with basic features, encouraging individual classroom use in hopes of ‘converting’ that use into larger district-wide purchases.”

With the shift to more rigorous college-and-career–ready standards, organizations such as EdReports, Achieve, and state DOEs have either developed rubrics or offer reviews of standards-aligned core curriculums. However, resources for evaluating the quality and alignment of these supplemental digital resources are scarce. We recognize the challenge of identifying quality materials, so we’ve put together some tips to help teachers navigate the wide world of online supplemental content.

Knowing what the goal is

Teachers turn to supplemental resources for a variety of reasons. In 2017, WestEd conducted a series of focus groups to determine, among other things, why teachers use supplemental resources. They cite three main reasons:

1. Lack of engaging materials
2. The need for more differentiation and more personalized learning
3. Perceived gaps in core curriculum relative to standards and assessments

More recent surveys point toward increased supplemental use to support practice and intervention.

All of these uses are valid, and being clear on your purpose for using a supplemental digital resource is critical. Searching for a lesson that explains key concepts in a different modality than your core program is very different from searching for a product that will allow students to explore math in a real-world situation or one that will provide intensive intervention. Each purpose inspires a different set of questions, so let’s examine two of the “whys” in greater depth.

1. Understand what engagement truly looks like

“Engagement” is a term that gets tossed around a lot, but what does it really mean? Author David Sousa defines “student engagement” as “the amount of attention, interest, curiosity, and positive emotional connections that students have when they are learning, whether in the classroom or on their own.”

When looking at supplemental digital resources, it is easy to conflate engagement with gamification. Students may enjoy playing an educational game or app with unique characters, flashy graphics, and other bells and whistles, however, in the article “Putting education in ‘educational’ apps: Lessons from the science of learning,” researchers caution, “Extraneous animations, sound effects, and tangential games might be appealing to a child when activated but not add to the child’s understanding of the primary content because they disrupt the coherence of the learning experience and the child’s engagement.”

When reviewing supplemental digital resources for the goal of increasing student engagement, ask yourself these questions:

• Are students engaged by the content and the learning objectives or just the “bells and whistles” that don’t support that content?
• Does the content meet the needs of the individual student, whether through scaffolding, additional practice, or enrichment, so that they can feel both challenged and successful?
• Does the resource increase engagement by presenting the content in an authentic, novel way that spurs curiosity, or does it simply overlay “fun” elements on top of routine problems?
• Does the resource support active learning in which students can make choices, ask questions, display their knowledge in varied ways, and/or interact meaningfully with others?
• How much time is spent on learning objectives vs. engaging with activities not supportive of the learning objectives?

Exciting game elements that draw students into a task are great as long as they don’t distract from the learning objectives. When your students run eagerly to the computer, check that they are as deeply engaged in the content you want them to learn as they are in getting to the next level to buy a new hat for their avatar. If they are spending more time on the gaming elements than the content, the resource will likely not have as large an impact on learning.

2. Make it personal

Many teachers seek supplemental digital resources because they need options for students in need of either extra support or enrichment. The features that you might look for in supplemental resources will vary depending on the specific reason for differentiating and may vary depending on the subject. For example, when seeking resources for students ready for enrichment, look for resources that go deeper without necessarily moving students off grade.

Although there are cases where students are advanced enough that accelerating them off grade is appropriate, this should not be the default approach and should be done with much thought and planning. Here are some questions to consider when reviewing supplemental resources for students who need support in math and ELA.

Questions to ask when reviewing math resources

Does the resource…

• Appropriately balance conceptual understanding, procedural skill, and application in a way that matches the standards?
• Clearly explain key ideas and concepts, modeling them in multiple ways so students understand the concept being taught, not just the process?
• Provide ample practice with clear, actionable feedback and in-the-moment support?
• Have frequent and cumulative reviews​?

Questions to ask when reviewing ELA resources

Does the resource…

• Appropriately balance fluency, vocabulary, and comprehension in a way that matches the standards?
• Place students primarily in on-grade text and provide scaffolds for accessing this text
• Increase students’ exposure to a variety of on-grade text complexities?
• Increase students’ volume of reading?
• Systemically and explicitly teach phonemic awareness and phonics if targeted toward either K–3 students or students working on foundational skills?

Teachers also differentiate to accommodate students’ interests. When reviewing resources to accommodate students’ interests, you’ll want to ensure the resource allows students to select from a variety of topics or real-world contexts, presents the content in a variety of modalities, and allows students to demonstrate their learning in different ways.

3. Identify gaps

Clearly there is a lot to think about when searching for supplemental digital resources. No matter your exact purpose for using these materials, here are several questions that will help you determine overall quality:

• Do the activities and resources truly align to the intent of the standards? For example, a resource that consists primarily of rote skill drills does not align to standards focused on conceptual understanding. This is critical and should be the first question when evaluating any resource.
• Does direct instruction use a variety of examples and models, and do the practice components include unique, interesting, authentic, and diverse real-world contexts?
• Does the content support higher-level thinking and connected learning? Although there are some cases where rote skills practice is appropriate, a lot of student-driven online programs get stuck in that space, with students jumping from skill to skill without understanding how they all connect. Ideally, apps and programs adapt to increase in difficulty and complexity within a skill or concept as students demonstrate understanding.
• Does the approach to learning and mode of interaction with the student empower the student by challenging them while giving them the support needed to be successful?

Need more help?

Finding high-quality digital resources to meet a variety of supplemental needs can be difficult and time consuming. Here are some resources that can help you evaluate potential supplemental digital resources.

• Triple E Framework Liz Kolb of the University of Michigan School of Education created a framework for evaluating technology tools and resources based on how they impact student engagement, enhance learning goals, and extend learning into the real world. This site includes rubrics, case studies, and instructional strategies for maximizing use of digital tools and resources. The site is based on her Learning First, Technology Second books.
• ISTE The International Society for Technology in Education has multiple resources for selecting high-quality digital content. The Teacher Ready Evaluation Tool and Teacher Ready Edtech Product Evaluation Guide help educators evaluate edtech products against key “look-fors.” The ISTE Seal is granted to products aligned with ISTE standards. Finally, their EdTech Index is a searchable repository of information about digital educational products. Filters allow educators to find potential products for their specific student and district needs.
• Digital Promise Certification Digital Promise uses a research-based framework to certify digital resources. Resources must submit evidence to earn various types of certifications, including Research-Based Design or a Learner Variability.
• North Carolina’s Quality Review Rubric This resource was published to support North Carolina’s Digital Learning Initiative. It provides a rubric for evaluating the quality, content, and design of digital educational resources.