SETDA Revamps Help for States Adopting Digital Curriculum

SETDA has updated its free tool for helping schools implement digital curriculum. The latest updates to the Digital Instructional Materials Acquisition Policies for States (DMAPS) are intended to clarify state policies and practices.

The State Educational Technology Directors Association originally launched DMAPS in 2015 to help educators, policymakers and people in industry understand each state's policies and practices related to instructional materials, as part of helping to promote increased implementation of digital resources. The new edition lets state and district people share their best practices and options "related to adoption and implementation of tools and resources to support learning in the digital age," explained Executive Director Tracy Weeks.

SETDA has updated its free tool for helping schools implement digital curriculum. The latest updates to the Digital Instructional Materials Acquisition Policies for States (DMAPS) are intended to clarify state policies and practices. 

According to the organization, updates include "snapshot" overviews of policies and practices of state procurement, the instructional material review process for each state, accessibility policies, details related to adoption and implementation, coverage of state trends and the ability to compare states. The interactive tool covers every state as well as the District of Columbia and Guam.

One supporter for the site is Utah, where the state has "mandated the review of educational curriculum since 1907, and has recently formed a Digital Teaching and Learning Team to support the integration of technology into our schools," according to Sydnee Dickson, state superintendent of public instruction. "SETDA's DMAPS project has informed our instructional materials review process and has helped Utah incorporate the latest and best materials available for digital learning," she said in a prepared statement.

This work was supported by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.

About the Author

Dian Schaffhauser is a former senior contributing editor for 1105 Media's education publications THE Journal, Campus Technology and Spaces4Learning.

Featured

  • tool icons with variety of business icons

    SETDA Releases Free EdTech Quality Action Toolkit

    The State Educational Technology Directors Association (SETDA) has put together a free K-12 EdTech Quality Action Toolkit that provides a framework for evaluating education technology products as well as guidance on regulatory compliance, templates for communicating with vendors, training resources, and more.

  • woman working with computer laptop with polygonal brain shape of an artificial intelligence and various icons

    13 School and District Teams to Participate in Rural AI Strategy Lab

    K-12 education nonprofit FullScale, in partnership with nonprofit advocacy organization All4Ed, is bringing together 13 school and district teams to collaboratively investigate how AI can thoughtfully be integrated into teaching and learning.

  • children sitting on white chairs, holding up colorful speech bubbles

    Why Title III Is Lacking in Today's Multilingual, Technology-Enhanced Classrooms

    When Congress strengthened Title III in the early 2000s, the focus was helping students acquire English and access academic content. That goal remains important, but the classrooms of 2026 look very different from those of 2001.

  • abstract colored blocks

    OpenAI Letting Go of Sora Short-Form AI Video Platform

    OpenAI is reportedly getting rid of Sora, its generative AI model that creates short video clips from text prompts, images, or existing video inputs. The move upends the company's December partnership with The Walt Disney Company.