CommonLit 360 Building Consensus Around Your Next ELA Curriculum Through a CommonLit Pilot

Making a confident curriculum decision is a major investment. Once you begin the adoption process, it requires time to review your options, determine what will work best for your school, and build buy-in across teachers, coaches, and students. From there, implementation brings its own demands, including ensuring fidelity, reflecting on effectiveness, and making adjustments based on what’s working. It's a significant commitment on top of an already full workload.

One of the most common challenges we hear is that adoption processes can feel fragmented. It can be difficult to get everyone aligned around a shared vision. A CommonLit pilot is designed with consensus building in mind. By providing a clear, supported process for evaluating a Tier 1 curriculum in real classrooms, a pilot helps teams build shared understanding, confidence in their decision, and meaningful buy-in from educators. It not only supports you in determining whether CommonLit is the right fit, but also helps lay the groundwork for a successful implementation.

What Is a CommonLit 360 Pilot?

When your school pilots CommonLit’s full program, they participate in a structured and supported process where evaluation is grounded in real classroom practice. 

Administrators partner with a CommonLit expert to guide the pilot from start to finish. This ensures that both leaders and teachers have the support they need to fully experience the curriculum and evaluate its impact.

During the pilot, your teachers will:

• Teach a full CommonLit 360 unit in their classrooms
• Participate in professional learning that’s actually connected to daily instruction
• Receive guidance from a CommonLit implementation expert
• Reflect on progress by engaging in mid-pilot and final check-ins
• Complete feedback surveys to capture teacher experience and sentiment

Building Consensus Across Your Team

One of the most valuable outcomes of a pilot is the way it brings everyone together around a shared instructional experience. When this is done effectively, schools will unlock:

• A shift in how a curriculum is viewed: Conversations move from “Do I like this?” to “How does this support our students and school-wide goals?”
• Stronger teacher buy-in: When teachers feel heard and prepared, they are more likely to invest in the curriculum long term.
• A shared experience for all stakeholders: Teachers implement the same units and practices, allowing for collaboration and an equitable experience for kids
• Proactive leadership planning: Administrators and coaches can identify needs early and begin planning for implementation before adoption.

Pilots also create space for professional growth. Teachers can focus on their instructional practices more effectively because they are working from a common set of materials. Leaders gain insight into what implementation will require, which helps them set a clearer vision for year one.

What This Looks Like in Practice

In Alpine School District in Utah, leaders piloted CommonLit 360 in a small group of schools before making the decision to move to a district-wide adoption. They were looking to see clear student gains, improved instruction and less planning burden on teachers, and strong support and professional development.

The results were clear:

• Student growth improved: Pilot schools saw measurable gains in reading performance, with two piloting junior highs having the top growth in the district. The third, a Title I school with ELL students, went from dead last in the district to 9th place.
• Teacher morale increased: Classrooms became more engaging for students. With the new materials, teachers in pilot schools were spending significantly less time searching for stories and creating lesson plans. Teachers were able to shift their planning mindset from what am I teaching tomorrow to how am I teaching it.
• Collaboration strengthened: Teams were able to plan and reflect together more effectively. With a clear scope and sequence and each other as resources, they could focus on instructional strategies and student needs.

As Daniel Potter, Content Specialist in ELA for the district, put it:

“I can say within a year and a half that we've seen a huge shift that we never thought possible with ELA being able to collaborate on similar content and to be able to see the collective efficacy skyrocket because of it.”

Why Pilots Lead to Stronger Adoptions

A well-designed pilot does more than evaluate a curriculum. It builds the conditions for successful implementation.

Through a CommonLit 360 pilot, schools can:

• Develop a shared understanding of high-quality Tier 1 instruction
• Build confidence through real classroom results
• Foster early teacher buy-in by centering teacher voice
• Align stakeholders around a common instructional vision

When consensus is built early, implementation becomes more effective and sustainable. Schools begin year one with clarity, alignment, and momentum.

Take the First Step

If you are considering a new ELA curriculum, the CommonLit team is ready and excited to work closely with your school to plan and support a pilot.

To learn more about how a pilot works, visit the CommonLit 360 pilot page. When you’re ready, you can connect directly with our team to talk through what a pilot could look like for your school.