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Address Learning Loss: Formative Assessment Tools Aid in Remote Learning

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Address Learning Loss: Formative Assessment Tools Aid in Remote Learning

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This resource builds on the five formative strategies for classroom assessment and includes tools for each of the strategies. It also includes a Student Evidence Tracker, especially useful for remote learning.

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Address Learning Loss: Formative Assessment Tools Aid in Remote Learning | Learning Sciences International

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We provide an evidence-based approach that generates proven results based on surveying more than 30,000 administrators, teachers, and students nationwide. LSI has visited thousands of classrooms and compiled more than 32 million data points of educator practice to help increase the joy of teaching and learning.

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Suggested for ELA Grades K-5
This resource provides daily phonemic awareness lessons that will support foundational skills in ELA. The lessons are adaptable for Tiers 1-3. Use these lessons to address unfinished learning in older students. This is a free and open source collection of resources.

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These grade-specific, daily phonemic awareness lessons are designed to supplement existing foundational skills instruction, providing engaging, multi-sensory experiences for K-2 students. For use with both whole-class instruction or small groups, these 15-minute lessons can also be adapted to address unfinished learning for older students.
Permission and Acknowledgements: Send Feedback Best for All: Sounds First Activities for Phonemic Awareness PreK through 2nd Grade was created under the . It was developed for the Tennessee Department of Education Foundational Skills Curriculum Supplement. This Supplement is a free, open-source resource developed for teachers, parents, higher-education agencies, and others to help support students' foundational literacy skills acquisition. You are welcome to use these materials for personal and professional use, however the materials may not be sold for profit. If materials are used in professional development, we ask that you give the Tennessee Department of Education credit.

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Achievethecore.org :: Best for All: Sounds First Phonemic Awareness Program

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These grade-specific, daily phonemic awareness lessons are designed to supplement existing foundational skills instruction, providing engaging, multi-sensory experiences for K-2 students. For use with both whole-class instruction or small groups, these 15-minute lessons can also be adapted to addres…

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Suggested for ELA K-12, 12 minute listen
The ED Covid-19 Handbook published by the United States Department of Education suggested that accelerated learning be addressed through tutoring. This episode of Harvard EdCast discusses the impact of one-on-one tutoring with high school students reading achievement.

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Listen to this episode from The Harvard EdCast on Spotify. Michael Lombardo, CEO of Reading Partners, shares his organization's 'secret sauce' for closing the reading achievement gap.

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Suggested for Math Grades 1-8
This tool helps math teachers identify load-bearing prerequisite standards to support just in time instruction

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White: Anchor Post or General Information for Network, District and School

Blue: Math Resources

Orange: ELA Resources

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Evidence from TNTP/Zearn that learning acceleration works, and that it could be key to unwinding generations-old academic inequities the COVID-19 pandemic has only exacerbated.

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New Evidence from Elementary Math Classrooms

school systems Must decide how to help students catch up from covid-19. New evidence suggests learning acceleration is the right approach.

Research suggests more students have experienced more unfinished learning over the last year than ever before. With the COVID-19 pandemic waning, school systems are facing a critical choice about how to respond. Should they use the traditional approach of reviewing all the content students missed, known as remediation? Or should they start with the current grade's content and provide "just-in-time" supports when necessary, known as learning acceleration?

New data from Zearn, a nonprofit organization whose online math platform is used by one in four elementary students nationwide, provides one of the first direct comparisons of these two approaches-and compelling new evidence that school systems should make learning acceleration the foundation of their academic strategies next year and beyond.

Findings include:

Students who experienced learning acceleration struggled less and learned more than students who started at the same level but experienced remediation instead.

Students of color and those from low-income backgrounds were more likely than their white, wealthier peers to experience remediation-even when they had already demonstrated success on grade-level content.

Learning acceleration was particularly effective for students of color and those from low-income families.

This is strong evidence that learning acceleration works, and that it could be key to unwinding generations-old academic inequities the COVID-19 pandemic has only exacerbated. System leaders have an important opportunity in the months ahead to start providing teachers with the resources and support they need-and to start building the skill and belief that's necessary-to help every student engage in grade-level work right away.

To learn more about how to accelerate learning in your school system, download our Learning Acceleration Guide.

Top
Bring TNTP to your school system

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New Evidence from Elementary Math Classrooms Research suggests more students have experienced more unfinished learning over the last year than ever before. With the COVID-19 pandemic waning, school systems are facing a critical choice about how to respond. Should they use the traditional approach of reviewing all the content students missed, known as remediation?

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The Unpublic Podcast with Chris Stewart ft. Dan Weisberg

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The Unpublic Podcast with Chris Stewart ft. Dan Weisberg

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Accelerate, Don’t Remediate Math Article

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Accelerate, Don’t Remediate Math Article

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Suggested for Math K-5
This article explains new evidence regarding the power behind accelerating math instruction in elementary classrooms vs. remediating; they highlight key features of Zearn’s Math online program.

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TNTP Accelerate Don't Remediate Math Article.pdf

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Three Actions That Will Accelerate Learning in 2021 

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Three Actions That Will Accelerate Learning in 2021 

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Follow the tabs on this page to find resources for instruction, assessment, research, services and support to help you accelerate learning

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Find out how we're making classrooms better places for students and teachers through our world-class products and customer-acclaimed service.

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This article published by ASCD offers four recommendations regarding best practices around standards-based grading and reporting systems.

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Standards-based grading and reporting have been topics of discussion for years, primarily because of the current system's shortcomings (Brookhart & Nitko, 2008; Guskey & Bailey, 2001; Reeves, 2011). In the traditional system, students acquire points for various activities, assignments, and behaviors, which accrue throughout a grading period. The teacher adds up the points and assigns a letter grade.

A variation on this theme is to keep track of percentage scores across various categories of performance and behavior and then translate the average percentage score into a letter grade or simply report the average percentage score (for example, 62.9 percent).

These practices provide little useful information about a specific student. A student might have received an overall or "omnibus" letter grade of B, not because he had a solid grasp of the target content, but because he was exceptionally well behaved in class, participated in all discussions, and turned in all assignments on time. Likewise, a student may have received a percentage score of 62.9, not because she displayed significant gaps in understanding regarding the target content, but because she received a zero for tardiness on assignments or for disruptive behavior. In addition to this lack of specificity, one teacher's criteria for assigning a letter grade of A, for example, might be equivalent to another teacher's criteria for assigning a letter grade of B, or even lower.

In an effort to cure the ills of current grading and reporting systems, many schools and districts across the United States have attempted to implement a standards-based system. We have four recommendations regarding best practices in this area (Marzano, 2000, 2006, 2010).

Recommendation 1: Get rid of the omnibus grade.

An effective standards-based grading and reporting system should eliminate the overall or "omnibus" grade. In its place, teachers should score specific measurement topics. Figure 1 (p. 36) depicts how this might look in mathematics for one middle school student for the first-quarter grading period.

Notice that this graph has six bars, each of which depicts the student's summative score at the end of the grading period. The dark section of each bar represents the student's status at the beginning of the grading period. In the measurement topic "number systems," for example, the student started with a score of 1.0. The lighter section of the bar represents the student's knowledge gain at the end of the grading period. That same student ended the grading period with a score of 2.5-a gain of 1.5 points. Covington (1992) has proposed that demonstrating knowledge gain can be intrinsically motivating to students because people typically are encouraged when they see they have increased their understanding and skill.

The scale used in Figure 1 is a 0 through 4.0 metric. This is preferable to the 100-point scale because the latter, used in isolation, is not very amenable to tracking student progress. It tells teachers little about the content measured or the difficulty level of that content.

But Who Knows What?

To illustrate one drawback of the 100-point system, assume that a teacher designs a test worth 100 points that covers two of the topics reported in Figure 1-patterns and data analysis. Let's assume that 35 of the 100 points deal with patterns and 65 of the 100 points address data analysis.

Now consider two students, both of whom have attained a score of 70. The first student might have acquired all 35 of the 35 points on patterns but only 35 of the 65 points on data analysis. The student has demonstrated a robust understanding of patterns but only a partial understanding of data analysis. The second student might have received only 5 of the 35 points on patterns but all 65 points on data analysis. This student has demonstrated an opposite pattern. The convention of designing tests that involve more than one topic and then scoring these tests using the 100-point (or percentage) scale makes it impossible to gauge individual students' knowledge.

How Complex Is the Content?

Even if a teacher were vigilant enough to design tests that addressed a single topic, the tests still might not be useful in tracking student progress. If the first test addressed simpler content relative to a topic, students would generally receive high scores. However, if the second test addressed more complex content, students might receive lower scores even though they had learned quite a bit about the topic. What we need is a device to determine the level of a test's complexity. Once we do this, we can use the 100-point scale with some integrity in terms of tracking students' progress.

To make classroom assessments more comparable, we can use proficiency scales that delineate both the topic and the level of complexity being measured. Consider the left-hand side of Figure 2 (p. 38), which contains a generic form of the scale; this quantifies student understanding along a continuum that goes from lack of understanding of even the most basic concepts to understanding complex content. The score of 3.0 contains the target instructional goal for a topic and is the fulcrum of the scale.
Figure 2. Generic and Specific Examples of a Proficiency Scale

Generic Form of Proficiency Scales

Specific Example for Topic of Animal and Plant Survival

From Designing and Teaching Learning Goals and Objectives (pp. 68-69), by R. J. Marzano, 2009, Bloomington, Indiana: Marzano Research Laboratory. Copyright 2009 by Marzano Research Laboratory. Adapted with permission.

Figure 2 shows that the instructional goal is for students to be able to describe and exemplify what different plants and animals need to survive. Score 2.0 involves simpler content: in this case, recalling specific terminology and factual information about plants and animals. Score 4.0 contains more complex content relative to the topic: in this case, comparing and contrasting animals and plants. The remaining scores in the scale all reference these three levels of content. That is, none of the other levels contains new content. A score of 3.5 indicates competence on score 2.0 and 3.0 content and partial success on score 4.0 content. A score of 2.5 indicates success on score 2.0 content and partial success on score 3.0 content, and so on.

In working with schools and districts, we've found that three levels of content make it easy for teachers to design assessments without sacrificing precision of measurement. More specifically, teachers can design assessments that address one level of proficiency only-for example, a test that covers only score 2.0 content-or they can design tests that cover all three levels of content. When a test addresses only one level of content, the 100-point scale makes some sense. If students demonstrate mastery on a test of 2.0 content, they have reached score 2.0 status on the proficiency scale. If a test addresses all levels of proficiency (that is, items involve 2.0 content, 3.0 content, and 4.0 content), then the teacher scores each of these three sections with an eye toward students' competency at that particular level of item difficulty. (For a more detailed discussion of scoring tests using proficiency scales, see Marzano, 2010.)

Recommendation 2: If you can't get rid of the omnibus grade, provide scores on measurement topics in addition to the grade.

If public pressure demands that students receive an overall grade or percentage score, a school or district can still employ the benefits of the approach shown in Figure 1 by including the bar graphs on a report card, along with traditional omnibus grades. The top part of the report card might display traditional grades and the bottom part, the bar graphs. Of course, if the 0-4.0 scale is used, it must be translated into traditional letter grades. Here's what this might look like:3.51 to 4.00 = A3.00 to 3.50 = A-2.84 to 2.99 = B+2.67 to 2.83 = B2.50 to 2.66 = B-2.34 to 2.49 = C+2.17 to 2.33 = C2.00 to 2.16 = C-1.84 to 1.99 = D+1.67 to 1.83 = D1.50 to 1.66 = D-0.00 to 1.49 = F

For example, the student whose bar graphs in mathematics are depicted in Figure 1 has an average score of 2.17, which translates to a letter grade of C. In addition to just noting this overall grade, teachers can include the bar graphs. That way, parents and students can see how much the student has learned about each measurement topic and ascertain the student's strengths and most pressing needs. Teachers can also apply proficiency scales to such areas as homework, cooperation, and personal responsibility (Marzano, 2010).

Recommendation 3: Expand the assessment options available to students.

Proficiency scales allow for three powerful classroom assessments that won't work if the teacher uses the 100-point scale in isolation.

Probing Discussions

When using a probing discussion, a teacher meets with a student and questions him or her about the measurement topic, making sure to ask questions that involve 2.0 content, 3.0 content, and 4.0 content. The teacher has the flexibility to continue asking questions until he or she is confident about a student's level of proficiency. At the end of the discussion, using the proficiency scale, the teacher determines the student's level of performance.

For example, if the teacher determines that the student has demonstrated adequate understanding of the simpler content (that is, 2.0 content) and partial understanding of 3.0 content, the student receives a score of 2.5. If the teacher determines that the student responds accurately to little 2.0 and 3.0 content independently but demonstrates partial understanding of this information with some cueing and prompting, the student receives a score of 1.0, and so on.

Unobtrusive Assessments

When a teacher uses an unobtrusive assessment, the observed student might not even be aware that he or she has been assessed. For example, assume that a physical education teacher has developed a proficiency scale for the overhand throw. Score 2.0 content might involve some of the simpler aspects of this skill, such as proper stance and arm position. Score 3.0 content-the target level of performance-might involve the coordinated timing of hip rotation and forward arm movement. Score 4.0 content would indicate an advanced level of performance, which might involve adapting the procedure to account for varying desired throwing distances.

Armed with this proficiency scale, the teacher walks onto the playground during lunch and observes a student executing the overhand throw, meeting the target level of performance just as it was taught. The teacher could record this score of 3.0 as an unobtrusive assessment.

Student-Generated Assessments

Student-generated assessments are perhaps the most powerful form of assessment that a teacher can make available to students. In such a situation, the student approaches the teacher and proposes what he or she will do to exhibit a specific level of performance on the proficiency scale.

For example, a student who is currently at a score 3.0 content level-following our example in Figure 2, the student is able to describe and exemplify what different plants and animals need to survive-might propose that she create a graphic organizer comparing plants and animals on specific traits and explain the graphic organizer to the class.

Our fourth recommendation is probably the most transformational in its implications. As the school year progresses, teachers should allow students to upgrade their scores from previous grading periods. To illustrate, assume that the teacher addresses six topics during the first quarter. At the end of the grading period, he or she translates these into an overall grade. Now assume that he or she addresses six more topics in the second quarter. At the end of this grading period, the teacher once again translates these scores into an overall grade.

But what if during the second quarter, students work on content to raise their scores on the six topics from the first quarter? Of course, this means that the second quarter's overall grade would be based on the six topics addressed during the second quarter as well as on the six topics originally introduced during the first quarter. The third quarter grade would be based on the new topics addressed during the third quarter as well as on topics addressed during the previous two quarters, and so on.

This approach begs for a different kind of classroom. Some days, the teacher would address new content targeted for that quarter. Other days, students would work in formal or informal groups either on new content or on content addressed in previous quarters. One interesting option some schools have reported is to allow students to earn a score of 4.0 if they can tutor another student to score 3.0 status.

A Better Approach

Although there's no single best way to design standards-based grading and reporting systems, we have found that these four recommendations form the foundation for a system that's more accurate and informative than the current system and that stimulates new ways of thinking about assessment and instruction.

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Grades That Show What Students Know - ASCD

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Standards-based grading and reporting have been topics of discussion for years, primarily because of the current system's shortcomings (Brookhart & Nitko, 2008; Guskey & Bailey, 2001; Reeves, 2011). In the traditional system, students acquire points for various activities, assignments, and behaviors

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Guidance for Accelerating Student Learning

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Guidance for Accelerating Student Learning

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Guidance for Accelerating Student Learning

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This resource provides guidance for what to do and what not to do when planning to address unfinished learning from the previous school year. We want to ensure that when planning for accelerating student learning we are not overly remediating and unnecessarily holding students back from accessing grade-level content. This guidance is specifically focused on Tier I instruction, and it does not provide guidance for Tier II or Tier III remediation and intervention.

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How to Implement Accelerated Learning Successfully - Carnegie

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How to Implement Accelerated Learning Successfully - Carnegie

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Insight from 7 corporations on successful implementation

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Faced with the pervasive amount of unfinished learning caused by the pandemic, we have been hearing a lot about the benefits of accelerated learning. But what is it? And how can schools and systems do it successfully? To find out, we consulted seven Carnegie Corporation of New York grantees who work year round alongside educators to support the adoption and implementation of high-quality instructional materials: EL Education, Instruction Partners, Learning Forward, OpenSciEd, Rivet Education, Student Achievement Partners, and Teaching Lab. "Acceleration does not mean assigning some students to remediation while others are allowed to fly," says Ron Berger, senior advisor of teaching and learning at EL Education. "Accelerating learning means moving students into exciting new academic challenges with a growth mindset for their potential." Below are some additional insights and resources from our grantees.

What Is Accelerated Learning?

Accelerated learning is:

deeper learning through complex and meaningful problems and projects

moving forward into grade-level content, with support

prioritizing high-level skills and content and creating teaching and learning pathways

determining the most efficient and effective way to help students experience grade-level learning based on where they are today

access to grade-level content despite the absence of some knowledge and skills from previous grades

identifying the most crucial knowledge and skills that students need and integrating those into lessons

a long-range plan, building on a foundation of assets, not deficiencies

assuming all students can learn literally anything with the right instruction and support

scaffolding up, not down

Accelerated learning is not:

speeding up (teachers should spend more time on priority units, not less)

cramming two years of instruction into one

a one-size-fits-all approach with identical schedules

information regurgitation or vocabulary memorization

spending time remediating large chunks of content from prior grades

a "drill and kill" approach to developing skills

labeling students into fixed groups based on "catching up" gaps

holding low expectations for students

reducing the rigor of grade-level content

How to Implement Accelerated Learning Successfully

Five Takeaways from Corporation Grantees

1. Adopt an acceleration strategy. Convene representatives of all key stakeholder groups to build, execute, and communicate the system or school acceleration plan. Review available data to identify greatest needs and goals. Establish priority standards and content for each course and grade level. Implement a continuous monitoring and improvement cycle to inform next actions.

2. Invest in essential resources for effective acceleration. Allocate federal and state-level recovery funding toward the acceleration strategy. Ensure that high-quality instructional materials, embedded assessments, and prerequisite skill guidance are available for all grade levels and courses. Develop flexible schedules that give grade-level and subject-matter teams substantive time each week to study the curriculum, practice selected lessons, plan for their students, and reflect on their progress. Deploy coaches and facilitators to support implementation of the acceleration strategy. Partner with organizations with demonstrated expertise with your curricula and acceleration.

3. Focus on the whole child. Effective acceleration is a student-centered strategy. Relationships and trust are central. Leverage the guidance within high-quality instructional materials to increase relevancy and meaning for students. Adapt lessons to students' culture and communities. A commitment to equity means attending to the social-emotional as well as the academic needs of students.

4. Support educators as they implement acceleration. Review essential elements of curriculum-based professional learning and align professional learning plans to them. Use high-quality instructional materials to focus planning and prioritize learning. Give teachers opportunities to experience, observe, and practice those skills deemed most essential to acceleration.

5. Engage families and other stakeholders in the acceleration process. Recent studies affirm the critical role families play in students' instructional progress. Engage families and other community stakeholders in the acceleration strategy. Leverage guidance available through high-quality instructional materials to identify meaningful tasks for parents and caregivers. Learn ways to increase cultural relevance and meaning for students from their families and community.

Grantee Insights

Ron Berger, Senior Advisor, Teaching and Learning

We need to support teachers to empower students to own their learning. This requires strong relationships, assessments that are low-stakes and formative, and ongoing opportunities for students to share strengths, challenges, growth, and goals. We need to communicate that we are invested in the physical, social, and emotional health and growth of all staff and students.

Effective professional learning for teachers to support accelerated learning requires three things: a learning environment that brings out the best in teachers; clarity on the "how" (what strategies are most effective); and clarity on the "what" (curricular content that can push students with high-level texts and tasks and also provide support for unfinished learning).

Malika Anderson, Chief Program Officer | Emily Freitag, Chief Executive Officer | Jilian Lubow, Managing Director of Marketing & Communications | Elizabeth Ramsey, Senior Managing Director of Program Services

Teachers need guidance from their school and district leaders on where and how to allocate their time among the broad array of challenges they will face in their classrooms, how to prioritize strategies that will lead to the greatest impact, and how to translate those strategies to everyday practice. Acceleration cannot happen independent of meaningful relationships with students. Relationships and learning are inseparable. In order to learn, students need to be seen, known, and valued. Relationships are particularly crucial in stressful times.

Tracy Crow, Chief Strategy Officer | Melinda George, Chief Policy Officer

Leaders share progress openly, celebrate successes, and continually refine processes to advance closer to ambitious goals. School and system leaders create schedules and sustain support to ensure that grade-level and subject-area team collaboration happens regularly, often with their participation as leaders.

Matt Krehbiel, Outreach Director | Kate McNeill, Professor of Science, Boston College

Professional learning that supports accelerated learning provides a model for the type of learning that teachers are expected to facilitate with their students. This includes providing opportunities to experience new ways of learning by having teachers put on a "student hat" to internalize what it's like to be a student in the classroom.

Build and reinforce relationships with the community. Schools that know and value the members of their communities are better positioned to support student learning. This leads to less absenteeism, fewer behavior problems, and more time spent learning in class. Celebrate what really matters. Decide as a community what really matters beyond just test scores and build in structures to celebrate success.

Alicja Witkowski, Cofounder and Principal Consultant

Build teachers' understanding of the differences between remediation and acceleration and share the cognitive research and data to support the approach. The strategies associated with accelerating learning may feel counterintuitive or overwhelming to some teachers or contradictory to how they were taught to teach. Helping them understand the rationale and science of learning behind acceleration may help build buy-in and confidence.

Leaders should focus on the actions that are most likely to ensure students have consistent access to grade-appropriate work, teachers have the support they need to deliver lessons well, and caregivers are empowered and equipped to support students at home.

Sandra Alberti, Designer | Amy Briggs, President

Educators and students would be well served by a clear determination and articulation of a few student-centered priorities and then a strong commitment to not only focus, but also to eliminate distractions. We don't often spend enough time talking about what we are going to stop doing.

To support implementation of accelerated learning, the content of professional learning must be anchored in standards-aligned curriculum for students and include a strong component for teachers in formative assessment practices that guide effective Tier 1 instruction.

One of the many lessons we have learned over the last year and a half is the importance of authentically and effectively engaging with our families as we set our priorities and as we determine student needs. This must be more than just a compliance checklist. It is an opportunity for true partnership.

Sarah Johnson, Chief Executive Officer

Adopt an evidence-based and culturally responsive curriculum and technology platforms that allow for more student practice aligned with that curriculum - and then partner with a curriculum-based professional learning provider. Attend to student trauma. Ensure that every child has an individualized school reentry plan that accounts for counseling and other basic needs. Attending to student emotional health is essential if we care about their academic progress. Choosing between one or the other is inequitable.

The most relevant professional learning occurs when it is connected to what students are being asked to do every day. What students are being asked to do lives in the curriculum. This is why curriculum-based professional learning is hyper-relevant for educators.

Resources for Implementing Accelerated Learning

"Accelerating Learning in Math: A Guide to Accelerating Learning and Planning Just-in-Time Supports," Teaching Lab, 2021

Addressing Unfinished Learning Toolkit, Instruction Partners, 2021

"Assess and Address Gaps in Student Learning," The Learning Professional, Learning Forward, August 2020

The Elements: Transforming Teaching through Curriculum-Based Professional Learning, Jim Short and Stephanie Hirsh, Carnegie Corporation of New York, November 19, 2020

Family Guides to Support Learning, Seek Common Ground and Student Achievement Partners, 2021

Fundamental 4: Pandemic Learning Reveals the Value of High-Quality Instructional Materials to Educator-Family-Student Partnerships, Elizabeth Chu, Andrea Clay, Grace McCarty, Columbia Law School Center for Public Research and Leadership, July 2021

"How We Can Equitably Reopen Schools," Teaching Lab, 2021

"Our Kids Are Not Broken," Ron Berger, The Atlantic, March 20, 2021

Professional Learning Partner Guide, Rivet Education, 2021

Jim Short is a program director within Carnegie Corporation of New York's Education program, where he manages the Leadership and Teaching to Advance Learning portfolio. Stephanie Hirsh, former executive director of Learning Forward, is an author and consultant specializing in professional learning, leadership, and systems change.

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How to Implement Accelerated Learning Successfully | Professional Learning for Educators | Carnegie Corporation of New York

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Faced with the pervasive amount of unfinished learning caused by the pandemic, we have been hearing a lot about the benefits of accelerated learning. But what is it? And how can schools and systems do it successfully?

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Moving forward into new content with support will advance learning more than going back

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Moving forward into new content with support will advance learning more than going back

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This is from Instruction Partners’ Rethinking Intervention Series. They have 6 big takeaways for what will accelerate student learning. This specific video is for Takeaway 4.

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Takeaway 4: Moving forward into new content with support will advance learning more than going back

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Federal Policy Recommendations and Actions

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Federal Policy Recommendations and Actions

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This paper from the National Center for Learning Disabilities (NCLD) addresses several policy actions and guardrails that Congress and ED can take to increase the effectiveness of accelerated learning. It might be instructive for charter school leaders to help determine actions for their own schools and networks.

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Federal actions and guardrails to increase the effectiveness of accelerated learning are critical. Accelerated instruction requires a new approach to instruction as well as dedicated resources. In addition, accelerated instructional models can push the bounds of existing accountability systems. Congress and ED can help ensure that there are important, relevant guardrails. Specifically, the federal government can:

Increase resources to implement accelerated learning approaches with fidelity.

Invest in research to better understand the effectiveness of accelerated learning approaches.

Maintain guardrails to ensure that all students are held to and perform at high levels.

Download Report

To access the full report, please provide your information

Tell Congress: Pass the RISE Act

We need your help! Ask your member of Congress to support students with learning and attention issues.

Support NCLD

Thanks to support from generous partners like you, we are able to create programs and resources to support the 1 in 5 individuals with learning and attention issues nationwide.

$20$50$100$250$500 Other amount

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Part 4: Federal-Level Policy Recommendations and Actions - NCLD

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Federal actions and guardrails to increase the effectiveness of accelerated learning are critical. Accelerated instruction requires a new approach to instruction as well as dedicated resources. In addition, accelerated instructional models can push the bounds of existing accountability systems. Congress and ED can help ensure that there are important, relevant guardrails.

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Using SEL To Help Students Build Skills and Fill Gaps 

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Using SEL To Help Students Build Skills and Fill Gaps 

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Suggested for Secondary ELA
These small groups build a family mindset through extensive sharing and reading together, grounded in the idea that a atmosphere of safety will increase all students’ willingness to participate actively in all of their classes.

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Daily Advisory: Building Social, Emotional & Academic Skills

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Cognitively Guided Instruction Math Problems

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Cognitively Guided Instruction Math Problems

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Suggested for K-4 math
Weekly problems to use in K-4, includes daily problems, challenge problems, math puzzles, and other resources.

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Suggested for ELA Grades 5-8
Tips for goal setting and giving feedback

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The Success Academy Education Institute is a robust online resource for K-12 instructional content and professional development for educators. Success Academy's transformative school design, methodology, and training are accessible to educators nationwide through a repository of content and video libraries, student curricula, and instructional materials and resources.

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Suggested for K-8 ELA
This resource provides support for initiating modified guided reading practices

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The main point of "guided reading" is to make sure kids are being taught from books that are not too far beyond their skills. If a book seems like hieroglyphics to a kid, then not much learning could be expected. (Likewise, books can be too easy... presenting neither challenge nor much to learn). Trying to get kids into the "just right" reading level has been an issue of long interest in the field of reading.

The independent/instructional/frustration level scheme has now been around for about 60 years (since Emmett Betts described these levels in his landmark textbook). Frustration level is the point at which books are too hard to learn from, the independent level is the level when books are too easy to be used as instructional texts, and the instructional level is in the space in between.

So, in guided reading, teachers place children into books that are arrayed across difficulty levels. This is a really terrific plan when kids start out because beginning readers are a bit fragile (they get overwhelmed by too much new stuff). It is also a reasonable idea overall, even with much older readers-as no matter how well you read, it would be possible to come up with a text that would simply be too darn hard.

The theory may be good, but it's execution in guided reading leaves much to be desired. First, the book leveling schemes that are being used are pretty dubious. I'm not talking about Lexiles or other well-validated readability schemes, but the book leveling schemes for guided reading are pretty shaky.

However, that isn't really the big problem... the real problem is the theory itself since the notion that kids have to be matched to the right book for them to learn is not consistent with actual data (at least once you get beyond the very early levels of reading achievement). The basic problem is that there are too many levels and that there is apparently too much overlap in the levels. Teachers sacrifice way too much instructional time trying to provide kids teaching at their exact level. So, you'll see teachers spending 15-20 minutes each with groups at level "L" and "M" that frankly aren't different. In such cases, the teacher would be better off spending 30-40 minutes with the two combined groups.

Research shows that matching kids to books does not guarantee big learning gains. In fact, in the two best and most recent studies on the topic, one study found minor benefits of a good book match on one measure only, and the other study actually found that kids made better progress in the frustration level books! My point isn't that we shouldn't group kids by book levels; but that when we do this there is a tendency to overdo it (to make these levels a kind of fetish). I certainly don't want to see a fifth-grader who reads at a second-grade level trying to negotiate the fifth-grade reading textbook on his own, but I likewise don't like seeing children getting much less interaction time with a teacher simply because they know a few more or fewer words than the other kids (it just doesn't make that much difference).

Certainly, I would place kids in different levels of books when it is inexpensive of teacher time (such as paired reading or independent reading). And I would place kids in different books when their reading levels lag far behind (in grades 2-3, I'd strive for placements within a half-grade level of the child's reading level, in grades 4-5, within a year, and above that, I'd aim for within two years). And, finally, make sure you don't fractionate your class with so many different levels of placement that you can't provide much instruction. Groups are necessary perhaps, but the fewer groups the better.

Morgan, A., Wilcox, B. R., and Eldredge, J. L. (2000). Effect of difficulty levels on second-grade delayed readers using dyad reading. Journal of Educational Research, 94, 113-119.

O'Connor, R.E., Bell, K.M., Harty, K.R., Larkin, L.K., Sackor, S.M., and; Zigmond, N. (2002). Teaching reading to poor readers in the intermediate grades: A comparison of text difficulty. Journal of Educational Psychology, 94, 474-485.

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The main point of "guided reading" is to make sure kids are being taught from books that are not too far beyond their skills. If a book seems like hieroglyphics to a kid, then not much learning could be expected.

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Exploring Ways to Say So Long to Traditional Grading 

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Exploring Ways to Say So Long to Traditional Grading 

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Suggested for K-12
This very quick Education Week article would be an entry point for teachers new to the discussion of standards-based grading and reporting.  A quick read and turn and talk about key pieces (mindset, accountability, who benefits and loses in the traditional model, resistance, etc.)

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High school junior Jadyn Sullivan tends to get stressed about schoolwork. Like many of her peers, she worries about her grades.

But in her physics class, there is no traditional A-F grading scale to worry about. That's because David Frangiosa, Jadyn's teacher at Pascack Hills High School in Montvale, N.J., uses standards-based grading instead.

In that system, students don't get grades on their assignments. Instead, Frangiosa gives them detailed feedback, and their performance is measured against specific course standards for mastery of the content.

Jadyn will only see a reported grade twice during the year: a midyear progress report and the final grade on her report card, which is based on a month-long final project. In many ways, she said, that is freeing.

"I feel like I'm learning a lot more than I would" if there was a grade attached to each assignment, she said. "I'm trying to actually find the answer rather than worrying about if it's right or wrong."

Jadyn's experience is not the norm in schools, but it's part of a growing trend of educators rethinking grading.

"In my opinion, it's probably the biggest elephant in the room in regards to school reform," Dan Kelley, the principal of Smithfield High School in Rhode Island, said of traditional grading. "We start [grading] at a young age, and it becomes all about accumulating points, and it's not about the learning anymore."

There are a few different strands of grading reform. Some schools have "no zero" policies that say the lowest score a student can receive on an assignment is a 50, at times even when a student fails to turn anything in. In addition to standards-based grading systems like Frangiosa's, there is competency-based learning, which allows students to progress in their learning at different rates based on how well they've mastered a set of standards or competencies.

The most radical approach of all is ditching the grade book altogether -in favor of giving students detailed feedback on their performance throughout the year and working with students to jointly assign a final report card grade, when the school requires it. (It's a small but passionate movement: About 10,000 educators are in a Facebook group devoted to throwing out grades.)

While these approaches vary, the educators who experiment with grades have a common rationale: The traditional A-F system doesn't inspire students to learn for the sake of learning. Grades are too heavily based on nonacademic factors, like punctuality and compliance. They stress some students out and cause others-particularly those from disadvantaged backgrounds-to give up.

"Are students in school to get a grade and graduate or are they in school to get better at something, to improve themselves, and to actually learn something?" said Mike Stein, an English teacher at Coffee County Central High School in Manchester, Tenn., who has gotten rid of grades in his classroom. "Sometimes, the answer can be both. Unfortunately, all too often, students get so focused on the number that it's literally all they care about. It's my job to do whatever I can to help them learn, even if that means taking away the numbers at the top of the page."

But the traditional grading system is entrenched in America's schools, and educators who experiment with grades have faced pushback from administrators, teachers, parents, and students themselves. And many school districts are not logistically set up for making radical grading changes, educators say.

"Grades aren't the best way to communicate learning; it's the easiest way, it's the most efficient way," said Starr Sackstein, the director of humanities for the West Hempstead, N.Y., school district and an edweek.org opinion blogger, who has written books about rethinking assessment.

"When we start ... understanding that kids aren't numbers or letters, they're complex people who often require a lot more than that-it's not that we don't want to give it to them, but I think we sometimes feel burdened by the extra responsibilities [and requirements] in the school system."

Shifting Students' Mindsets

A body of research has found that grades tend to reduce students' interest in learning. Anecdotally, teachers who shifted away from the traditional A-F grading system say that after some implementation bumps, their students seem more engaged in the subject material. They take more ownership of their learning. And they stop asking the dreaded question: "What do I need to do to get an A?"

"My classroom has never been more enjoyable to me since I started this," said Frangiosa, who volunteered to switch to standards-based grading four years ago when his assistant principal was looking for someone to develop and pilot the model.

"I'm a science teacher. The nature of my class is to investigate," he said. But before he made the switch, "any time I gave students feedback, ... it would all go back to the grade."

Now, students receive one letter grade at the end of the year-and it's not based on their understanding of the content, but rather the skills baked into the course standards. While students take (and must pass) periodic content quizzes, their final grade is based on skills used in their final assignment and assessment, because that should be their best work, Frangiosa said.

This year, about 10 percent of teachers in his school are using alternate assessments, although not all are standards-based, he said.

The standards-based model, he said, gives students "the opportunity to try things out of their comfort zones and not be afraid to fail, because these mistakes and failures are really where we learn."

Stein, the Tennessee teacher who went gradeless after presenting a plan to his principal, said his students have appreciated the "mindset shift" that comes with not having a grade. Other teachers in his school have expressed interest after seeing how engaged his students are, Stein said, but no one else has taken the plunge.

Still, he does have to give his students a final grade to put on their report card due to school policy. His workaround: letting students pitch him what grade they think they've earned.

Typically, about two-thirds of Stein's students give themselves the grade that he would have given them. A handful of the remaining students will try to inflate their grades, but it's more typical for students to low-ball themselves, he said.

That's common, grading experts say.

Without grades, "students became better advocates for their own learning; they were able to speak to what they know in terms of the standards. They were able to ask for help more succinctly and know what they needed help with," Sackstein said. "I think they also became more confident learners."

A Lightning Rod Issue

Still, it's hard work to rethink grades, educators say. They can face resistance at every corner, including from students, who are used to "playing the game of school," Sackstein said.

And without all parties on board, the reform can fail. Five years ago, Kelley, the Rhode Island high school principal, had to walk back a few grade-related changes he made. He had preceded the changes with three years of conversations about grading practices with staff members.

The changes called, for example, for teachers to allow revisions on summative assessments and stop giving zeroes. Teachers were also asked to consider how and why they were grading homework.

Kelley thought that it was a good first step toward lessening the focus on grades, but the rollout went poorly.

"I've never had so much anger, hostility, frustration," Kelley said. "Here I was thinking as a leader, we took our time with the conversation, but grading practices are so ingrained [that] it is really, really, really hard to break some of these practices that I think are toxic."

Most of the pushback came from parents, he said.

A common critique of grading reforms is that they don't teach students personal responsibility or work ethic.

Laura Fuchs, a high school history teacher in the District of Columbia, said she understands the arguments for getting rid of traditional grades. But grades help hold her students accountable. Learning that responsibility, she said, is important as students prepare for the workforce.

"No job is going to pay you if you don't do what your boss tells you to do," she said.

Perhaps no area of grade-related reform has been as hotly criticized as the no-zero policy. But for Michael Megyesi, the principal of Chesterton Middle School in Indiana, switching to that policy for homework and classwork was a game changer for his students. Before, many students were failing classes, even though they were passing the tests.

"The zero was more indicative of their behavior than their academic performance," he said. "This eliminates all behaviors from the grade." Now, if a student is failing a class, teachers know it's because he or she doesn't know the material and can deliver early interventions, Megyesi said.

Equitable Grading

Megyesi said the no-zero policy also puts students on a "level playing field." Some students, he said, don't have support at home, and it's not fair to punish them if they are unable to complete their homework.

Indeed, Joe Feldman, an education consultant and author based in Oakland, Calif., said traditional grading "thwarts efforts to make schools more-equitable places."

The practice, he said, is vulnerable to teacher bias and favors students with privilege while harming those from low-income backgrounds or with special needs. Instead of motivating students to work harder, Feldman, a former teacher, said low grades often cause students to withdraw from school out of discouragement.

After all, A, B, C, and so on are labels that educators are putting on students, said Mark Barnes, the creator of the Hack Learning book series and an advocate for getting rid of grades entirely.

"The more you work to get kids to believe in learning for the sake of learning, the better they become as learners for the rest of their lives," Barnes said. "When you put a grade on something, learning stops. That's the worst thing about grades. And as teachers, we should want learning to go on forever."

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Exploring Ways to Say So Long to Traditional Letter Grades

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High school junior Jadyn Sullivan tends to get stressed about schoolwork. Like many of her peers, she worries about her grades. But in her physics class, there is no traditional A-F grading scale to worry about. That's because David Frangiosa, Jadyn's teacher at Pascack Hills High School in Montvale, N.J., uses standards-based grading instead.

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Acceleration Resources for Internal Stakeholders

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Acceleration Resources for Internal Stakeholders

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A set of strategies that has a strong scientific base that are relevant for all the groups of students and decision makers and classroom leaders.

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We provide an evidence-based approach that generates proven results based on surveying more than 30,000 administrators, teachers, and students nationwide. LSI has visited thousands of classrooms and compiled more than 32 million data points of educator practice to help increase the joy of teaching and learning.

Contact Us

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What You Don't Know About Academic Interventions May Be Hurting Your Students: 7 Instructional Strategies for Accelerating Student Learning | Learning Sciences International

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We provide an evidence-based approach that generates proven results based on surveying more than 30,000 administrators, teachers, and students nationwide. LSI has visited thousands of classrooms and compiled more than 32 million data points of educator practice to help increase the joy of teaching and learning.

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Rethinking Class Scheduling to Reduce Equity Gaps

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Rethinking Class Scheduling to Reduce Equity Gaps

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“Traditional approaches to class scheduling further perpetuate equity gaps for students in marginalized groups in the wake of COVID-19…”

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What are you searching for?

Enclose phrases in quotes. Use a + to require a term in results and - to exclude terms.
Example: +water -Europe

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Rethinking Class Scheduling to Reduce Equity Gaps

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Columbia University’s Center for Public Research and Leadership (CPRL) released a new guide to help education leaders rethink class schedules as a means of closing the eq | Columbia University’s Center for Public Research and Leadership (CPRL) released a new guide to help education leaders rethink c…

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Promising Practices to Accelerated Learning for Students With Disability During COVID-19 and Beyond

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Promising Practices to Accelerated Learning for Students With Disability During COVID-19 and Beyond

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Provides strategies for students with disabilities

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This provides resources and tools to support teachers and leaders to prioritize and connect standards to instruction.

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1 Beacon Street
Boston, MA, 02108
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617-725-0000

info@achievementnetwork.org

ANet is a nonprofit dedicated to the premise that every child in America deserves an excellent education and the opportunities it provides. We pursue our vision of educational equality in America by helping schools boost student learning with great teaching that is grounded in standards, informed by data, and built on the successful practices of educators around the country.

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Connect Standards to Instruction — Achievement Network

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Open educational resources for connecting standards to instruction

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Suggested for ELA K-12
The Juicy Sentence method is an instructional strategy developed by Dr. Lily Wong Filmore. It is designed to address the needs of students in accessing complex text. This is done through deconstructing and reconstructing sentences, and analyzing how different language features contribute to meaning. This resource is a short (5 page) guidance doc on how to do this. It also includes an annotated model.

More information about Dr. Lily Wong Fillmore’s work can be found in this article.

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The guidance outlines some ideas for fostering conversations around "juicy sentences." The juicy sentence is a strategy developed by Dr. Lily Wong Fillmore, specifically to address the needs of ELLs and accessing complex text, and it is a tool that is useful for helping all students learn to deconstruct and reconstruct sentences, and to understand how different language features contribute to meaning. The guidance includes:

Information on the value of juicy sentence work for supporting access to complex text for all students

A checklist of considerations for selecting a sentence for juicy sentence work

An annotated exemplar sentence

A model process

More information about Dr. Lily Wong Fillmore's work can be found in this article.
Send Feedback

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The guidance outlines some ideas for fostering conversations around "juicy sentences." The juicy sentence is a strategy developed by Dr. Lily Wong Fillmore, specifically to address the needs of ELLs and accessing complex text, and it is a tool that is useful for helping all students learn to deconstruct and reconstruct sentences, and to understand how different language features contribute to meaning.

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Juicy Sentence Lesson Model (Kindergarten) 

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Juicy Sentence Lesson Model (Kindergarten) 

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Video: Kindergarten Classroom Example of Teaching Complex Text (Juicy Sentence on the topic of the butterfly)

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Classroom Example of Teaching Complex Text: Butterfly

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This New York City kindergarten class of English language learners demonstrates Lily Wong Fillmore's guidance in how teachers can support students in acquiring and using academic language and working successfully with complex text. These ELL kindergartners have engaged in a unit studying butterflies where academic vocabulary, language structure, and keys to unlocking the meaning of complex text have been deeply embedded into their daily learning.

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Suggested for ELA K-12
This article from the Center for Responsive Schools highlights the use literacy to address SEL practices.

Additional Reading linked here

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SEL and Literacy: A Natural Fit - Center for Responsive Schools

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The high pressure of standardized testing is often cited as a barrier for the implementation of SEL practices in schools due to the constraints of time. However, a cognitive-only approach to teaching—which essentially ignores collaboration, communication, and creative problem-solving—can elicit unin…

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Suggested for ELA K-8
Cultivating curiosity is grounded in the work of Ghouldy Mumhammads Five pursuits for learning. The provided resource can best be used to strengthen educators underst of how to ensure that curiosity is at the core of instruction. This resource can also be used to support teacher team

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Addressing Unfinished Learning After COVID-19 School Closures

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Addressing Unfinished Learning After COVID-19 School Closures

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The 2020-21 Priority Instructional Content is complementary to the Council of the Great City Schools (CGCS) framework

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1) What can practitioners learn from the Padlet resources?

2) How can the Padlet be used?

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7 Instructional Strategies Jamboard - Successful exercises and challenges/outstanding questions

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7 Instructional Strategies Jamboard - Successful exercises and challenges/outstanding questions - Google Jamboard

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7 Instructional Strategies Jamboard - Successful exercises and challenges/outstanding questions