Accelerate Learning | Week 1 | An Introduction

[Education Week Mini-Course]

We'll define accelerated learning and sketch out a few basic principles to get you started.

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Accelerate Learning A Mini-Course — Week 1 | An Introduction

—Adam Niklewicz for Education Week

Welcome! It's the first week of our 5-week Accelerate Learning course. Today, in Lesson 1, we'll define accelerated learning and sketch out a few basic principles to get you started. Read on.

Debbie Viadero Editor

What You Need to Know

Get oriented. The pandemic took a huge bite out of students' learning progress. On national tests, for instance, 4th and 8th grade students are behind by as much as a decade in reading. In math, students are performing at their lowest levels since the 1990s. They're making progress, but teachers have a long way to go to get students where they need to be. Most schools are using remediation to fill in learning gaps. That usually entails pulling students out of class to reteach previous lessons or fill in trouble spots. The problem is that, when students miss class, they fall farther behind. In fact, studies show that remediation can widen existing learning gaps between students of different racial or income groups.  What does work, according to research, is learning acceleration. That means teachers fill in missing foundational skills, with some short, just-in-time supports for students, as they continue apace with grade-level instruction. It might take a few extra days to cover a unit that way, but it allows students to move ahead without falling behind.

Follow the research. Here’s what you need to know about learning acceleration, based on both new studies and instructional best practices. Find out first what kids already know. Diagnostic assessments at the beginning of a unit or formative assessments as the instruction moves along can help you determine where to start and how to move forward. (More on this in Lesson 2) Tip: A quick vocabulary inventory could be a place to start. Identify the 'load-bearing' walls. What essential skills or knowledge do students need to progress to the next concept or level? Prioritize filling in those gaps with just-in-time scaffolds, or supports as you go along, even if it means skipping content that was previously taught alongside those skills. Tip: Videos can help quickly deliver needed background knowledge. Try high-dose tutoring. This is the only proven strategy in teachers' learning-recovery toolkit, experts say. They define high-dose tutoring as instruction that takes place one-on-one or in very small groups and is provided by a trained teacher or tutor at least 3 times a week, or for about 50 hours a semester. (See more on high-dose tutoring in lesson 4.) Don't forget SEL. You may have to assess where your students are when it comes to social anxiety, academic confidence, or attention skills, and plan accordingly. Students also miss out on learning when they're making frequent visits to the nurse for anxiety-induced stomach aches. (More to come in Lesson 5) Choose tech carefully. Most digital tutoring programs are geared to remediate rather than accelerate—even if they advertise they accelerate. Tip: Ask vendors how much of the curriculum is devoted to grade-level instruction. Principals' corner. It's up to principals to create a structure that enables teachers to accelerate learning. That is likely to mean bringing in tutors who can work alongside teachers during the school day or providing time for teachers to collaborate with peers or coaches on pinpointing where there is unfinished learning. Think about having teachers "loop" with their students so classes can start the school year where they left off.

In Practice

Here's how teachers are putting accelerated learning into practice: The challenge: In the Saugus, Mass., public schools, math coach Andrea Wheeler works with 8th grade teachers. Their students, who had been in remote learning all last school year, were struggling to solve equations. So together, Wheeler and the teachers combed through kids’ work to figure out exactly what part of the process was tripping them up. The solution: Lots of students, it turned out, were having problems distributing negative terms. Teachers started the next class with 2 examples on the board: one with negative terms distributed correctly, one with them distributed incorrectly. They asked students to discuss which one was right and why. The 10-minute warm-up discussion allowed teachers to cover a skill from earlier grades that students might have missed because of pandemic-related disruptions. But they covered it in the context of an 8th grade lesson, while still focusing most of their time on the grade-level objective: solving equations.

Try This

1. Homework reflection. Before next week's lesson on assessment, think about how you would go about diagnosing students' strengths and weaknesses as you head into a new unit.What resources do you have now to help you differentiate your teaching so that all students can get up to speed? What would you need?

2. Start a conversation. Your professional learning team or teachers at higher grade levels can help you figure out which key skills and content are the "load-bearing" walls in the curriculum and which skills are less essential. Ask them for input.

3. Ask an expert: Susanna Loeb, a Stanford University professor, answers this week's question. She also directs the education policy initiative at the Graduate School of Education at Stanford and the National Student Support Accelerator. Her response has been edited. What does the state of research look like when it comes to accelerated learning?  "Tutoring as one form, or one approach, to learning acceleration has a huge amount of literature. There are over 100 randomized control trials, mostly pre-pandemic, that have consistently shown large positive effects for programs that combine high dosage with other characteristics that make them more high impact, high quality. I think the results for other kinds of interventions are not as strong." Some research also supports vacation academies and summer school, she said, but the bottom line is "if it's just more of the same, it's not going to help."

4. Ask us. Do you have a question to pose? Send it to dvia...@educationweek.org. We'll find an answer.

Read This

Want more? Here's some recommended reading with more information and insights on this week's topic. We've provided one article for free to non-subscribers. Understanding Learning 'Acceleration': Going Slow to Go Fast (Free must-read) One Way to Accelerate Student Learning? Set More Challenging Goals 2022–23 Achievement Data Reveal Stalled Progress Toward Pandemic Recovery

Nice Work! You’ve just completed Week 1 of Accelerate Learning. What did you think about today's lesson? 👍 It was very helpful 🤷 It was somewhat helpful 👎 It wasn't helpful Up next: Diagnosing and assessing students' strengths and weaknesses. The development of content for this newsletter was supported in part by a grant from the Spencer Foundation. Education Week retains sole editorial control over the content.

We'll define accelerated learning and sketch out a few basic principles to get you started.

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