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Why Learning Acceleration?

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The Counterintuitive Difference

“… when a child is struggling; you go back all the way to where everything is easy again and you bring them back gradually.”

“Nope, the human brain is plastic… You start with something specific, like how do you add fractions. You drop down and teach that skill and then pop right back up.”

Accelerate, Don't Remediate. TNTP. (2021)..

Remediation

Learning Acceleration

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So, What Is The Difference Between Remediation and Acceleration?

Remediation

Spending significant time in below-grade level content before moving into new learning.

Covering many objectives or standards from prior grades/units (usually extending to a month or more of instruction)
Isolated from grade appropriate learning

Acceleration

Connecting unfinished learning into the context of new learning.

Integrating a few lessons from prior grades/units
Just-in-time to grade appropriate learning (whether in core or extended time)

Accelerate, Don't Remediate. TNTP. (2021)..

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Instructional Materials Must Be Changed To Support Acceleration

Traditional Remediation Approach: “Stop and Drop”

Learning Acceleration Approach: Just-in-Time Intervention

4^th – Grade Content
5th – Grade Content

The rest of the untaught 5^th Grade Content

Two very different approaches to teaching lessons throughout the school year require very different operating practices and lead to two very different results for students

Students in schools with a remediation approach to instructional materials never catch up

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The researchers say the pandemic year findings underscore the need for several fundamental shifts. Teachers need to be brought up to speed on the perils of remediation and trained to let go of longstanding perceptions that missing skills mean a student is not ready for challenging material.

the practice “meeting students where they are” by focusing on missing, below-grade-level material — covering all lessons in second grade before moving on to third, for example — is the chief method for helping students who are behind catch up.

By providing work suited for earlier grades—this practically guarantees students will lose more academic ground and reinforces misguided beliefs that some can’t ever do grade-level work

can become a vicious cycle: as gaps accumulate year after year, students miss more and more grade-appropriate content in favor of review of content from previous grades and become increasingly less likely to ever make it back to grade-level mastery.”

Teaching grade-level material, while stopping to supply missing, underlying skills as they become necessary — acceleration — is a strategy some researchers have found promising.

calls for high-quality classroom materials, support for teachers in using those materials and, in some instances, for more instructional or tutoring time that’s closely tied to the strategy. Educators should expect truly catching students up to be a multi-year process, the researchers add.

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Providing Just-in-Time Intervention Requires Significant Operational Changes

Instructional materials must be designed to enable teachers to provide this kind of instruction. Significant teacher support (training) is required. More time will also help improve learning acceleration.

1) Identify lesson pre-requisites

2) Deploy aligned pre-tests

3) Map pre-tests / pre-requisites to pre-requisite lessons to be taught just-in-time

4) Ensure daily and weekly schedules allow for pre-requisites to be taught just-in-time

5) Plan independent study activities

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The researchers say the pandemic year findings underscore the need for several fundamental shifts. Teachers need to be brought up to speed on the perils of remediation and trained to let go of longstanding perceptions that missing skills mean a student is not ready for challenging material.

the practice “meeting students where they are” by focusing on missing, below-grade-level material — covering all lessons in second grade before moving on to third, for example — is the chief method for helping students who are behind catch up.

By providing work suited for earlier grades—this practically guarantees students will lose more academic ground and reinforces misguided beliefs that some can’t ever do grade-level work

can become a vicious cycle: as gaps accumulate year after year, students miss more and more grade-appropriate content in favor of review of content from previous grades and become increasingly less likely to ever make it back to grade-level mastery.”

Teaching grade-level material, while stopping to supply missing, underlying skills as they become necessary — acceleration — is a strategy some researchers have found promising.

calls for high-quality classroom materials, support for teachers in using those materials and, in some instances, for more instructional or tutoring time that’s closely tied to the strategy. Educators should expect truly catching students up to be a multi-year process, the researchers add.

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Students Who Experienced Learning Acceleration Struggled Less And Learned More Than Students Who Started At The Same Level But Experienced Remediation Instead.

In the school year the pandemic began, all students tended to struggle more.

Remediated Classes

Struggled much more this year. Their rate of struggle increased 10 times more than classes receiving learning acceleration.

Classes with Learning Acceleration

Mostly regained their pre-pandemic success.

….And made it farther in this year’s grade level curriculum

Classes receiving learning acceleration completed

27%

more grade-level lesson than remediated classrooms.

Accelerate, Don't Remediate. TNTP. (2021)..

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The researchers say the pandemic year findings underscore the need for several fundamental shifts. Teachers need to be brought up to speed on the perils of remediation and trained to let go of longstanding perceptions that missing skills mean a student is not ready for challenging material.

the practice “meeting students where they are” by focusing on missing, below-grade-level material — covering all lessons in second grade before moving on to third, for example — is the chief method for helping students who are behind catch up.

By providing work suited for earlier grades—this practically guarantees students will lose more academic ground and reinforces misguided beliefs that some can’t ever do grade-level work

can become a vicious cycle: as gaps accumulate year after year, students miss more and more grade-appropriate content in favor of review of content from previous grades and become increasingly less likely to ever make it back to grade-level mastery.”

Teaching grade-level material, while stopping to supply missing, underlying skills as they become necessary — acceleration — is a strategy some researchers have found promising.

calls for high-quality classroom materials, support for teachers in using those materials and, in some instances, for more instructional or tutoring time that’s closely tied to the strategy. Educators should expect truly catching students up to be a multi-year process, the researchers add.

For many classrooms using Zearn, the pandemic brought an abrupt halt to schooling, and students missed entire sections of grade-level content in 2019-2020. Leading up to the pandemic, these classes’ rates of struggle were similar and trended in similar directions4 . But their results this year diverged significantly. Classes that experienced remediation in their new grade this year struggled on their grade-level content significantly more than classes that experienced learning acceleration. This is particularly notable because the intent of remediation is to avoid struggle by presenting students with content that they’ve seen before. Our findings suggest that a remediation-based approach results in even more struggle (see Figure 1). But it wasn’t just that the classes that experienced learning acceleration struggled less. They also completed 27% more grade-level lessons. In fact, students in those classes mostly regained their pre-pandemic success on grade-level mathematics despite all the interruptions of the past year.5

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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 Mastered Grade-level Content.

Students in high poverty schools were nearly twice as likely to remediated as students in low poverty schools with similar success over grade-level content.

Less Struggle -----------------------> More Struggle

In schools mostly students of color, nearly1 out of 6 students were remediated - no matter how much success they had on grade-level content early in the year.

Accelerate, Don't Remediate. TNTP. (2021)..

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”Just In Time” Learning Was Particularly Effective FOR Classrooms Serving Mostly Students Of Color Or Students From Income At-Risk Families

Learning acceleration classrooms in school with mostly Students of Color completed nearly 50% more grade-level lessons than remediated classrooms.

Remediated classrooms in schools with mostly Student of Color had 10 times more additional repeated struggle alerts on grade-level content than learning acceleration classrooms.

Classrooms with Learning Acceleration

Remediated Classrooms

Accelerate, Don't Remediate. TNTP. (2021)..

Percent Increase in the Number of Grade-Level Lessons Completed by Learning Acceleration Classrooms Compared to Remediation Classrooms

Typical Change Since 2019 in The Number of Repeated Struggle Alerts Per Lesson, For a Class or 20 Students

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The researchers say the pandemic year findings underscore the need for several fundamental shifts. Teachers need to be brought up to speed on the perils of remediation and trained to let go of longstanding perceptions that missing skills mean a student is not ready for challenging material.

the practice “meeting students where they are” by focusing on missing, below-grade-level material — covering all lessons in second grade before moving on to third, for example — is the chief method for helping students who are behind catch up.

By providing work suited for earlier grades—this practically guarantees students will lose more academic ground and reinforces misguided beliefs that some can’t ever do grade-level work

can become a vicious cycle: as gaps accumulate year after year, students miss more and more grade-appropriate content in favor of review of content from previous grades and become increasingly less likely to ever make it back to grade-level mastery.”

Teaching grade-level material, while stopping to supply missing, underlying skills as they become necessary — acceleration — is a strategy some researchers have found promising.

calls for high-quality classroom materials, support for teachers in using those materials and, in some instances, for more instructional or tutoring time that’s closely tied to the strategy. Educators should expect truly catching students up to be a multi-year process, the researchers add.

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Goals For Accelerating Student Learning

All students and families have the resources they need to meaningfully engage in school, whether it’s in person or not.
All students feel like they belong in their school experience.
All students and families are treated as authentic partners.
All students have access to grade-appropriate assignments focused on priority content.
All students have access to strong instruction that addresses any gaps in prior learning they have within the context of grade-appropriate assignments focused on priority content.
All students are demonstrating mastery of grade-level content.

Accelerate, Don't Remediate. TNTP. (2021)..

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Learning Acceleration Framework �

Supported Teachers equipped with the training, support, resources, and coaching to help students catch up, learning more than one year of content in one year.

Rigorous Instructional Materials designed to help teachers, schools, and parents make up ground with students.

More Time Time for learning the students most in need, including in the summer and with targeted tutoring

Empower Parents and Communities To support on campus instruction, student learning acceleration, and COVID recovery efforts

To Catch Kids Up, Our System Must Make Significant Changes

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Learning Acceleration Cycle

Accelerate, Don't Remediate. TNTP. (2021)..

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