How to Implement Accelerated Learning Successfully
Seven Corporation grantees define accelerated learning and provide insights for successful implementation
Seven Corporation grantees define accelerated learning and provide insights for successful implementation
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.
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.
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.