Education Week - March 23, 2022 - 5

a strategy that's been endorsed by several national
education groups. And some states and districts are
banking on it for academic recovery from the pandemic.
The idea is to give students access to grade-level
instruction, even if they've missed key understandings
or key knowledge from previous grades. An 8th grade
math teacher, for example, would teach 8th grade
content-even if students had gaps from 7th grade.
To do this, though, she would first have to identify which
7th grade skills and concepts were most important for
understanding the 8th grade standards she was planning
to teach. Then, she'd assess students' grasp of those
specific 7th grade skills and concepts. Where students
had gaps in their understanding, she would weave in
support as she taught the 8th grade curriculum-just like
Wheeler and the Saugus teachers did with their warm-up
discussion on combining negative terms.
Teaching like this can help students move forward
after the disruptions of the past two years, experts say,
and lessen the chance that students with the highest
needs are pushed into remedial classes. But it also takes
time. Teachers need to plan, assess, and add more to
their lessons.
" If people try to run out of the pandemic and say,
'We're going to get them proficient again [now],' we're
not, " said Erin McMahon, the superintendent in Saugus.
" You're not going to see a bump in proficiency standards
for three years. You shouldn't. If you do, it means that
we've taught to the test. And then shame on us. "
How districts plan for learning acceleration
While the work of learning acceleration happens in the
classroom, it also requires changes to district plans and
priorities, said Jamila Newman, a partner at TNTP. The
organization, which consults with districts on teacher
training, instructional strategy, and other education issues,
has put out acceleration guidance and works with states-
including Massachusetts-to implement the strategy.
School and district leaders need to make time for
teachers and interventionists to collaborate, to make
sure that the focus of instruction is aligned for students
no matter where they are in the building, she said. And
someone-a mentor teacher, a coach, a peer-should
be observing and working with teachers, too. Not as
a punitive measure, but as a tool to give feedback and
refine practice, a way of " widening the teacher's
peripheral vision, " Newman said.
Finally, principals and district leaders should be
monitoring the process. Teacher feedback and student
data can help leaders understand what strategies are
working for learning acceleration and how to scale them
districtwide, Newman said.
In Saugus, academic coaching is new this year. So,
too, is this more formalized system of data-driven
instruction. During professional development this past
summer, teams of school and teacher leaders worked
with district staff to create interim assessments
aligned to grade-level standards that teachers would
give every six weeks. (At this point in the year, coaches
have shifted to analyze weekly data.)
The results would show where students' strengths
were and where they needed targeted reinforcement
of previous grades' skills in order to access grade-level
content. The district trained teachers to analyze the
data that those tests provided. Coaches then work with
educators to help them develop a plan for teaching these
key skills, so that students can access the lesson.
" These are not high-stakes interim assessments, " said
McMahon. " Instead, we just look at the data to see how
our students are moving. "
Data from one of those assessments flagged the issue
in 8th grade math with distributing negative terms.
And that 10-minute discussion that Wheeler and
the teachers planned as a solution? That's a " guided
discourse, " one of the two main strategies used
districtwide to clarify misunderstandings and shore
up student knowledge. In the other, a " think aloud, "
teachers walk through the process of solving a problem
SURVEY OF TEACHERS, PRINCIPALS, AND DISTRICT LEADERS
Which of the following best describes your district's or school's
current approach to supporting students who have not
yet mastered grade-level content?
3%
11%
21%
65%
n Acceleration: Presenting new
material at the same pace as
classmates who are on grade level,
while providing short, targeted
training in only the missed skills
needed to apply to the new content
n Remediation: Identifying
a student's current academic
level and presenting new
material to match it, either
in class or in extra sessions
n A mix of these strategies
n Other
District has 50% or
more white students
11% 23%
63%
3%
District has 49% or
less white students
11% 15%
74%
1%
SOURCE: EdWeek Research Center survey, February 2022
EMERGING STRATEGIES IN TEACHING & LEARNING | 5
Education Week - March 23, 2022

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Education Week - March 23, 2022
