While students are starting to regain academic ground, months of disrupted learning during the pandemic widened gaps between the highest- and lowest-performing students nationwide.
Studies have found the students who were hardest hit by school closures and other pandemic-related upsets have also been the slowest to recover. Based on their current pace of growth in reading and math, many students won鈥檛 recover their academic trajectory before the end of high school.
The solution, according to student achievement research, is to pick up the pace. The National Institute for Excellence in Teaching describes learning acceleration as an in which teachers and students analyze assessment data, focus on priority grade-level content, establish groups for students to learn skills and knowledge to access the content, and monitor students鈥� progress to adjust instruction.
Those interested in learning research-backed strategies to boost student learning can sign up for an Education Week Mini-Course on the topic. (This time-limited email series launched in April but is available on demand.)
Below are articles, reports, and videos from Education Week and state, national, and international education groups for further reading on different aspects of learning acceleration.
Understanding Acceleration
- Schools Want to 鈥楢ccelerate鈥� Student Learning. Here鈥檚 What That Means
- Understanding Learning 鈥楢cceleration鈥�: Going Slow to Go Fast
- (Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development)
- (The New Teacher Project)
Formative Assessment
- Understanding Formative Assessment: A Special Report
- How to Use Formative Assessment to Accelerate Learning
- Formative Assessment: What It Looks Like in the Classroom
- Five Strategies for Implementing Accelerated Learning
- (National Institute for Excellence in Teaching)
Classroom Differentiation
- Accelerating Learning: Tech Advice to Make It Happen
- (Carnegie Corporation of New York)
Intensive Tutoring
- Clearing the Hurdles to Effective School Tutoring Programs
- To Get Tutoring Right, Connect It to the Classroom
- High-Impact Tutoring: Some Research-Based Essentials
- (Research for Recovery)
- (National Student Support Accelerator)
Social-Emotional Supports
- A Little Help, Please! A Guide to Help-Seeking Behavior
- Student Anxiety Is Rising: Here鈥檚 What Helps and What Doesn鈥檛
- (National Institute for Excellence in Teaching)
- (Dai Hounsell)
- (Wallace Foundation)
