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’t 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 ongoing cycle 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’ 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 ‘Accelerate’ Student Learning. Here’s What That Means
- Understanding Learning ‘Acceleration’: Going Slow to Go Fast
- From Learning Recovery to Education Transformation (Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development)
- Accelerate, Don’t Remediate (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
- Developing Understanding Using Students’ Work Assessments (National Institute for Excellence in Teaching)
Classroom Differentiation
- Accelerating Learning: Tech Advice to Make It Happen
- Using Tech to Accelerate Learning: One Teacher’s Story
- How to Implement Accelerated Learning Successfully (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
- Accelerating Student Learning With High-Dosage Tutoring (Research for Recovery)
- A Scalable Approach to High-Impact Tutoring for Young Readers (National Student Support Accelerator)
Social-Emotional Supports
- A Little Help, Please! A Guide to Help-Seeking Behavior
- Student Anxiety Is Rising: Here’s What Helps and What Doesn’t
- The Instructional Leadership Team’s Role in Cultivating Student Ownership (National Institute for Excellence in Teaching)
- Towards More Sustainable Feedback (Dai Hounsell)
- Navigating SEL From the Inside Out (Wallace Foundation)
