I want to spend some time writing about what I think are smart design principles for "learning acceleration" in math. When I use this term here, I am referring essentially to the idea of providing additional and different learning opportunities to students that have been subjected in the past to inadequate opportunities to learn math, whether due to interrupted schooling or other factors. Success with learning acceleration means increasing student proficiency with grade-level math.
All students arrive at a grade with a variety of prior experiences in math, making some amount of "learning acceleration" always necessary. However, factors like the pandemic and teacher shortages have made the need for acceleration more prevalent. Further, while these factors have impacted students of all backgrounds, Black, Latino, and Indigenous students disproportionately encounter inexperienced teachers, teachers with low expectations, schools with teacher shortages, and other factors that impede opportunities to learn, making learning acceleration in math especially critical. Inequitable opportunities to learn mathematics are but one among many inequitable aspects of our K-12 system. Steps we can take to accelerate learning in mathematics are vital to future success for marginalized students and but one among many avenues toward creating more equitable schooling.
First, focus
I wrote earlier about "doing more with less" and that is the spirit of this principle. To use another aphorism, we must "go slow to go fast." While it may seem counterintuitive, any efforts to accelerate learning must actually feel like slowing down. Acceleration sounds like we should move faster, but moving more quickly through content just makes it more difficult for students to keep up. By "macro focus," I mean applying the lens of focus to the big picture of the mathematics in each grade band, grade, and even the unit level. For example, considering how focus impacts scope and sequences for core and intervention blocks, as well as unit and interim assessment design. (I'll write later about "micro focus.")
Practically, this means using a variety of sources, such as SAP's Focus documents and Priority Instructional Content, state standards and test blueprints, curricular scope and sequences, and input from classroom educators and families to determine the most important math content to teach in each grade. (I have to, of course, also shout out SAP for making the term "focus" a part of the math education lexicon. Thank you!) Prioritize, and then prioritize again, because accelerating learning and moving more students to grade-level will require (a) strategically adding lessons and activities that address important prerequisites and (b) spending more time on cognitively demanding grade-level content. Space in the scope and sequence will need to be carved out for these moves. Having a sense of what is most important will help to answer many questions, like:
What will each grade's scope and sequence look like? Where should we extend time? Where should we embed prerequisite lessons and activities?
How should unit and interim assessments be designed? What content should be emphasized on each one?
How should interventions be designed? In the limited amount of time that we have with students outside of the core math block, what content should we teach?
How do we respond to data? In the limited amount of time that we have to reteach and review, what should we focus on?
I'm reminded of Grant Wiggins, who wrote that "'Coverage' is ultimately an egocentric delusion." There is never enough time to cover it all, and this is especially the case when we seek to accelerate learning. Getting everyone clear on what is the most important math in each grade pays dividends.
A useful activity for a math team to take on to get a sense of macro focus:
Have teachers from each grade name the top five (yes, limit to five) most important skills or understandings for students to have when entering the grade. (i.e., what are the top five most important things 7th grade teachers look for in students entering their classrooms in August or September be successful that year? Many of these may have been taught in 4th, 5th or 6th grade.)
Pass each list down to the teachers of the grade below. (i.e., 7th grade teachers pass their list down to the 6th grade teachers) Now, the grade below teachers crosswalk the list with their own wisdom, grade-level standards, documents like those from SAP or state test blueprints as named above, and finalize the top five list of skills and understandings for their grade.
This will be hard! But the exercise forces a real reckoning with focus and prompts important conversations about what is important and why. With a shared sense of what is important, we can move together to make critical decisions that maximize student understanding of important grade-level content. And I don't think we've yet fully unleashed the power of macro level focus; there's room for lots of innovation in how we provide true, sustained focus for students.
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