How To Set Students Up for Success in Tier 1 Through Accelerated Core Instruction

As lifelong educators, my co-author and I have experienced a combined 50, yes 50 years in education! Spring semesters, planning, reviewing middle-of-year data, and targeting support before the final bell rings for summer. No matter what role we have held, including teacher, administrator, instructional coach, our instinctual goal was to ensure at least one year’s growth for every student.

With COVID-19 and all of its impacts still looming, we again find ourselves faced with an end-of-year deadline and, as always, evaluating student growth. Longstanding academic inequities continue to creep into our schools and classrooms as many students fall further and further behind meeting grade-level standards. 

And who’s most at-risk for falling behind? Recent data suggests that our underperforming students are racially and ethnically diverse, are from low socioeconomic backgrounds, and have individualized education programs (IEPs) (Methodology Studies - Achievement Gaps | NAEP). With the best intentions, after a thorough middle-of-year data review, our initial instinct is to group students to focus on remediating foundational skills only to risk excluding them from grade-level content instruction. 

➡️ Related Resource: Best Practices on Interpreting Student Assessment Data in MTSS

What if, instead of focusing on growth for every student (which potentially may be grade levels below), we focus on grade-level proficiency or bust for every student? Instead of focusing on identifying the gaps and moving backward to fill them, we accelerate our core instruction by strategically curating the grade-level standards-based instruction. That way, the student can spend time and attention on identified targeted skills to prepare for upcoming learning. Student outcomes change when accelerated instruction replaces traditional remediation strategies alone.

With traditional remediation, students identified as needing additional support typically receive intervention for skill gaps that may have little or nothing to do with the current, on-grade level material and/or instruction.

While it is certainly important to "backfill" for learning gaps, when that remediation is not closely aligned to what the student needs right now to be successful with current grade-level material, the student will only slip further behind. In contrast, acceleration provides immediate access to end-of-year expectations by strategically identifying prior years’ learning and learning gaps, AND providing just-in-time support along the way.

➡️ Related Resource: Selecting the Right Interventions to Boost Accelerated Learning

Considering our classrooms’ significant and diverse needs in 2022 and beyond, we can layer the strategies and principles of accelerated instruction as an equitable multi-tiered systems solution that ensures our Tier 1 core instruction is fluid, dynamic, responsive, and matches our diverse students’ needs. But, before we can jump into how to accelerate, let’s answer the first question that comes to mind…what exactly is differentiated core Tier 1 instruction, and what is acceleration?

What is Differentiated Core “Tier 1” Instruction?

2. Utilize High Impact Strategies to Accelerate Core Instruction

Cultural, racial, geographic, religious, language, socioeconomic, and ability factors all play a role in our students’ access to education. To meet our diverse student needs, integrate high-impact practices into your daily core instruction to identify and build on foundational skill gaps that may exist discreetly.

If we wait for deficits to present themselves on assessments, our students may be placed in a position to receive instruction behind their peers. These targeted strategies provide the student a step-stool or boost to prepare for upcoming learning.

• Progress Monitor: High-stakes assessments or universal screeners are often too broad to provide teachers with ongoing, critical feedback regarding a student's targeted skills to bridge the gaps from power standard to power standard. Instead, teacher collaboration develops frequent progress monitoring assessments between standards-based learning units to help diagnose missed or unfinished learning. As a result, ensure students meet the mini-goals on the pathway toward standards mastery. 

• Knowledge and Vocabulary Activation: Background knowledge and vocabulary have much to do with the experiences our students have. Since each of our students is different, we should expect their background knowledge and understanding to differ. Activating knowledge and vocabulary through acceleration is not pre-teaching or frontloading learning. Instead of offering learners the same lesson ahead of their peers, build in activators, like pictures or photographs, infographics, and multi-media like recordings or music, that students can connect to challenging learning.
  
  
• Scaffold Instruction: A scaffold is a temporary support used to elevate the learner. Scaffolding doesn’t change the expectation or reduce the standard the student is expected to learn. Instead, it provides an ongoing, fading level of support that allows the learner to build confidence before attacking learning independently. Incorporate scaffolding by modeling first for students. Then, allow students autonomy to practice new learning providing support as needed and waning supports as students develop the confidence to meet grade-level standards independently.

High Impact Strategy Tip: Share the responsibility of any high-impact strategy by engaging students in goal-setting and self-monitoring. Goal setting and tracking progress help ensure students know what they need to know and do before progressing toward the next big rock. Giving your student’s agency will help you identify what experiences and strengths they can bring to the learning table and help you better understand how to apply supports. Learn more about student agency here: Giving Students Agency With a Seat at the MTSS Table 

3. Integrate a Positive Behavior Support (PBIS) System Into Your Classroom

Employ positive reinforcements in the classroom immediately! Within the MTSS framework, Positive Behavior Supports (PBIS) is an evidence-based strategy that provides a framework for educators to create effective educational environments that are positive, predictable, and safe. The CASEL Core Competencies draw upon a strong link between social-emotional and behavioral competencies to academic success. 

➡️ On-Demand Webinar: Best Practices for Behavior Progress Monitoring in MTSS

To best honor our students’ diverse strengths and needs, as well as your own, it’s imperative to prepare your classroom so that any learner can enter at any moment and experience social-emotional and behavioral success. We ensure that our classroom environments are prepped and ready to meet every learner’s unique needs through explicit teaching of social and behavioral skills and positive behavioral supports.

High Impact Strategy Tips: Here are a few Positive Behavior Supports that will help create a Tier 1 classroom environment that allows the students to feel comfortable taking risks and seeking challenges. 

• Have a method to provide and receive feedback (and make it positive and focused on strength and forward movement);
• Increase student opportunities to respond to promote equity and engagement among all student groups within your classroom; and
• Engage students in learning about behaviors and executive functioning through collaborative circles and discuss non-academic skills to promote a sense of belonging within the classroom walls.

➡️ Related Resource: Spotlighting School-Based Interventions that Support Students’ Mental Health and Well-Being

Final Thoughts

There’s no one-size-fits-all solution to the inequities, unfinished learning of COVID-19, and challenges surrounding education presently. But, as we move forward together this semester, we can choose to lean in on the opportunity that the pandemic created and build accelerated Tier 1 core instruction. 

We can determine the most critical skills our students need by collaborating with our fellow educators. Employing high-impact strategies that prepare students for upcoming learning and encouraging positive reinforcement and student agency, we can bridge gaps between prior standards and this year’s expected and stretch growth. Accelerated instruction places ALL students in the fast lane to success.

Sources:

Ainsworth, L. (2003). Power Standards: Identifying the Standards that Matter the Most. Advanced Learning Press.

Darling-Hammond, L., Schachner, A., & Edgerton, A. (August 2020). Restarting and Reinventing School: Learning in the Time of COVID and Beyond. Palo Alto, Calif.: Learning Policy Institute.

https://restart-reinvent.learningpolicyinstitute.org/sites/default/files/product-files/Restart_Reinvent_Schools_COVID_REPORT.pdf

McCart, A., & Miller, D. (2020). Leading equity-based Mtss for all students. Corwin. 

Methodology studies - achievement gaps: NAEP. Methodology Studies - Achievement Gaps | NAEP. (n.d.). Retrieved December 31, 2021, from https://nces.ed.gov/nationsreportcard/studies/gaps/