As learning growth results continue to come in across the U.S. for the 2024–25 year, educators in many high-growth schools may find their celebrations tinged with an edge of dread. They and their students worked so hard for their results—but what now?
Huge congratulations to the many schools that achieved high growth schoolwide using Opportunity Culture® designs and their Multi-Classroom Leader® teams! Read more about some results here and here.
Many organizations, not just schools, find sustaining high performance just as hard as achieving it. In schools, the challenges include:
- Most students achieved high growth, but teachers teaching the same students next year do not have materials differentiated for more high growth.
- Teachers didn’t have curricula with differentiated lessons—they and their teaching teams made it happen with a lot of work that doesn’t feel doable year over year.
- Some students, despite schoolwide or team-wide high growth, still struggled.
- Schools and teachers need to keep up the growth while also attending to needs of the “whole child” and “whole adult”?
For some solutions, think ABC
A: Adopt high-standards, research-based, differentiation-ready, high-quality instructional materials and lessons. Yes, that’s easier said than done—but start with EdReports.org, and keep pushing for lessons that are already strong before you start writing from scratch or editing heavily.
B: Build out more differentiated lessons on a schedule slowly over time, if adopting pre-differentiated lessons isn’t an option or falls short (some are high standards but not ready for students who need prerequisite skills and advanced lessons, for example). All students should have access to the current standards, too—even when needing those prerequisite skills or advanced content. This strengthens foundations for future learning.
C: Collaborate across grades or courses: Advanced fourth-grade lessons may be “on track” for fifth and sixth grades, or a prerequisite skill in fourth grade may be standard fare in third. The same holds true across standard, honors, and AP courses. Share materials to extend instruction upward, and to obtain ready-made lessons for prerequisite skill gaps. This is a key tactic for high growth schoolwide—and saves time and builds schoolwide spirit. Schools in the same system can collaborate, as well, building libraries of high-standard, differentiated lessons.
And don’t forget D: Develop skills for stress management. Even success brings stress, for both students and adults. Some may worry that learning success was an accident or not replicable, or so difficult that it can’t be repeated. And the reality is that some years will include big leaps, others some near misses. Team and school leaders should treat all progress as worthy, adopt concrete tactics for managing time and stress, and help all educators support one another to persevere.
For a few more resources, see our Instructional Excellence Summary and, if you have access to the Opportunity Culture® online portal, the SIMPLE-TC™ Tutoring Culture modules.
And if you’re at a school using Opportunity Culture® design, don’t forget to mind the Certified Opportunity Culture School® standards. They have been associated with schoolwide high-growth learning for over 12 years. Last year, in the data available so far, we saw that schools with certified status made far more learning gains than uncertified schools. Multi-Classroom Leader® teams can strive to move up a level in the certification elements within their control, such as differentiated small-group teaching and tutoring time, which provides both instructional and emotional support for students—and feels pretty great for adults, too! School systems can work toward nudging up design elements in their control, such as pay.
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