Students spend 25%–50% of their in-school time engaged in personalized digital learning, replacing a portion of excellent, in-person teachers’ whole-group instruction and other types of teaching. Teachers specialize in core subject pairs: math/science or language arts/social studies. Students rotate on a fixed schedule between digital instruction and face-to-face learning with the subject teachers, as chosen and directed by excellent teachers. To extend their reach, excellent teachers use freed time to teach additional classes, focusing primarily on personalized and enriched portions of instruction in their designated subjects. Digital lab monitors supervise students during digital learning time, and tutors also may work with students individually and in small groups. Subject teachers, monitors, and others collaborate as a team. Estimated Reach Extension Effects: Excellent elementary specialists reach 100%–700% more students, varying with the amount of digital instruction and the amount of planning and collaboration time preserved for teachers.
An example of a school network extending excellent teachers’ reach using Elementary Specialization and In-Person Rotation model is Rocketship Education.
More detail on this model:
In-Person Rotation + Subject Specialization (Elementary) School Model
Teacher and Staff Selection, Development, & Evaluation Toolkit: This toolkit includes job descriptions, competencies, and companion tools that may be used to select, evaluate, and develop teachers and staff. These materials are built for six of the more than 20 school models described here. The jobs included in the toolkit cover most of the other school models as well. Some schools may combine school models, and in turn will need to alter the job descriptions and other materials accordingly. Schools must adapt these materials to fit each school setting and to incorporate additional selection, evaluation, and development priorities.
Public Impact encourages the sharing and copying of these materials. Please include “©2012 Public Impact” and “OpportunityCulture.org” on all pages where material from these documents appears.
View table with links to all school models