Education Week - October 4, 2023 - 10

"
There's just
some logistical
stuff that's going
to be tough
to figure out.
KATINA TIBBETTS
1st, 3rd, and 5th grade
English learner teacher,
Gloucester public schools,
Mass.
Charles Smith's district.
" You have to think about your capacity to do
something like this, " said Smith, the assistant
superintendent for curriculum and instruction in
the Wilton school system in Connecticut.
In Wilton, district instructional coordinators
" took on some of the grunt work, " Smith said,
analyzing student data and developing a learning
" blueprint " that spelled out what kids might need
to practice and review in order to meet each gradelevel
standard.
" That was really helpful for the teachers, because
they didn't have that time to do an in-depth
analysis of what really was an enormous amount of
unfinished learning, " Smith said.
In Washington County, Willow's district, the
curriculum team created a systemwide definition
of, and action plan for, acceleration. The district
added a feature to its learning management system
that allowed teachers to have easy access to student
data-so they could see which students needed help
with which skills.
And over the 2021 and 2022 summers, the
curriculum team developed materials and
activities, tailored to the district curriculum, that
teachers could use for students who needed extra
support.
This bank of scaffolds included tools like sentence
frames that could help kickstart an oral response for
students or graphic organizers that could help them
formulate their thoughts for a written assignment,
said Carly Pumphrey, the district's supervisor of
English/language arts and social studies.
These solutions were designed to give all students
a way into grade-level text, Pumphrey said-rather
than giving students different texts based on their
perceived reading ability.
Schools still face roadblocks to acceleration
Leaders in the Wilton, Gloucester, and
Washington County districts all see acceleration as
a long-term strategy, not just a pandemic-recovery
solution.
" We're a fairly high-performing school district,
but we have some distinct achievement gaps, "
said Smith, Wilton's assistant superintendent.
" I think our teachers do recognize the
importance of making grade-level curriculum
accessible to everybody, but they were struggling
with how to do that. And I think this framework
made it possible, " he said.
These districts are still working through the
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provided by
challenges that come with trying to radically
restructure how teaching and learning operates.
In Washington County, those roadblocks have to
do with the nitty-gritty of classroom instruction.
The district has set acceleration as a priority and
provided resources. But figuring out exactly how to
plan and manage a 4th grade class in which some
students are at a 4th grade level, some are at a 3rd
grade level, and some are at a 1st grade level is still
a big hurdle for teachers-and understandably so,
said Pumphrey.
This year, she said, the district is restructuring
middle school schedules to give teachers 90
minutes of daily planning time-a change that they
already made last year for high school and one that
Pumphrey hopes will give teachers the space to
work on these questions.
The district is also focusing on coaching and
collaborative professional learning this year,
in which teachers will be able to discuss model
lessons, Willow said.
In Wilton, Smith still isn't seeing all the changes
he would hope for in student data.
" Everybody grew, but some groups didn't grow
as much as others, " he said of test scores since the
pandemic.
The score gaps that existed before the
pandemic-between general education and special
education students, native English speakers and
English learners, students from low-income
families and high-income families-persist.
" I think [those are the groups] that we're still
trying to figure how we can further accelerate their
growth, " Smith said. n
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