{"id":20473,"date":"2023-11-02T05:00:00","date_gmt":"2023-11-02T12:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.nwea.org\/blog\/?p=20473"},"modified":"2025-01-17T09:45:59","modified_gmt":"2025-01-17T17:45:59","slug":"high-growth-for-all-kids-4-guidelines-for-supplemental-instruction","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.nwea.org\/blog\/2023\/high-growth-for-all-kids-4-guidelines-for-supplemental-instruction\/","title":{"rendered":"High growth for all kids: 4 guidelines for supplemental instruction"},"content":{"rendered":"
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We all know the challenges of the last three years. We\u2019ve read the headlines<\/a> and heard the research<\/a> about the impact of COVID-19 on education. Given the stress that the pandemic put on educators<\/a>, reading about the continued low rates of growth and the increasing inequity among students can be quite overwhelming. Teachers and administrators are well aware of the issues; they see them play out in their classrooms every day, where it is estimated that more than half of students enter below grade level<\/a>. The question of how to best address these issues has led to a debate over teaching grade-level content versus differentiating based on each student\u2019s level. To help teachers navigate this question, our High Growth for All<\/a> project has identified 10 effective strategies\u2014the Transformative Ten<\/a>\u2014to help teachers differentiate while still providing access to on-grade content. The first strategy centers on providing supplemental instruction time so that kids can practice skills they\u2019re still developing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

About High Growth for All<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

High Growth for All started with NWEA researcher Andrew Hegedus<\/a> and his review of longitudinal achievement and growth data. Using data from 700,000 students in 24,500 public schools that test with MAP\u00ae Growth\u2122<\/a>, our interim assessment, he set out to identify high-growth schools. Enter Chase Nordengren<\/a>, another NWEA researcher, who built upon this research<\/a> by conducting in-depth observations of the classrooms of four highly effective teachers at two high-growth schools in Schiller Park, Illinois\u2019s School District 81.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Over the course of the 2022\u20132023 school year, Chase recorded over 75 hours of instruction and 12 hours of interviews with these teachers. From this research, he developed the Transformative Ten, ten instructional strategies that can be applied to any grade or subject to both support differentiation and provide access to on-grade content. Here in Teach. Learn. Grow.<\/em>, we will examine each of the Transformative Ten in depth over the course of this school year, starting with Strategy 1: Provide supplemental learning time for targeted retrieval practice.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Supplemental instruction for all<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Supplemental instruction is a common component of most classrooms. In a previous post<\/a>, I referenced a WestEd survey<\/a> that named the need to differentiate and personalize learning as one of the top three reasons teachers turn to supplemental resources.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When we think about supplemental resources and differentiation, we tend to think about students at the extremes: those who may need support to access on-grade content and those who are whizzing through on-grade content at high speed. But targeted differentiation and supplemental instruction time are valuable for all students.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Schiller Park has implemented an approach to supplemental instruction<\/a> that leverages multiple researched-backed strategies. Instead of implementing a pull-out model for below-grade support and above-grade enrichment, they have created a supplemental learning block in which all students are divided into small groups to receive targeted activities and instruction designed to support their understanding of current on-grade content. Let\u2019s unpack the learning science behind Schiller Park\u2019s approach to identify practices you can incorporate into your own classroom.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

1. Practice good grouping<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

A key structural component of supplemental instruction for all is the formation of small groups. While long-term tracking by ability has been shown to have negative effects<\/a> on both achievement and confidence, short-term, flexible groups designed for a specific purpose have been shown to support learning<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Targeted differentiation and supplemental instruction time are valuable for all students.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

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If your school tests with MAP Growth, your Class Profile Report<\/a> is a good place to start when thinking about groupings, as it provides a high-level picture of the academic diversity of your class. Next, formative assessment<\/a> that zeroes in on the skills and concepts related to your current whole-group lessons should form the foundation for your groupings. You\u2019ll want to have recent, relevant evidence of students\u2019 knowledge of the current topic. Thankfully there are a lot of quick ways to gather this evidence<\/a>, including classroom conversations<\/a>, student work, and short, frequent, ungraded assessments<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Once you have created your initial groups, formative assessment data can inform the learning goal for each group, and the learning approaches, activities, and type of grouping<\/a> that support this goal. As you progress through the whole-class core content, use ongoing formative assessment to alter both your group composition and learning goals as appropriate. Because each group\u2019s learning goals are targeted to the current core learning, these groups should not be fixed over the course of the year or even the current unit but should be adjusted in real time<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Check out NWEA\u2019s guidance for student grouping<\/a> for more information on forming effective, short-term learning groups.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

2. Get in the zone<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

As you gather your formative data and begin grouping your students and establishing learning objectives, keep students\u2019 zone of proximal development<\/a>, or ZPD, in mind. As a reminder, the ZPD is the sweet spot between what a student can do independently and what they can\u2019t do independently just yet. The skills and content that lie within a student\u2019s ZPD are ones they can access with teacher guidance and scaffolding.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I bring up ZPD here because regardless of what group they are in, all students need access to rich, engaging content designed with the end goal\u2014accessing on-grade content<\/a>\u2014in mind. So, while some students may need to review or practice precursor skills, this is the starting point, not the end goal.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Unfortunately, grouping students has sometimes led to those in what are deemed lower groups being consistently subjected to less challenging, more skills-based content that is never connected to on-grade expectations. This can have a cumulative effect where students get further and further behind<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When designing your groups, learning objectives, and pathways, always keep the whole-group, on-grade content at the center of your planning:<\/p>\n\n\n\n