Originally Posted by Zen Scanner
To meet acceleration needs, tracking with fluid track changes, remediation, common core, and existing materials, then I think they need to consider a radical departure.

Teach to One:
http://www.newclassrooms.org/reimagine.html

This program is really impressive, the results are particularly powerful for kids striving to succeed. Without a change from the traditional linear classroom, it would be hard to move out of ruts.

Also, they could be looking at digital textbooks (aka techbooks) as the good ones will be dynamically maintained, allow for self-assessment, compacting, additional practice, and still meet the common core thinking needs.

If none of that, then they could implement a math learner model they are working towards that splits curriculum into internally consistent dependency tracks so that a kid can move along more than one track concurrently.

In terms of the direct experience with compacting question, DS8 doesn't have experience with middle school math and likely never will as he's moving onto high school algebra.

This does look really interesting. It doesn't sound like they've really worked all the kinks out yet though.


"Perhaps even more surprising was the performance of those students who came in “at grade level” and “above grade level” prior to engaging in the TtO program. “At grade level” students gained virtually the same amount of growth as the national average. “Above grade level” students performed even worse, falling short of the national average with a ratio of 0.89 to 1.

Rose has been careful to note the areas for TtO’s furthered improvement particularly as the program grows. This year, more than 6,000 students will engage in the TtO program, nearly double the number of students from the year before.

Rose believes that this issue was linked to hesitation on the TtO staff’s part to aggressively challenge the higher-performing students. “We have come to believe that we were simply too conservative in how we generated unique schedules for [the above average] student population,” Rose admitted. “Recently, we’ve been more aggressive with our progressions.” What does this look like in practice? High-scoring students will rotate to more challenging, high-level activities at a quicker pace."


I'd love to see an effective implementation in the future. In theory especially in schools with enough classes per grade this seems promising.