New Classrooms to Offer Free Diagnostics and Individualized Academic Roadmaps

Solution can also be extended to support personalized remote instruction.

NEW YORK, NEW YORK, UNITED STATES, June 30, 2020 /EINPresswire.com/ — New Classrooms Innovation Partners will make available a next-generation diagnostic assessment in mathematics that will generate a precise and actionable academic road map for each student aligned to grade-level proficiency and college and career readiness. These road maps will reflect the most relevant, foundational skill gaps from prior school years (from as far back as the 2nd grade) in addition to the on- and post-grade skills students must still master. Road maps can span one or more years, depending on students’ unique starting points and the instructional time available.

The assessment and resulting road map will be available this fall for any student in grades 4, 5, 6, 7, and 8 as well as any high school student who is enrolled in Algebra I. It will be available this fall and will be free for schools to use for the 2020-21 school year.

A growing body of research suggests that most students will enter the 2020-2021 academic year behind where they would have been if schools stayed open, with some studies predicting that students could lose a full year of learning gains. The impact will be especially acute for math learners, according to a team of researchers from Brown University, the University of Virginia, and NWEA. And racial and socioeconomic achievement gaps will most likely widen “because of disparities in access to computers, home internet connections and direct instruction from teachers,” reports the New York Times.

Even before pandemic-related school closures, the instructional levels represented in an average 5th-grade classroom, for example, spanned seven grade levels – from the 3rd grade to high school. Now researchers are predicting an even broader array in readiness, and that the lowest-achievement students may very well fall two more years behind. New Classrooms wrote extensively about learning loss in The Iceberg Problem, a report it released in the fall of 2019.

“There is a path to college and career readiness for every student,” said Joel Rose, CEO of New Classrooms. “But for those who have experienced learning loss, achieving that milestone requires a precise understanding of what skills they know, what skills they do not yet know, and what skills should be prioritized.”

Because math is cumulative, many of the mathematical skills and concepts students are taught in one school year are foundational to their succeeding in the next school year. But since not every pre-grade skill is relevant to grade-level success, the road map will include only the subset of pre-grade skills that are relevant to achieving college and career readiness – a far more manageable set of skills than what would be included in the entire curriculum from prior years.

Using Road Maps for Personalized, Remote Instruction

In addition to the diagnostics assessment and academic road map, New Classrooms will be releasing a low-cost, all-digital version of its program that will enable students to accelerate learning on their academic road map – while in school or at home. This all-digital program will include content, exit slips, and a set of instructional resources for parents to support their child’s individual acceleration.

The program can serve as a supplemental resource to support school-based instruction and personalized homework or can serve as a holistic solution for schools looking to provide asynchronous, personalized instruction during time periods when students cannot attend school because of closures or staggered schedules.

“Schools are working tirelessly to figure out how to accelerate learning while also enabling high-quality remote instruction,” said Chris Rush, New Classrooms’ Co-Founder and Chief Program Officer. “We hope these new tools can be helpful for those looking to provide tailored acceleration for each of their students by meeting them where they are – both academically and physically.”

For more information about these new tools, please contact Annafrancesca Fuchs at afuchs@newclassrooms.org.

About New Classrooms Innovation Partners

Founded in 2011, New Classrooms Innovation Partners is a national nonprofit on a mission to personalize education by redesigning how a classroom works – from the use of technology, time, and physical space to the instruction and content that engages each student. The founders of New Classrooms were the leaders of an initiative within NYC Public Schools called School of One, which TIME named as one of the Best Inventions of the Year. New Classrooms’ first learning model, Teach to One: Math, ensures each student is learning the right math lesson, at the right time, and in the right way that best meets their strengths and needs. It is used by thousands of students in schools nationwide. To learn more about New Classrooms, visit www.newclassrooms.org.