Contact: Loretta Goff, Ph.D., 228.588.6226 or lgoff@jbhm.com

Struggling Learners

A Quick Look
Struggling learners are those students who are unsuccessful in achieving adequate performance. These students represent a significant challenge to the teachers and schools. Students who struggle to maintain the same pace as their classmates often face an emotional challenge knows as “fight or flight.” Similar challenges trouble teachers as they attempt to determine how to help. Responding successfully to struggling learners requires an organized effort to assess student strengths and needs, analyze information, plan and articulate a prescriptive design to accelerate student progress. JBHM Education Group has developed a plan to address the needs of such students. The plan involves gathering data and developing a diagnostic plan for accelerated learning, addressing needs by implementing a prescriptive plan to improve student performance, and providing support to develop a system of continuous improvement to prevent future concerns.

A Closer Look
Struggling learners require strategic interventions to accelerate learning. Our interventions are high-quality instructional designs by teachers in response to learner needs for accelerated learning. We anticipate the process to take more than one year as we first identify the scope of work and then lead the necessary sequence for the school to accelerate learning to bring all struggling learners to grade level.
The steps to this process include:

• Gather data and develop a diagnostic plan for accelerated learning
  An initial analysis of data includes a review of previous test scores, observations of test data, student inventories and a collection of other information that will assist in determining student-performance levels. Then an analysis of school information will determine the level of sophistication within the school and classroom in using interventions to improve instruction.

• Address needs by implementing a prescriptive plan to improve student performance
  In this phase of the program teacher training and coaching in effective instructional strategies to address the prescriptive plan should include the needs of struggling students. Teachers will work collaboratively with other staff through study groups to review and analyze both student and school-level data for decision-making. Then teachers and administrators, working together, should assure that achievement is accelerated. Systems that assure successful student performance, progress monitoring, analysis of data (both formative and summative), RtI (Response to Interventions), differentiated instruction and other teaching practices that support learning for various types of learners are some of the features to be implemented.
   

• Provide support to develop a system of continuous improvement to prevent future concerns
  As administrators and teachers work together to deliver instructional programs that keep the achievement gap closed for struggling learners, a gradual release of responsibility becomes the goal. The emphasis is placed on synthesis and transfer while finalizing a systematic process of continuous improvement helping schools develop strategic next steps for the school, class, teacher, and students.

 

For more information on the Ed Group's Extended-School Connection Services,
contact your state director.