The Standards Plus story began in a large, diverse, high poverty urban school district. The district was designated as low performing according to State and Federal indicators. Additionally, nearly 40% of the students were learning English as a second language.
As a result of the low performing designation, and to improve achievement, the district began to search for research-based methods to improve students’ academic achievement.
One important innovation was to implement the plan-do-check-act (PDCA) continuous improvement process as an effective research-based model to increased student achievement.
The steps to the continuous improvement model include:
• Plan – Develop and follow an instructional calendar/ pacing guide
• Do – Build and teach 10 to 15 minute daily standards based direct instruction lessons
• Check – Administer and check weekly formative assessments
• Act – Review the outcomes and reteach or intervene as necessary
Implementing the Standards Plus Program through the PDCA process accomplished several things:
• Created a school wide focus by providing all students with structure and daily access to grade level standards.
• Gave teachers instruction directly tied to the standards.
• Allowed a research-based program to be implemented.
• Supplemented core materials and eliminated the need for teachers to create, invent or design additional standards-based lessons.
Following an initial field test of Standards Plus, the pilot school began to close the achievement gap.
Within 3 years of the Standards Plus implementation, 60% of the pilot schools students were meeting or exceeding standards in Language Arts and Math.
Consequently, the District implemented Standards Plus in all schools. The district outpaced the average statewide improvement five years in a row.
Over the next several years, the district gained national recognition and received two national awards for overall student achievement. They received the national DISPELLING THE MYTH AWARD and the ALL KIDS ALL STARS TROPHY.
Both awarded by the Education Trust (established by the American Association of Higher Education).
The consistent district-wide success prompted the creation of the nonprofit Learning Plus Associates (LPA). LPA’s mission is to improve student achievement and to provide all students with access to the research-based, rigorous, and federally approved Standards Plus curriculum.