Acceleration for All: A How-To Guide for Overcoming Learning Gaps (Educational strategies for how to close learning gaps through accelerated learning)

The need to overcome student learning gaps exists in every school. The answer is not a culture of remediation but one of acceleration. Every student deserves to learn at grade level or beyond―this is equity in action. Acceleration for All offers research-informed, real-world, and ready-to-implement strategies, with an emphasis on core instructional practices, to ensure accelerated learning schoolwide.

• Implement practical strategies for sustained accelerated student learning
• Shift from a mindset of deficit thinking to strengths-based thinking related to student learning
• Develop opportunity equity so all students have access to grade-level learning every day
• Develop learning cycles to address instruction, assessment, and interventions or extensions as a team with a focus on every student learning grade-level standards
• Learn how to establish a learning-based culture rooted in collective efficacy
• Support teachers, teams, and students through collaborative leadership
• Create processes and procedures for continuously improving learning

Sharon V. Kramer, PhD, knows firsthand the demands and rewards of working in a professional learning community (PLC). As a leader in the field, she has done priority schools work with districts across the United States, emphasizing the importance of creating and using quality assessments and utilizing the PLC continuous-improvement process to raise student achievement. Sharon served as assistant superintendent for curriculum and instruction of Kildeer Countryside Community Consolidated School District 96 in Illinois. In this position, she ensured all students were prepared to enter Adlai E. Stevenson High School, a Model PLC started and formerly led by PLC architect Richard DuFour.
Sharon is the author of How to Leverage PLCs for School Improvement and coauthor of School Improvement for All: A How-to Guide for Doing the Right Work; Best Practices at Tier 2: Supplemental Interventions for Additional Student Support, Elementary; and Best Practices at Tier 2: Supplemental Interventions for Additional Student Support, Secondary. She also contributed to the books It’s About Time: Planning Interventions and Extensions in Elementary School, The Teacher as Assessment Leader, and The Collaborative Teacher: Working Together as a Professional Learning Community.
Sharon earned a doctorate in educational leadership and policy studies from Loyola University Chicago. To learn more about Sharon’s work, follow @DrKramer1 on Twitter.

Sarah Schuhl, MS, is an educational coach and consultant specializing in mathematics, professional learning communities (PLCs), common formative and summative assessments, priority school improvement, and response to intervention (RTI). She has worked in schools as a secondary mathematics teacher, high school instructional coach, and K–12 mathematics specialist.
Schuhl was instrumental in the creation of a PLC in the Centennial School District in Oregon, helping teachers make large gains in student achievement. She earned the Centennial School District Triple C Award in 2012.
Schuhl earned a bachelor of science in mathematics from Eastern Oregon University and a master of science in mathematics education from Portland State University.
To learn more about Schuhl’s work, follow @SSchuhl on Twitter.
To book Sharon V. Kramer or Sarah Schuhl for professional development, contact pd@SolutionTree.com.