Most of what works is known. We do it.
Teach directly. Practice until it's automatic. Master this step before the next. Measure against the outside world.
Simple to state, rare to find
Decades of research keep confirming the same picture of how children learn. The mystery is why so few schools act on it: fashion, inertia, and philosophies that sound better than they work. We have a point of view, and most of the evidence agrees with it. Where it doesn't, we say so. We do the unfashionable things that work, and show the results.
The research, in one figure
Where we differ, in plain columns
| In most schools | Here | |
|---|---|---|
| Teaching | Discovery, when fashion permits | Direct and explicit, checked on the spot |
| Pacing | The calendar decides | Mastery decides |
| Practice | Crammed, then forgotten | Spaced, revisited, kept |
| Reading | Guessing dressed as strategy | Systematic phonics, daily, to fluency |
| Content | Skills without knowledge | History, science & civics from year one |
| Measurement | A report card in June | Mastery data every week |
We measure, and we tell you
We track what each child has mastered every week and report it to families in writing. No mystery. No June surprise.