Planning for Learning During the 21-22 School Year

The OPI is here to support districts, schools, and educators. With thousands of resources available at educators' fingertips, we have curated a list of planning resources and documents. We hope these resources help support you in planning for academic success for all students. Educational equity for all Montana students is essential. All resources have been selected because of their attention to equitable access to a high-quality education. 


Acceleration Guidance 2021-2022

New! Check out the OPI Acceleration Guidance Document to learn more about evidence-based best practices for implementing an asset-based approach to learning recovery!

Resources

OPI Acceleration Guidance 

  • View the OPI one-pager on what is acceleration and how to incorporate it into your district. Below are many resources districts can use to help implement successful Accelerated Learning programs. 

Equalizing Access to Quality Tutoring

  • The Accelerator provides comprehensive resources for those interested in implementing high-impact tutoring. We introduce a framework for thinking about how tutoring programs should be structured to suit their communities and specific tools for building, expanding, improving and funding such programs. Designed with the needs of tutoring organizations, schools and districts in mind, the Accelerator tools articulate best practices, drawing on an extensive body of existing research. Our goal is to make implementing high-impact tutoring programs at scale as straightforward as possible.

Louisiana's Pre-K-High School Tutoring Strategy

  • No longer are the days of remediation, catch-up, and cramming skills in isolation. Such strategies have proven ineffective and often detrimental to student learning. Accelerate is an equal-access, just-in-time tutoring model that is focused on identifying, celebrating, and building upon the assets students bring to the learning experience. An acceleration approach addresses unfinished learning in an equitable way. Acceleration means connecting unfinished learning in the context of new learning, integrating new information and the needed prior knowledge.
  • Guiding documents for school leaders in designing plans for 2021-22. Guiding documents for Summer Learning Planning, Learning Recovery and Acceleration planning , learning recovery data deep dive and more.
  • The U.S. Department of Education’s Institute of Education Sciences funds a network of 10 Regional Educational Laboratories (RELs). Each REL serves a designated region of the country and works with educators and policymakers to support a more evidence-based education system. In response to COVID-19, the RELs have collaborated to produce this series of evidence-based resources and guidance about teaching and learning in a remote environment, as well as other considerations brought by the pandemic.
  • The New Teacher Project’s (TNTP) Learning Acceleration Guide: Planning for Acceleration in the 2021-2022 School Year guides school leadership teams through the process of creating a student learning acceleration plan while helping teams tackle barriers that may affect the outcome of the plan.
  • This document focuses on six principles and strategies for addressing unfinished learning and how to support grade transitions through strategic instruction.
  • These national standards are for Online Teaching, Online Courses and Online Programs. Theses standards are to ensure high-quality online learning for all. 
Additional planning resources for all content areas can be found on the K-12 Content Standards and Revision Webpage.

Assessing Student Readiness

Below is a collection of free resources for assessing students at the beginning of the year and throughout the year to help guide instructional priorities for all students. 

Resources

SBAC Digital Library/Tools for Teachers and Allowed Use of Interim Assessment Tools

New Classroom’s Diagnostics and Academic Road Map 

  • New Classrooms is offering a free diagnostics and planning tool for Math grades 5 and up. 

Ed Ready Montana

  • EdReady Montana is a free Montana-based program through MTDA ready to help schools with: 
    • support for math programming in grades 5 to 12 identifying and addressing gaps and gains for fall, ACT Skill Prep, and providing supplemental class material for online/blended or face to face instruction. 
    • support for English programming in grades 9 to 12 to emphasize critical reading and effective writing skills, ACT Still Prep, and providing supplemental class material for online/blended or face to face instruction.

Professional Learning 

View our professional learning options when developing professional learning plans for the 2021-2022 school year. 

Resources

OPI Teacher Learning Hub - The Hub offers Online courses on a range of topics, such as introduction to course design, standards-based grading and reporting, digital accessibility, and specific tech tools. Courses are free.

  • View our 2021-2022 Facilitated Course calendar 

  • How Can Your School Use the Teacher Learning Hub Courses?

    • Choose a course to take at your first department or grade-level meeting. Use the course to center your discussion for the year! 

    • Align your PIR day for time to discuss the course in person and for educators to talk about implementation of new strategies learned during the course. 

    • Have educators go through the list of courses during your first week of school and select which course(s) are most relevant to them. Use the course as a topic of conversation for one-on-one educator-principal meetings. 

      • Schools may use funds to provide stipends for teachers who complete the course outside of the contract day. This is a district level decision. (Note: educators can not receive both a stipend and renewal units upon completion). 

OPI Professional Learning Opportunities Portal

  • The Portal is a centralized website for all educator professional learning within the state of Montana. Many Montana-based professional learning providers are modifying face-to-face plans to include more online options. The site updated daily with a wide variety of opportunities available.


Montana Specific Support 

We are lucky to have many excellent partners in education. Below is a short list of our Montana-based partners in education. Please feel free to reach out to the partners as needed.  

Resources

Montana Digital Academy and EdReady Montana

  • The Montana Digital Academy (MTDA) provides online educational opportunities to Montana students and schools. Courses are taught exclusively by Montana public school teachers. EdReady also offers free online math and English tutoring for Montana students.

Montana PBS LearningMedia

  • MontanaPBS and PBS have curated free, standards-aligned videos, lesson plans, and more for Montana educators. The resources are easy to integrate into various learning management systems. They also have a Montana PBS Learn at home site as a resource for educators and parents! 

Montana Historical Society

Summer Learning & Enrichment: State Guidance for District and School Leaders

The Summer Learning & Enrichment: State Guidance for District and School Leaders offers support as schools plan for summer learning opportunities to meet the most pressing needs of students and teachers in this uniquely challenging school year. The resources and considerations in this document are based on leading research and evidence-based, best practices for summer learning and closing learning gaps. It also includes guidance on how to use ESSER funding to integrate school and community resources to create innovative summer learning programs. 

One Page Summary of the Summer Learning & Enrichment document.