Differentiating instruction to improve learning outcomes in math and ELA

Bibb County School District serves more than 21,000 students in and around the city of Macon, GA. As longtime users of Renaissance solutions, school and district leaders received a special preview of Renaissance Next for Teachers in spring 2024. And they couldn’t wait to roll it out districtwide.

“In the past, I had to click through multiple screens to get what I needed,” says Dr. Ulanda Davis, the district’s Elementary Math Coordinator. “With Renaissance Next, everything is in one place.”

Indeed, a guiding principle in the design of Renaissance Next is to save educators time by providing them with information, recommendations, and access to quality instructional resources in ways that help them make informed decisions more quickly.

This ease of access supports Davis’s goal for her educators and their use of technology in the classroom. “I really want our teachers to feel confident and comfortable not only about teaching math, but also about analyzing data and using the products the district is providing,” she explains. “I don’t want them to feel they need to go elsewhere to look for lessons or find resources the students will find engaging.

“As a district, we put a lot of time and effort into choosing the right products, and we know Renaissance is one of the right products.”

Tomika Jones, Academic/Instructional Coach at the district’s Union Elementary School, echoes Davis’s statements. “Renaissance Next has been a great resource for us,” she says, calling particular attention to the way the platform brings together Star Assessments data, ready-to-use Nearpod lessons, and Freckle practice for both math and ELA. This helps teachers to be more intentional in how they use time in the classroom.

“Renaissance Next has allowed our teachers to spend their time delivering the instruction and doing the interventions, rather than having to put the resources together and plan. The lessons are already planned,” Jones explains. “It’s just so user friendly. Everything is there for you—the information is there, the data is there. You just have to follow the blueprint.”

Personalizing student learning—and focusing on student growth

Both Davis and Jones are quick to add that this ease of access and use for teachers doesn’t lead to one-size-fits-all instruction. On the contrary, the flexible student groupings in Renaissance Next—Needs a Helping Hand, Time to Practice, and Ready for a Challenge—help Bibb County’s teachers to better differentiate instruction so all students remain engaged and growing in both math and ELA.

“As educators, we tend to focus on students who are struggling, and the students who are on grade level—or who are even ahead—sometimes get left out,” Davis says. “At the end of the school year, these students will have made some progress, but probably not as much as they should have.”

“Renaissance Next supports everything that we’re trying to do. Every decision is made based on the data, and we know that we’re doing the right thing because the data says, this is what’s next for this student.”

—Dr. Ulanda Davis, Elementary Math Coordinator

In the past, the district’s teachers relied on manual processes for gathering formative data and then using the data to group students. This often took the form of printed exit tickets, which teachers had to grade and color code.

“When I was a classroom teacher, I had graphs galore, and Excel sheets, and I was putting kids in, and trying to keep up with the color coding,” Davis recalls. “Once I’d finished, I had to log in to another system to try to figure out what action to take,” based on the specific needs of each group.

Renaissance Next has streamlined this process, using assessment, instruction, and practice data to update student groupings in real time.

“With its dynamic grouping, Renaissance Next gives our teachers the actions to differentiate for their students” each and every day, Davis continues. “This supports teachers in knowing that they’re doing the right thing. Am I wasting students’ time by teaching them something they already know and aren’t interested in, or am I going to push them further, so they stay on a high growth trajectory throughout the school year?”

Motivating all students to learn and achieve is a top priority in Bibb County, and Jones points out that Renaissance Next’s Superstars of the Week tab—which recognizes students’ effort and accomplishments—fully supports these efforts. “We’re a ‘Leader in Me’ district, and every week, the superstars are celebrated schoolwide. We even print the Superstar cards from Renaissance Next, so the students can add them to their leadership notebooks,” she adds.

The power of data-driven decision making in education

Ensuring that students understand their learning data and can see their progress is key to what the district aims to accomplish, and Renaissance Next—along with the individual Renaissance programs that are part of it—plays an important role here as well.

“Students need to be able to see where they are without having to ask their teacher, ‘How did I do? Did I do well?’ That really makes a difference,” Davis explains. “When I visit classrooms and ask students how they’re doing, they’re excited to log in to their iPads and show me their data—how many Accelerated Reader books they’ve read, and how much time they’ve been practicing in Freckle. It’s important for students to know, so they can keep moving forward.”

“Renaissance Next has allowed our teachers to spend their time delivering the instruction and doing the interventions, rather than having to put the resources together and plan. Everything is there for you—you just have to follow the blueprint.”

—Tomika Jones, Academic/Instructional Coach

Along with regular data team meetings and data digs for educators, the district also involves students and their families in the data review process. Jones explains that these student-led “data chats” give learners the opportunity to share their accomplishments with parents and other caregivers. “They can tell their parents, this is what I did in Freckle this week, here are the reading and math assignments I completed,” she says. “Parents can see that students are taking ownership of their data.”

Davis echoes the importance of regular data talks with students and ensuring that everyone—students, families, teachers, and administrators—uses data to support decision making. This ultimately leads to better outcomes and more efficient processes than relying on assumptions or intuition—advice that Davis is quick to share with other district leaders.

“Renaissance Next supports everything we’re trying to do,” she says. “Every decision is made based on the data, versus ‘I feel like the child should be here’ or ‘My personal observation is…’

“We know that we’re doing the right thing because the data says, this is what’s next for this student, or the student has already mastered this. With Renaissance Next, all of that data is there. We just have to take action,” she explains. “It’s literally right there—the Take Action button.

“I’d encourage anyone who has access to Renaissance Next to make sure you take action. Before you say, ‘Our kids aren’t moving. They aren’t making adequate progress,’ ask yourself, Did we take the action that was suggested? Did we do what the program identified as being next?”

Looking for similar success in your schools?

Renaissance Next brings together assessment, instruction, and practice data, along with AI-powered insights and quality instructional resources for math and ELA. Designed for districts of all sizes, Renaissance Next is a powerful platform for personalizing teaching and learning in every classroom.

Explore everything Renaissance Next has to offer—and see how it can help your educators to accelerate learning for all.