At East Hills, we want our students to demonstrate mastery of particular skills, concepts, and facts in their assigned grades to ensure they are set up for success as they progress in school and in life. What is mastery? How does one achieve mastery? How do we ensure our students have mastered a concept or skill? What do we do if a student or group of students are not demonstrating mastery? These are all questions we unpack with our teachers and spend significant time coaching and training around, as it requires an adjusted approach to instruction.
Mastery requires repetition. Repetition in the form of “meaningful practice over time” is how we teach with the intention of ensuring student mastery.
East Hills Academy has selected curricula that provide proven scope and sequences that are clear and coherent for each subject in each grade. From there, we provide an instructional coaching program for our teachers in which we train and coach them on how to teach using a mastery-based approach throughout the year.
This includes how to provide more meaningful practice over time (if needed), how to take repetition away to accelerate learning, how and when to test for mastery in a particular subject, and what to do if mastery doesn’t appear to have been achieved. Our teachers are taught how to use data to inform instruction and how to adjust their engagement and instructional practices to ensure every East Hills student is at mastery before moving on. It is the art, heart, and science of teaching at its best!