1 star to 3 stars in under a year

Hello Reader,

I've been sitting on some news, and I'm finally ready to share it. In less than a year, my school went from a 1-star to a 3-star rating and was only a few points away from a 4-star school, as measured by Maryland's school rating system, which is out of five stars.

No single person did that. Teachers took risks. Leaders protected instructional time. Scholars showed up and did the work. As a literacy coach, I had a front-row seat, and I want to tell you what I saw from that seat, because it's the part most schools miss.

The problem usually isn't the kids. It's the work they're given.

TNTP's study The Opportunity Myth followed nearly 4,000 students across five school systems. Researchers found students spent more than 500 hours a year on assignments that weren't grade-level. And when students did get grade-level work, they rose to it far more often than the adults around them expected.

That's exactly what the T.E.A.C.H. Framework is built to do:

• Target Thinking: decide what scholars should be thinking about, not just doing.
• Engineer Access: scaffold up to the grade-level text instead of swapping it out.
• Activate Meaning: help scholars make sense of the content, not just finish it.
• Connect Identity: link learning to who scholars are and where they come from.
• Hold Sustainably: build routines that keep the work going long after the observation ends.

Try this Monday: look at your next main task and ask, "Is this grade-level work, or a simpler version of it?" If it's simpler, keep the text and add one scaffold instead: a guiding question, a vocabulary preview, or a partner reread.

Early access, just for you

Before I open it up for Black Friday, I'm giving my email family first access to the T.E.A.C.H. Framework course: seven self-paced modules, a participant workbook, and the same moves I use when coaching teachers.

Price for you: $27 with code ENERGIZEDEDU

Leading with energy,

Rodrick C. Johnson​
Founder, Energized Educator