Tag: FullScale Research Reports

Mastery-Based Learning Collaborative Evaluation Report – Cohort 1, Year 4

The Mastery-Based Learning Collaborative (MBLC) evaluation report offers insights and strategies for anyone working to shift K-12 schools, districts, and states toward more student-centered, equitable, and culturally responsive approaches.

The MBLC is a demonstration project taking place in nearly 50 schools across Washington to help decision makers understand the qualities of mastery-based (or competency-based) learning as they are enacted across diverse learning communities, how long it takes to implement, and what resources are necessary for sustained impact.

In its first four years, the initiative has led to deeper Mastery-Based Learning (MBL) implementation and has shown positive impacts on early outcomes such as school climate, cultural responsiveness, student-teacher relationships, and student engagement.

FullScale is conducting a six-year evaluation of the MBLC to identify policies, practices, and system changes that can support successful mastery-based and culturally responsive learning. The report shares findings from the first four years of the first cohort of MBLC schools, based on extensive surveys and interviews of educators, school leaders, students, state leaders, and professional learning providers.

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October 15, 2025

Report: Generative Practice- Practical Insights for Unlocking the Instructional Potential of AI from the School Teams AI Collaborative

This report complies learnings from the School Teams AI Collaborative, which was a partnership between FullScale and Leading Educators that brought together ~80 educators from 19 schools who were on the leading edge of implementing AI in schools. This report shares insights and guidance about how to implement AI-enabled instructional practices and what the sector needs to do in order to cultivate transformational leaps in education.

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August 28, 2025

Executive Summary: Innovative Approaches to Learning Acceleration Within the Core of K-12 Instruction: Educator Insights into Scaling and Implementation

This executive summary of FullScale’s (formerly operating as The Learning Accelerator) research brief, “Innovative Approaches to Learning Acceleration Within the Core of K-12 Instruction: Educator Insights into Scaling and Implementation,” highlights key findings from Mathematica’s evaluation of the Accelerating Adoption Network. Focusing on educator perspectives, this summary explores what teachers experienced on the ground while implementing and scaling 10 technology-enabled innovations designed to accelerate student learning within core instruction. Explore the full brief here.

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July 22, 2025

Brief: Innovative Approaches to Learning Acceleration Within the Core of K-12 Instruction: Educator Insights into Scaling and Implementation

This second brief from FullScale (formerly operating as The Learning Accelerator), “Innovative Approaches to Learning Acceleration Within the Core of K-12 Instruction: Educator Insights into Scaling and Implementation,” shares on-the-ground perspectives from educators participating in FullScale’s Accelerating Adoption Network. Building on initial observations from Mathematica’s evaluation, this brief explores what educators actually experienced as they worked to scale the adoption of 10 technology-enabled innovations designed to accelerate student learning within core instruction. Explore this brief’s standalone executive summary.

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July 22, 2025

Deepening Student Learning in Three Kentucky Communities

The Aurora Institute toured three Kentucky sites in 2025 to elevate lessons from past work and to assess progress to date and goals for the future. Using document review, on-the-ground interviews, observation, and existing expertise in deeper learning, each case study aims to authentically tell the story of each system’s shift to deeper learning and the way the changes have shaped the student experience. The three sites include: Metcalfe County Middle School, Woodford County Public Schools, and Beechwood Independent Schools.

Together, we uncovered four key themes as key elements of success at these sites: a shared vision to unite the community, clear expectations that enable flexibility, student demonstrations that unlock authentic applications of knowledge and skills, and opportunities for teacher learning and leadership to lay the groundwork.

These themes echo the existing body of work of the Aurora Institute, the field of competency-based education, and the education research field more broadly. Understanding the implementation journeys of real schools and districts helps bridge a transformative vision into reality for our young people.

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July 8, 2025

From Urgent to Future: Charting a Course for AI in K-12 Education

This report examines how the rise of generative AI is reshaping the K-12 education landscape. It outlines a bold, student-centered vision that reimagines what students learn, how they learn it, and why. The paper offers a roadmap for policymakers and system leaders to align AI integration with deeper learning, equity, and lasting instructional transformation.

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May 27, 2025

Mastery-Based Learning Collaborative: Cohort 2, Year 1 (SY 24) Report

The Mastery-Based Learning Collaborative (MBLC) is a demonstration project taking place in 47 schools in Washington State led by the Washington State Board of Education (SBE). The schools are receiving funding and participating in professional learning and a statewide network to support implementation of mastery-based learning (MBL) and culturally responsive-sustaining education (CRSE), both of which will be described in greater detail later. The initiative’s overarching goal is “to inform future policy by helping decision makers better understand what quality mastery-based learning looks like, how long it takes to implement, and what resources are necessary.” This report presents evaluation activities and findings for the first year of Cohort 2, representing the planning stage of the MBLC initiative.

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April 14, 2025
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