The Model of Instruction for Deeper Learning is a research-validated instructional model, supported by ESSA Tier 2 evidence, that closes achievement gaps by giving every student, including English learners, students with IEPs, and students experiencing poverty, equal voice and access to rigorous, grade-level learning in student-led teams.
Start with five volunteer teachers. Put every student at the center of the learning.
Explore the Model of Instruction
Too often, the students who would benefit most from rigorous learning opportunities have the fewest chances to engage in them. In an effort to provide support, they may be assigned simplified tasks, excluded from rich academic discussions, or spend significant time in interventions outside the classroom. While these approaches are well-intentioned, they can unintentionally limit students’ access to grade-level thinking and meaningful learning experiences.
Pull-outs, tutoring, and intervention programs can provide valuable support. However, when they are not paired with stronger core instruction, they often address learning gaps temporarily without changing students’ daily learning experiences. To accelerate learning, students need consistent access to grade-level content, rigorous thinking, and meaningful engagement throughout the school day.
Gaps close when core instruction gives every student daily access to rigorous work and a real voice in the learning.
Services and accommodations continue in both. What changes is how much of the day the student spends in rigorous, grade-level learning.
Every student works in a small, mixed-ability team with a defined role, and protocols require equal voice. Tasks are interdependent, so the team needs every member’s thinking to complete the task. Students support one another’s learning, creating opportunities for every teammate to participate and succeed.
English learners practice academic language every day in a low-risk team setting, using content vocabulary in structured discourse with peers, with task guides and mats making the work visible. Roles and protocols provide every student with a clear pathway into the conversation, creating opportunities to share their unique experiences, knowledge, and perspectives.
Protocols guarantee every student a voice, and roles can be matched to each student’s strengths, so students with IEPs participate at the center of rigorous tasks rather than at the periphery. Accommodations and services continue; what changes is their access to grade-level learning with peers in mixed-ability teams.
Students get daily access to grade-level rigor instead of remediation, plus the belonging, agency, and self-efficacy that predict achievement. A peer-reviewed study of 48 schools found that student teaming predicted higher achievement in schools with more low-income students.
Equal voice, high expectations, and teammates who value each other’s background knowledge create classrooms where every student is treated as a capable scholar with a strong sense of belonging. Gaps close when access to rigor expands to every student.
A study meeting What Works Clearinghouse design standards with reservations found the model closed achievement gaps by 7% in reading and 6% in math for Black students compared to White students, 6% and 5% for students with disabilities, and 6% and 4% for English learners.
Des Moines Public Schools study (2019)Across 4 districts from 2023 to 2025, schools implementing the model closed achievement gaps for students with disabilities by up to 58% in ELA and 90% in math at the elementary level, and up to 58% in ELA and 92% in math in the middle grades. At North High School in Des Moines, the special education graduation rate rose 16.42 percentage points after one year.
Applied Research Center analysis (2025)The same 4-district analysis found schools closed achievement gaps for English learners by 6% to 47% in ELA and 4% to 74% in math, depending on the district.
Applied Research Center analysis (2025)A peer-reviewed study of 48 schools found that student teaming predicted higher achievement in schools with more students from low socioeconomic backgrounds.
SAGE Open (2024)Across Cedar Rapids Community School District’s 31 schools, Black students’ math proficiency rose 5.9 points in one year of implementation.
Cedar Rapids case study (2026)Madison Elementary’s principal and a teacher share how student-led teams brought students who had been on the margins into the center of rigorous learning.
[Placeholder: 2 short paragraphs and 3 to 5 quotable lines, added after the recording.]
“When we implemented the Model of Instruction, what I’m seeing now is we are catching kids that we did not catch.”
“They have a background with schools that serve students with lives like ours. I think that is very important to the work that they do.”
You invite teachers to volunteer; you don’t assign them. A team of 3 to 5 teachers learns the Model of Instruction for Deeper Learning together through interactive modules that take under 1 hour a week and apply in class the next day. An Instructional Empowerment coach, always a former educator, supports the team through live virtual coaching sessions.
Students learn team roles, norms, and protocols. Early wins are often visible in the first week.
Teachers design rigorous, interdependent team tasks from the curriculum they already use, and shift from directing all aspects of learning to coaching students toward greater ownership of learning.
You review student evidence with your team and decide whether to expand. Classrooms begin evolving within weeks.
An achievement gap is the difference in outcomes between student groups. An opportunity gap is the difference in access to rigorous instruction, resources, and high expectations that often causes it. The Model of Instruction for Deeper Learning addresses the opportunity gap inside Tier 1 classrooms.
No. Services, accommodations, and English language development continue. The model changes general education instruction so English learners and students with IEPs participate fully in rigorous learning with their peers.
Many schools fund pilots with Title I, Part A or Title II, Part A professional development funds. Printed resources and companion technology may be funded from other sources. Allowability depends on your school’s program and district rules, so confirm with your federal programs office.
Teachers spend under 1 hour a week on interactive learning modules and apply what they learn the next day. Live virtual coaching sessions are 1 hour each: 2 in Pilot One, 4 in Pilot Two.
No. The Model of Instruction for Deeper Learning works with your adopted curriculum and high-quality instructional materials. Teachers learn to turn existing lessons into rigorous, interdependent team tasks.
The model is used in elementary, middle, and high schools across all content areas. Classroom Toolkits are grade-band specific.
At the end of the pilot, you review results with your team and your Instructional Empowerment coach. Schools can expand by adding a second cohort of volunteers, upgrading to include coaches and leaders, or bringing onsite professional development to the whole staff.
Our mission is to end generational poverty and eliminate achievement gaps through redesigned rigorous Tier 1 instruction that ensures deeper learning for ALL students.
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