ESSER III Accelerated Learning and Extended Time

Bridging Learning Gaps, Tackling Learning Loss, and Achieving Positive Student Outcomes

With start of the year assessment data and the first quarter behind us, we see clearly now how COVID widened the academic gap in today’s classrooms and exacerbated social and emotional deficits. Your ESSER III funds are designed specifically to support these challenges, and Catapult Learning is here to help you address learning loss, accelerate learning, support emotional wellness, and keep your students on track.

Catapult Learning can:
Help you establish a plan to maximize your ESSER III federal funding. We offer a wide range of evidence-based services that not only support student learning but also help educators manage their classrooms and students’ needs.

Tailor our services to your district’s needs. We provide programs tailored to fill your district’s specific , whether they’re academic, social-emotional, or both.

Deliver high-level professional development (PD) and coaching. To ensure your students reap long-term benefits from short-term ESSER III funding, Catapult Learning provides expert and PD for teachers and leaders to support them in critical areas, such as the academic and social-emotional impact still being felt from the COVID-19 pandemic.

We’ll help you close—and prevent—learning loss and gaps through programs and services such as:

Our K-12 after school, out of school, and summer learning programs a comprehensive suite of educational opportunities and engaging activities that can be tailored to address the specific academic, social, and emotional well-being of your students and their families. Highlights include:

  • Robust reading, math, and enrichment (STEM/STEAM, robotics)
  • Engaging games and activities that encourage hands-on exploratory learning within lessons.
  • Responsive design, which allows our summer program to meet both student and family/community needs.
  • Highly qualified and trained teachers…you may use your own staff, or we can provide local teachers for you.
  • Flexible half-day and full-day options that can take place on-site or virtually.
  • Proven effectiveness, as students’ average scores increased by 9.3 points in reading and 8.5 points in math after participating in our summer learning program.*
  • Turnkey design, as all programs include teacher training, teacher lesson manuals, curriculum, student resource books, and virtual classrooms where applicable.

*From a comparison of pretest and posttest iReady scores in a large, urban market during the summer of 2018.

Visit our Instruction page for more information.

Our High-Dosage Tutoring (HDT) works by activating existing and relevant knowledge, building prerequisite skills, and reinforcing foundational skills. Our math and reading/literacy intervention programs also help struggling K-12 learners regain their confidence through intensive, small-group instruction of up to four (4) students. Combined, our High-Dosage Tutoring and intervention programs can result in more than one year’s worth of academic progress in less than one full school year. Highlights include:

  • Regular integration into a school day, though our tutoring can also occur before or after school, on weekends, and even over the summer.
  • A consistent schedule of up to five (5) 45-minute sessions per week.
  • Highly qualified and trained tutors who also serve as a mentors and motivators.
  • A whole-child approach that includes as well as multiple touchpoints with families.
  • Well-developed curriculum (AccelerateLiteracy and AccelerateMath) that provides intensive, research-based grade-level instruction.
  • Individualized student plans to address each child’s academic and life skills and mindfulness goals and establish a baseline from which to monitor progress.
  • Personalized support aligned to each student’s plan.
  • Diagnostic assessments that pinpoint areas of strength and opportunity, both academically and socially.
  • Formative assessments that monitor progress.

Visit our High-Dosage Tutoring and Literacy and Math Intervention pages for more information.

Catapult Learning’s professional development solutions use research-based, best-practice models that go beyond workshop execution so you can equip your teachers with the skills needed to address the lasting impact of COVID-19. As a full-service PD partner with funding expertise, we’re ready to prepare instructors and leaders to welcome all students and cultivate an environment for success while supporting your whole staff every step of the way. Highlights include:

  • Culturally responsive PD and coaching in life skills, mindfulness, and trauma-Informed practices that help educators develop their own self-awareness and cultural competence as they focus on creating safe and supportive learning environments for all learners.
  • Curricular and instructional support as well as ongoing coaching on how to design standards-based unit plans to accelerate learning, and how to differentiate instruction to meet students’ needs.
  • Accelerated learning professional development to help educators keep students moving along their grade-level trajectory, increase engagement, and narrow existing learning gaps.

Visit our Professional Development page for more information.

Catapult Learning’s Life Skills and Mindfulness programming expands students’ 21st century skills in critical thinking, collaboration, creativity, and empathy—all necessary for success in college, careers, and beyond. Highlights include:

  • Seamless support, as we handle all the details, communication, and coordination.
  • Life skills and mindfulness programming built on the foundation of self-awareness, self-management, social awareness, relationship skills, and responsible decision making.

Visit our Life Skills and Mindfulness page for more information.

While student support is of the utmost importance, family/parent engagement, partnership, and communication are also paramount. That’s why we provide expert support to schools struggling to address student and family challenges such as learning idiosyncrasies, social relationships, emotional demands, behavior patterns, communication challenges, and health and wellness issues through our Parent/Family & Support Services. Highlights include:

  • Family Connections, which bridges the gap between your school, local community, and the families of your students. Through this program, we strengthen a family’s ability to support the academic and non-academic needs of children while teaching your faculty and staff ways to engage with families through parent workshops and meetings and services such as help applying to food assistance programs, referrals to drug and alcohol rehabilitation, referrals to legal assistance, and referrals to immigration and residency support.
  • Counseling services conducted by credentialed, master’s-level counselors for students or small groups of students who require extra behavioral, academic, social, and emotional support. Through our program, school counselors, staffed by Catapult Learning, work as a team with the school staff, parents, and community to create a caring environment where students become healthy, competent, and confident learners.
  • Mentoring, which connects struggling learners with experienced positive adult role models to provide guidance and build confidence. Our trained mentors support more than just a student’s academic needs. We match students with mentors who are compatible to a student’s cultural, religious, and ethnic needs, ensuring a deeper relationship with the mentor and better outcomes for the student.

Visit our Family Connections, Counseling, and Mentoring pages for more information.

Catapult’s Learning curates Student Learning Bags that make it easy to keep students engaged. These bags are filled with a variety of age-appropriate—and fun—learning materials selected by our academic experts, and they help students improve reading skills, math proficiency, and scientific habits of mind. Our Learning Bags include:

  • Reading Bags that build student literacy and language skills by introducing them to a collection of fiction and nonfiction works designed to engage them in topics connected to the real world and spark their curiosity.
  • Activity Bags that get students excited about learning with a variety of age-appropriate games, tools, and activities that reinforce math, scientific, and STEM concepts, and encourage family involvement.
  • Reading & Activity Bags that offer both engaging texts and fun, educational games and activities.

Visit our Learning Bags page for more information.

Why Catapult Learning?

Flexible Implementation
Our turnkey solutions are operational from day one. Our programs can be scaled from small engagements to large implementations and can be delivered during the school day, extended day, or over the summer.

Evidence-Based
Catapult Learning’s academic intervention programs feature evidence-based learning objectives aligned to College and Career Readiness Standards and are built on research that meets ESSA’s revised definition of “evidence-based” intervention in Sec. 8101(21)(A) of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA). Our Professional Learning and Summer Journey programs also meet this definition.

Student Support
Our research-based instructional models span the education spectrum, from supporting supplemental reading and math intervention through individualized programs for autism and other specialized needs.

Local Accountability
As one of the largest employers of teachers in the country, Catapult recruits, hires, and trains skilled professionals from the local community. We build accountable relationships through clear and transparent collaboration.

Resource Corner

Welcome to the Resource Corner, where you’ll find resources from the Arizona Department of Education related to addressing learning loss and accelerating learning.

Website: https://www.azed.gov/esser/addressing-disrupted-learning
ESSER III Overview: https://www.azed.gov/esser-iii
Contacts:
Reach an ESSER Specialist
ESSER@azed.gov

Devon Isherwood, Deputy Associate Superintendent of School Support & Improvement
(602) 364-0379
Devon.Isherwood@azed.gov

Allison Barbor, ESSER Director
(602) 542-3068
Allison.Barbor@azed.gov

Let’s work together and create an Accelerated Learning Program to fit your district’s needs. Contact Teresa Gregory to schedule a call.

Contact:
Teresa Gregory, Catapult Learning | Director of School Partnerships | West
teresa.gregory@catapultlearning.com