Increasing Equity and Achievement by Empowering Students - How school boards can help shape a new vision for instruction

Oct 15, 2026

Increasing Equity and Achievement by Empowering Students argues that student engagement and academic performance depend on shifting students from passive recipients to active participants. It contrasts teacher-centered classrooms dominated by lecture and independent practice with student-led academic teaming where learners collaborate in diverse small groups and take leadership. The model embeds social-emotional learning and equity into rigorous instruction, aiming to close achievement and skills gaps and strengthen self-regulation through peer explanation and structured SEL protocols.

LanguageEnglish

CategoryResearch & Report

FormatPDF

Pages12

Reading Time30 min

AccessFree to download

The traditional passive role of students

Empowering students through academic teaming

Student-led structures and daily team time

Self-regulation, explanation, and learning gains

Developing SEL and equity in academic teams

Increasing Equity and Achievement by Empowering Students Michael D. Toth Increasing Equity and Achievement by Empowering Students How school boards can help shape a new vision for instruction where students take an active role in their learning and build the skills to mitigate effects of the opportunity gap Michael D. Toth © National School Boards Association, 2020. All rights reserved. ~~ ~~ Increasing Equity and Achievement by Empowering Students “What if students ceased being passive receptacles of conveyed information and instead learned, in collaboration with their peers, to be engineers of their own learning?” —Carol Ann Tomlinson, foreword to The Power of Student Teams: Achieving Social, Emotional, and Cognitive Learning in Every Classroom Through Academic Teaming The Student’s Traditional Role in the Classroom: Passive When students have a passive role in the classroom, it can be difficult for them to engage in their learning and develop the skills and sense of empowerment to better their lives. Gallup’s various studies spanning more than 5 million student surveys across every state in rural, suburban, and urban schools unearth a concerning statistic: 53% of students surveyed are “not engaged” or“actively disengaged”(Gallup, 2018) . Yet, thereis a strong relationship between engagement and achievement. Another Gallup study of more than 113,000 students in grades five through 12 showed a significantly positive relationship between student engagement and student academic performance (Gallup, 2019) . What causes students to be passive and disengaged in the classroom? Learning Sciences International’s (LSI) Applied Research Center has observed classrooms across the country and typically finds the same pattern of teacher-centered instruction comprised predominately of lecture and independent practice activities. In these classrooms, the traditional role of the student is passively compliant with few opportunities to interact with their peers (see figure 1). The students’ role is to listen, focus, and not distract or bother their peers as the teacher delivers direct instruction. Students may be seated in superficial groups but work independently. When peer group interactions do occur, they are often at best occasional, unstructured, and heavily directed by the teacher. How can we create a vision for instruction where students can meaningfully engage with their peers and have a more active role in their own learning? T Figure 1. In a teacher-centered classroom, the teacher’s role is more active, and the student’s role is more passive (Toth & Sousa, 2019, p. 22). ~~ ~~ 1 Empowering Students with an Active Role Through Academic Teaming Student empowerment requires a fundamental altering of the traditional roles of the teacher and student. A new model of instruction called studentled academic teaming is well-suited to creating an active role for students. The teacher provides the structures and opportunities for students to collaborate and exercise leadership with their peersin academic teams so students can develop increased ownership and accountability, resulting in higher engagement, and eventually, true empowerment. Student-led academic teaming involves students organized into diverse, small groups with stable membership, roles, norms, resources, and rigorous learning targets and success criteria for all learning tasks (See Figure 2). While the teacher still provides foundational knowledge in an academic teaming classroom, most of the daily lesson time (50% - 70%) is spent with students working in their teams. The teacher tracks student learning and intervenes only when necessary. Students can begin regulating their learning and behavior with the team structures in place. Students’ ability to self-regulate is positively correlated to academic achievement (Hinnant-Crawford, Faison, and Chang, 2018) . Furthermore, PET scans of children’s brains show that when students explain what th

FAQs

Why are passive students in the classroom a problem for achievement?

Passive and disengaged students struggle to engage in learning and build empowerment. Evidence cited in the document links engagement to achievement, showing a large share of students not engaged or actively disengaged.

What is student-led academic teaming and how does it empower students?

Student-led academic teaming reorganizes roles so teachers provide structures for collaboration while students work in diverse small groups for most of the lesson. This increases ownership, accountability, and engagement, leading toward true empowerment.

How does the model integrate social-emotional learning (SEL) with equity?

SEL is embedded into daily core instruction rather than treated separately. The approach supports equity and access by developing skills valued by employers while helping close achievement and skills gaps.

Oct 15, 2026

Uploaded by Riley West