EDITOR’S NOTE: This post is part of a series that explores different aspects of the Meeting Street Schools’ instructional model through the voices of teachers, students and leaders who live the work every day.
During students’ independent work time, fifth-grade teacher Caroline Reece sometimes would spend too long helping one student, which left little time to check in with the rest of her class.
“I’d get so into the math with this student,” Caroline, who teaches at Meeting Street Elementary – Burns, said. “Then, I’d look up and I’d have more than half of my kids who are off task because they might have also been confused, and I’m only helping one (student). There was a lot of learning lost.”
That changed when her instructional coach taught her how to give quick, concise feedback, which enabled her to reach more students while still giving them opportunities to think on their own.
The constructive feedback wasn’t new to Caroline, but the strategy was. Starting in fall 2024, Chief Academic Officer Nisha Vasavada led a shift toward a less-is-more approach to teacher development and coaching at Meeting Street Schools. Teachers worked on a few key skills at a time rather than trying to overhaul every aspect of their instruction. Since then, students’ academic results have improved year after year.
“Students learn best when information is broken into small sections that connect and build on one another, and that is our method when we coach teachers,” said Nisha. “This approach allows our leaders and teachers to become successful at the highest priority skills with a great level of depth, instead of hitting many skills at the surface.”
It also creates disciplined prioritization, she said.
“If we focus on everything at once, we won’t win on anything,” she said. “Arcs allow us to shine a spotlight on the focus area before moving on, even if all focus areas are critical. As a result, this approach maximizes our educators’ impact, which is reflected in the tremendous growth we’ve seen in students’ test scores across all four schools.”
Why it matters
Arcs of the Year is the year-long plan for teachers that outlines instructional focus areas and clear goals. Previously, teachers might have received seven pieces of distinct feedback in a week from their coach, principal, colleagues or grade-level chair. Arcs align the feedback so everyone is concentrated on the same few goals at the same time, Nisha said.
Teachers and leaders both point to these Arcs of the Year for making a huge difference in student outcomes. By the end of the 2025-26 school year, more students – 26 percent more in reading and 34 percent more in math – were performing on grade level compared to the 2023-24 school year.
“These huge growth points in proficiency happened because of strong teaching that was created through our Arcs,” said Molly Maready, assistant principal at Meeting Street Academy – Spartanburg.
Nisha was introduced to the concept of Arcs of the Year when she worked at Achievement First, a network of charter schools, and she has since modified the concept and Arcs to meet the goals of others schools she’s led, including Meeting Street Schools.
The Arcs are based on what skills teachers need to make the biggest impact on student learning and are organized in a simple, measurable way. The four Arcs are:
- Student Culture Arc: During the first Arc, students learn routines and habits that they will need to succeed all year, such as how to actively listen to their peers.
- Rigor Arc: During the second quarter, students practice thinking critically on the most rigorous tasks as a result of the teacher’s lesson. Students should be doing the cognitive work for the majority of class time on the most important thinking tasks.
- Feedback Arc: During the third quarter, students show what they understand by producing high-quality work, driven by strong, rapid teacher feedback from their teacher.
- Mastery Arc: During the fourth Arc, students work to own and transfer their learning across multiple contexts, and those who need extra support receive strategic intervention.
The Arcs are powerful because they simplify what often feels complex when a teacher is leading a classroom in real time, Molly said. Teachers must do many tasks, such as managing students’ behavior, providing precise instructions and ensuring that students are thinking critically.
Trying to get better at all of those areas simultaneously often leaves teachers feeling overwhelmed, Caroline said. Now, teachers know exactly where to devote their energy and emphasis to have the biggest impact on students.
“Instead of walking into a classroom being like ‘Oh my gosh, there’s so much to do. How am I even going to get started?,” Caroline said. “It gives us a blueprint.”
Educators react
Before the coaching shifts were implemented, Mary Catherine Lancaster, elementary principal at Meeting Street Elementary & Middle – Brentwood, said she felt like there was so much to work on and she was unsure how to use her time most effectively. Now, she said she’s a more confident leader because she knows what to prioritize when she visits classrooms.
“I felt like I lacked strategy as a school leader, and I was worrying about where I was spending my time,” she said. “I feel more successful. I feel more impactful.”
During the Rigor Arc, Molly works with teachers at Meeting Street Academy on their lesson plans before they implement them in the classroom. Molly creates a model lesson plan, then meets with teachers to compare theirs. She focuses on refining the questions teachers ask students so their students are thinking critically while learning a new concept rather than just following along.
“Molly routinely pushed me when looking over my plans to dive even deeper with my questioning, making sure that students were the ones doing the heavy lifting,” said Morgan Plumley, a second-grade math teacher.
Morgan used a word problem as an example to showcase the difference before the Arcs vs. now. She starts by asking them to discuss what they already know about the problem before trying to solve it.
“Students immediately began trying to make meaning out of the problem by circling numbers and important words,” Morgan said. “This was different from what they initially did, which was try to write an equation with the numbers in the problem without really understanding what was happening in the problem.”
The order of the Arcs of the Year is intentional, with each building on the last. And each year, Nisha revises the Arcs so teachers continue to grow and their students learn even more.
“Arcs are not just for new teachers but to ensure all our teachers are continuously improving their craft,” Nisha said. “We are simultaneously moving the floor up and raising the ceiling through this strategy.”
Read the first post in the series, “Why our students are learning and achieving more.”
