Picture a lesson on subtraction with regrouping. You teach it well. The conditions are good. And still, a handful of students don't get there. It is not because of the lesson, but because of the knowledge that was meant to be in place before this.

In Cognitive Load Theory, prior knowledge is the bundle of related facts already held in long-term memory. New learning attaches to it easily, but without it, learning has little to hold onto. In the early years, students have had much less time to build these bundles, and they are not able to juggle as many new elements.

When a student falls behind, missing prior knowledge is a common cause. And given the limitations of our youngest students it is easy to see why one in three Australian students aren’t meeting the minimum numeracy standards by Year 3.

Simplifying the skill doesn't fix it. Drilling the process doesn't fix it. The thing that is missing is building relevant knowledge that new knowledge will stick to.

The Y Intercept sequences learning from the small elements of knowledge known to carry students to the curriculum standard. It monitors whether each element has actually consolidated, not just whether the achievement standard was met. It was build to create sticky learning moments, already sequenced and proven to work.

Once you see how well this works, it is hard to look anywhere else.