Our Approach
We enable advanced learners to realize their potential by going beyond the conventional education model.
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Our approach is to nurture challenge, encourage tailored acceleration, and craft a unique learning journey for each child. Students will finish elementary grades being one to three grade levels ahead of the standard curriculum and move on to learn some high school content in middle school.
We nurture challenge.
Most schools teach to grade-level standards. At Telra Institute, we know that advanced learners thrive when they are supported in their ZPD - ​The Zone of Proximal Development. By balancing activities that students know how to do with infusions of more advanced content that they can master with guidance, we nurture challenge and maximize learning, confidence, & growth.
The best way to achieve this - to reach students in their individual ZPD - is through tailored acceleration.
“Educational acceleration is one of the cornerstones of exemplary gifted education practices, with more research supporting this intervention than any other in the literature on gifted individuals.”
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—The National Association for Gifted Children (NAGC)
We encourage tailored acceleration.
Acceleration, moving through a curriculum at a faster rate or at a younger age, leads to exceptional growth and achievement.
While common at the high school level (e.g., AP courses), acceleration can be difficult to implement in the traditional elementary school environment due to schedule constraints, curriculum choices, and policy barriers. The Telra system was designed from the ground up for agility. It enables tailored acceleration and enrichment opportunities for every student every day.
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By introducing intermediate levels (e.g., grade 2.33), challenge can be adjusted more precisely to accommodate each student’s skill, motivation, and capability. We build a unique Personalized Learning Plan for each student that targets their ZPD based on their evolving strengths.
We craft a unique learning journey for each child.
All classes at Telra are rigorous, but we've gone further to design a curriculum, schedule, assessment model, and staffing model to make acceleration simple.
A numerically inclined Kindergartener might sit with a 1st grade group for math, and then reconvene with her Kindergarten group for social studies and reading. A highly literate 2nd grader might be with 3rd graders for reading and then rejoin his classmates for PE. These transitions occur smoothly and naturally throughout the school day.
