Executive Summary

This case study examines our work with 39 rising sixth graders at DREAM East Harlem Middle School in Summer 2026. There, we piloted Teaching Lab's Studio Classroom Model, a five-week program that emphasized independent practice, peer collaboration, and small-group teacher support, using AI tools to give students more chances to practice, get feedback, and revise. 

The results were encouraging: reading comprehension scores jumped from 62% to 75%, outpacing growth in traditional summer school classrooms. Math students made smaller, but still real, gains despite completing only about a third of the planned curriculum. Students reported meaningful growth in collaboration and belonging, and teachers described the shift as transformative for their own practice, trading time spent on lesson-prep for more targeted, data-driven instruction. The pilot also surfaced clear next steps: students need more explicit support in managing their own learning, math requires a simpler and more consistent feedback loop, and closing gaps for students who start furthest behind will be the central challenge going forward.

See the full case study linked here.

This case study was written in collaboration with: Sherry Lewkowicz (Senior Director, Teaching Lab Studio), Qasim Rehman (Data and Research Manager, Teaching Lab Studio), Adam Feiler-Ware (Deputy Chief of Learning, DREAM), and DIR OF COMMS from DREAM.