Tile Farm Academy: ESSA Tier 4 Evidence

Tile Farm Academy is supported by ESSA Tier 4 evidence (“Demonstrates a Rationale”). Under the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA), Tier 4 evidence includes a well-specified logic model grounded in high-quality research suggesting an intervention is likely to improve relevant outcomes, along with ongoing efforts to examine its effects.

This page provides a brief overview of Tile Farm Academy’s intended outcomes, research-aligned design principles, and evidence-building efforts. A link to the full ESSA Tier 4 Evidence Rationale is provided below.

Intended outcomes

Tile Farm Academy is designed to support the following student and teacher outcomes:

• Development of number sense and flexible strategy use
• Improved mathematical reasoning, justification, and discourse
• Development of spatial skills, including visualization, composition, and transformation
• Ability to apply mathematics in creative and design-oriented contexts
• Improved student and teacher attitudes toward mathematics, including engagement, confidence, and persistence

These outcomes are intended to support learners across a wide range of contexts and developmental levels.

Why Tile Farm works across contexts

Tile Farm Academy is intentionally designed as a low-floor, high-ceiling learning environment. The same core experiences can support intervention, core instruction, enrichment, STEAM learning, and teacher professional development.

Rather than relying on different instructional models for different populations, Tile Farm’s design emphasizes representations, reasoning, discourse, spatial thinking, and mastery-oriented practice. Differences across use cases reflect differences in implementation and emphasis, not differences in underlying learning science.

Tile Farm Academy has been used in settings spanning PreK–12, including multilingual learner contexts, gifted and enrichment programs, and teacher preparation environments.

Research-aligned design principles

Tile Farm Academy is grounded in well-established research and learning-science principles, including:

• Visual representations as thinking tools, supporting conceptual understanding and communication
• Spatial reasoning as a core mathematical competency, linked to mathematics and STEM learning
• Mathematical discourse and inquiry, including language-flexible and wordless entry points for multilingual learners
• Mastery learning and spaced practice, supporting durable learning and retention (Daily Digits)
• Creative, constraint-based problem solving, supporting transfer, engagement, and persistence

Together, these principles form the foundation of Tile Farm Academy’s theory of action.

Evidence-building in progress

Tile Farm Academy is currently engaged in multiple studies examining its impact, including:

• An efficacy study in a large public school district
• An efficacy study in a predominantly multilingual learner charter school
• A study examining the impact of Tile Farm Academy on pre-service teachers’ attitudes toward mathematics 

These efforts reflect Tile Farm’s commitment to ongoing evaluation and continuous improvement, consistent with ESSA Tier 4 expectations.

Full evidence rationale