[Submitted on 8 Sep 2026 (v1), last revised 19 Oct 2026 (this version, v2)]
Abstract:Weak-to-strong generalization asks whether stronger models can learn from weaker supervisors and surpass them. This is particularly important for successive model generations and multi-domain consolidation, where frontier-scale post-training from scratch can be prohibitively expensive. Yet conventional distillation treats the weak teacher as an optimization target, potentially imposing its capacity ceiling on the student. We introduce On-Policy Reverse Distillation (OPRD), which evaluates the teacher’s policy shift relative to its reference policy on student rollouts and amplifies the component of the student’s verifier-driven policy gradient along that direction. By rescaling only verifier-supported updates, OPRD preserves the stationary points of policy optimization while accelerating learning beyond the teacher. Our evaluations cover mathematical reasoning, logical reasoning, code generation, and visual tool use. In both successive model transfer and multi-teacher distillation, OPRD achieves higher performance with fewer student updates than existing RL and distillation approaches. Response-style analysis shows that OPRD students remain closer to verifier-only RL models than to their weak teachers, suggesting that guidance accelerates rather than redirects student optimization. Strong-to-weak results further show that OPRD combines verifier-driven optimization with teacher guidance regardless of capacity ordering.
Submission history
From: Sangmin Bae [view email]
[v1] Tue, 8 Sep 2026 14:26:35 UTC (1,918 KB)
[v2] Mon, 19 Oct 2026 06:54:47 UTC (2,556 KB)
