To effectively plan, launch and scale high-quality personalized, competency-based learning models, most educators and school leaders require intentional, sustained capacity-building supports. Therefore, states are identifying sustainable funding strategies for statewide initiatives to build this capacity. Options include state funding for a…

Students are motivated when they have a constant system of rewards. They have a desire to please others and be recognized. It was with this idea in mind that the Smokey Road Middle School Band in Newman, Georgia, started using the "Power in the Progress System" in 2011. This system, created by H. Dwight Satterwhite, a professor of music…

Leaders of urban school systems are faced with a daunting fact: Some individual schools achieve incredible results for students from low-income communities, but no urban "school systems" achieve those results for all--or even most--children in an entire city. For generations, students in urban America have been underserved, with few…

In this article the authors recount the history and challenges of implementing coaching in 153 Georgia elementary schools over the 6-year period of Reading First funding. After outlining the expectations of Reading First, they describe the particular demands of coaching in a reform setting and detail the formative lessons that allowed the program…

A widespread irony in education is that many districts look at technology only in relation to what the students need. As a result, they often neglect to provide teachers with technology-based learning, even though they expect them to support their students with instructional technology. And when they do offer professional development (PD), they…

This report presents the deliberations of the Southeast Regional Advisory Committee (RAC), one of 10 RACs established by the U.S. Department of Education, identifying educational challenges across the six states in the region: Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Mississippi, North Carolina and South Carolina. Committee deliberations took place May 23,…

Testing students once a year, with data reported many months later, is like using an autopsy to determine how to help a patient, says Cindy Ambrose, chief academic officer of the Horry County Schools in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina. In Horry County and many other districts around the country, assessment that monitors vital signs on an ongoing…

In this article, the author shares her experiences in teaching preservice and inservice teachers about differentiated teaching, a strategy that involves a student-centered classroom in which students are motivated and energized, focused on learning, and eager to meet challenges. These teachers, initially unsure how to turn theory into practice,…

Personalization is achieved when teachers and students have the time and the desire to develop a relationship. One Georgia high school lends itself to personalization by encouraging a mentoring relationship between teachers and students. Developing academic teaching teams and block schedules for all grades was the key to reducing teacher isolation…

This report discusses the activities and outcomes of Special Instructional Assistance (SIA) an early intervention, prevention program designed to help Georgia students with identified developmental delays overcome the effects of those delays on academic achievement. The central tenet of the program is to provide more individualized instruction to…