Our district’s journey with STRIVE has been amazing! We began our work with STRIVE several years ago when we received a literacy grant to serve our most at-risk students in Title schools. Originally, Deb worked with us to provide guidance in selecting a quality benchmark assessing tool, train teachers and instructional coaches on the use of data to drive instruction, and the introduction of Focus Folders, WIN groups and PDSA cycles. For the teachers and coaches who worked with this initiative initially, Deb and her colleagues’ support was crucial. Our original focus centered largely around professional development for teachers, coaches, and admin, followed by slower implementation steps to begin the process of embedding the work in classrooms in our grant schools. Once we began the work, the growth we saw in our student achievement was outstanding!
Two years ago, the district made the commitment to add instructional coaches in all our buildings as we determined to replicate the work from our grant schools throughout the district. Once again, our work with STRIVE became the foundation for this initiative. We also expanded our focus from k-5 to include 6-12. STRIVE provided district-wide PD on Disciplinary Literacy for teachers in all core areas, as well as coaching and admin training to support the implementation of instructional framework and leadership teams in all our middle and high schools.
STRIVE will continue to be a district partner as we continue to evolve and embed research based best practices for instruction and focused intervention in all our k-12 schools.
