How Furman Middle School Combines High-Quality Teaching with Targeted Intervention

J. Tanner Curry took the helm as principal of Furman Middle School (FMS), part of South Carolina's Sumter School District, in 2023 with a clear vision: put teachers at the center of learning.

“I’m not a program person,” he explains. “Standards-based teaching and learning, to me, is the heartbeat of education. The external resources are the arteries and veins—they carry the lifeblood of learning. However, everything flows through the state standards, the state testing blueprint, and the skills our kids most need.”

That belief came with Curry into the role, but he also recognized that FMS had a history of using Exact Path, which helps teachers provide personalized math and reading support for every student. Before Curry arrived, the data showed that the school had the potential to demonstrate progress with respect to student growth on the state report card. That told him there was room to build consistency and long-term success.

“Furman has always had a knack for bringing home those trophies,” Curry notes, pointing to the Exact Path rewards that students earn for mastering skills. “Our students have found themselves in the lead county-wide more times than I can count—before I joined, and just as much since. It’s proof of the drive that runs deep here.”

Curry admits that he needed evidence first before he’d be fully on board with the school’s use of Exact Path: “At first, I was a reluctant adopter of Edmentum, as an educator who is often skeptical of technology use in the classroom,” he recalls. “But then I watched how our teachers, who were experiencing achievement and growth, leaned into it. I saw how they used the platform to move students from one MAP interval to the next, and it was hard to argue with that kind of progress.”

Building Standards-First Instruction 

Curry’s philosophy is clear: strong Tier 1 instruction comes first.

“Our philosophy at Furman is state standards first―not programs.” he says. “Instructional planning is a team effort. Our administrators, instructional coach, math coach, and four interventionists work right alongside our teachers, embedding themselves in core classes as added support. Because we implement ability-grouping in ELA and math, those supports shift with the needs of each class. Together, we build instruction on the solid ground of the state standards, the priority skills, and the state testing blueprint. That’s where the heartbeat of real learning begins.”

He often explains it with an analogy. “The heart is Tier 1 instruction—that’s what keeps everything alive. The arteries and veins are represented by our adopted curriculum, the textbook, Exact Path, [other supplemental solutions and outside resources], and the interventionists we’ve embedded in classrooms. Those supports help circulate learning through the whole system. But without the heart—strong Tier 1 teaching—nothing else can keep the body going.”

And at Furman, that Tier 1 instruction follows a simple framework called the “Tribe Three,” named after the school’s mascot:

1. Gradual release of responsibility: “I do, we do together, you do together, you do on your own.”
2. Assessment: checking students’ understanding before they go home.
3. Response: giving immediate feedback or support so they’re ready for the next lesson.

“Again, it’s nothing profound,” Curry says. “It’s just back to the basics of good old-fashioned, high-quality teaching and learning; the pulse that sends mastery flowing through the classroom, through the supports we’ve embedded, and all the way to our students.”

Additional Support and Tier 2 Intervention

South Carolina has encouraged districts to adopt Tier 1 curriculum from state-approved lists of high-quality instructional materials (HQIM). While those materials can provide a strong foundation, Curry emphasizes that students will always need additional support beyond what a textbook can provide.

At Furman, Exact Path has become essential for additional support aligned with the South Carolina College and Career Readiness (SCCCR) standards. Students start their day at 8:00 a.m. with a grab-and-go breakfast and head straight to their first period class, where they spend 25 minutes working on Exact Path lessons. Later, during an extended third period, they get another 25 minutes.

“It works really well,” Curry says. “The kids get targeted intervention and support through Exact Path, while our teachers can pull small groups and work closely with them, too. Those two daily intervention times act like extra arteries in the system, carrying learning to every corner of the school and keeping the heartbeat of instruction strong.”

Each student has a weekly requirement: four trophies in ELA and two in math, due every Sunday night (trophies in Exact Path are awarded when a student has demonstrated competency on a skill, based on a progress check―ensuring the student’s progress is productive). The trophies students earn from this weekly assignment count as a homework grade. 

“That was something our 7th-grade team piloted before my arrival, and we’ve moved forward to make it a schoolwide initiative,” Curry adds.

This year, teachers took it a step further by using Exact Path's library of teacher resources to assign lessons aligned to the standards taught that week. 

“It’s another way to keep the heartbeat of learning strong,” Curry says. “Students get an extra chance to work toward mastering the content by Sunday night. The goal is for them to have that concept solid in their hearts before we move on to the next skill—keeping the flow steady from one week to the next.” 

Students are also required to master one skill per week in ELA and math, also for homework grades.

Partnering on Solutions to Increase Success

Curry’s biggest breakthrough came after looking closely at student data. He recognized that some Algebra 1 honors students were intentionally underperforming on their MAP tests to get assigned to lower-level paths (and therefore making it easier to complete their weekly assignments).

“I called our Edmentum Partnership Manager, Mary Jane Britt, and asked to set up a meeting,” Curry recalls. Because the data was clear and accessible, they were able to review it and explore some options. 

“The solution was simple but powerful,” he says. They added a grading floor after the MAP assessment, meaning students’ pathways would remain at the middle school level. “It was like adjusting the flow in the system,” Curry adds, “keeping the learning arteries strong so the heartbeat of true mastery could reach every student.”

The change worked. 

“We found almost instantly that our students were being challenged, they were working at or above grade level.” Curry shares, “Our fall 2025 MAP data suggests the practice of intentional underperformance has largely diminished—likely due to the grading floor combined with schoolwide efforts to promote MAP growth and Exact Path trophies as part of our quarterly competitions. It’s like seeing the system pulse correctly now.”

Now, the school is studying the correlation between trophies earned since January, skills mastered, and outcomes on state testing.

The “Tribe Challenge” Promotes Healthy Competition

Curry knows middle school students need more than grades to stay motivated, which is why Furman built on its identity as the “tribe” to launch what they call the “Tribe Challenge.”

“Every third-period class competes quarterly on student attendance, discipline, achievement, and student progress,” Curry says. “And one of those key areas is meeting the minimum number of trophies. We reward the classes that meet all of those criteria.”

The approach has created a sense of healthy competition. 

“I’ve been very impressed with the quality of work,” Curry says. “Even this morning I went into a 6th-grade class. Students were working on intervention. It’s age-appropriate in presentation. It looks and feels right for middle school.”

Highlights: Grading Floor and a Focus on Priority Skills

Two successes stand out most from last year, Curry says.

“The grading floor was a huge success,” he explains. “We couldn’t continue to push trophies if these kids were earning trophies for skills they mastered four or five years ago. That change made a big difference.”

The second was the use of custom courseware for content recovery. Without federal Elementary and Secondary School Emergency Relief (ESSER) funds to support summer school, Furman Middle School needed another strategy to help students get back on track.

“We were able to identify priority skills and standards and assign those as a unit of study,” Curry adds. “So students weren’t just going through a platform to earn credit for the standards they did not master or the work they did not submit. We put an emphasis on the state priority skills, so that come testing time, they’d been exposed more than once to the ‘heavy hitters.’”

That emphasis paid off in promotion rates, both to the next grade level and into high school.

Continuing Success Through 2025-26 and Beyond

Furman has started the new school year with momentum. Students recently completed MAP testing, and teachers are already planning pathways.

“Our kids are really on fire for learning,” Curry says. “They’re excited about what they’re doing in Exact Path. It hasn’t become a chore. They’re actively working and motivated to get these trophies. They see their progress. They know it’s meaningful.”

For Curry, that’s the balance that matters most: teacher-led instruction at the core, strong Tier 1 curriculum as a resource, and Exact Path as the connective tissue that helps every student access the learning.