When Great Falls Elementary Was Counted Out, Its Principal Saw a School Worth Fighting For

Great Falls Elementary School (GFE) in Chester, South Carolina was ranked 60th out of 60 schools identified for Comprehensive Support and Improvement (CSI) in the state. The school’s new principal, Dr. Tammy Taylor, was facing high teacher turnover while trying to support students who were several grade levels behind. Then a state diagnostic review delivered another blow, saying Taylor “does not have the capacity to lead GFE through its turnaround efforts.”

Taylor was devastated, but quickly rallied. “I absolutely have the capacity to move the school,” she recalls thinking. “And I’m going to show them what my capacity actually will allow me to do.” In an Edmentum webinar, CSI to Success: Transforming Your School, she shared how her school exited CSI and kept climbing. Here are the steps they took.

Step 1: Strengthen Tier 1 Instruction and Close Learning Gaps

Taylor knew GFE’s low performance didn’t mean students couldn’t succeed. She saw the potential, but was also addressing significant learning gaps in an instructional system that wasn’t consistently helping educators close those gaps.

Tier 1 instruction varied widely from classroom to classroom, so Taylor: 

• Created a new instructional leadership team
• Established clearer expectations for teaching
• Spent time in classrooms providing feedback

She also worked intentionally to change the notion that accountability scores belonged only to teachers in tested grades. If students reached third grade unprepared, she asserted, that result belonged to the entire school.

Step 2: Personalize Intervention Around What Students Need

Some GFE students needed more than improved grade-level instruction, so the school was looking for an intervention tool that would benefit everyone. “For me, that focus was going to be on individualizing instruction,” Taylor explained. “I knew that I had to get in there and get these gaps closed.” The search eventually led to Edmentum’s Exact Path.

“We chose Exact Path, and I’m so thankful that we did because it allowed me to personalize the learning paths that we were trying to create for our children,” Taylor said. “It provided me with the opportunity to use intentional interventions.”

The school began seeing gaps close in its NWEA MAP data and continued to see progress, which Taylor credits to the team. “Yes, we are using Exact Path, but you are the difference,” she told her staff. “You’re the difference because you’re allowing this tool to help us to get our kids where we need them to be.”

The state results changed dramatically, and Taylor said GFE posted a higher report card average than every other elementary school in the district. The school also:

• Went from an unsatisfactory report card to good in one year
• Climbed from number 60 on South Carolina's CSI list to number 14
• Eventually exited CSI and all other levels of school improvement

The team now knows they need to keep working to sustain the growth. “School improvement is a process, and continuous school improvement is even more of a process,” Taylor said. “We can’t stop doing what we’re doing.”

Step 3: Move Students from Growth to Grade-Level Proficiency 

“We’re almost there with the gap closing,” Taylor said. “And now what we’re going to focus on with them is making sure that they are proficient and remain such.”

GFE now provides more intervention than it did when the school was struggling, including daily classroom support. Some students receiving Tier 2 or Tier 3 services are in intervention multiple times a day, but there’s a positive reason for the increase. As fewer students need intensive support to close learning gaps, more time can be spent making sure those students are meeting grade-level expectations through standards-aligned instruction and practice.

GFE faced enormous foundational gaps, but intervention and personalized instruction changed the picture. Now, the school that once sat at the bottom of South Carolina’s CSI list is excited to be building on the progress its students have already made.