Success Stories

As a Title I school that only serves students up to second grade, Baker Elementary School in Wayland, MI, realizes it needs to start teaching fundamental reading skills as early as possible in order to affect learning gains. Baker's staff, including principal Celeste Diehm and Title I teacher consultant Larinda Olds, knew that the solution was just as much about making resources available to the students at home as at school.

Bakersfield College, in the San Joaquin Valley of Central California, serves an increasingly diverse community that includes a high proportion of immigrants and migrant workers. To give struggling students an opportunity at the career they desire, Bakersfield College set up a Student Success Lab, powered by Plato Courseware and other Edmentum systems.

Through a suite made up of Plato Courseware and Edmentum Assessments, Bermudian Springs was able to offer students opportunities in remediation and preparation for the Keystone Exams, as well as the ability to make up missing credits, keeping the possibility of graduation in sight for students who might not have remained motivated otherwise.

Small, rural schools and districts often do not have the means to offer their students anything other than the basic courses. In Alaska, students often need many more options in order to find a career or college. With EdOptions Academy, Copper River School District is able to offer more than 250 different courses in a high school population of only 100 students.

Cornerstone Schools, located in Detroit, Michigan, serves pre-K through 11th grade students. As a premier private school, Cornerstone strove to provide individualized instruction for the entirety of its student population. By implementing Edmentum Assessments, students now receive prescriptions that target their academic weaknesses to promote achievement.

If Dover High School could find a way to keep students engaged and on track to graduate, they could solve an increasing amount of classroom disruptions while giving students an opportunity to change the trajectory of their lives. “It isn’t easy. It takes the right people putting in a lot of very hard work,” said Dr. Edney. “But we are making progress.”

Frank Long Elementary uses Study Island to help students master grade-level academic standards and prepare for the Georgia Criterion-Referenced Competency Tests (CRCT). Through whole-class, small-group, and individualized instruction, students have increased their excitement about learning and are achieving steady gains.

A suburban school district in the Midwest opened a one-of-a-kind blended learning academy to meet the complicated needs of their at-risk high school students. Plato Courseware and Edmentum Accucess have been there since the beginning and will continue to be there as the academy scales to service all of the schools in the district.

In fall 2009, Lakeville South High School (LSHS) used Plato Courseware solutions to implement an intervention program for 9th and 10th grade students who were struggling with math. The school’s goal was to diagnose and prescribe individual paths of learning to prepare these students for the state math assessment taken by all Minnesota students in 11th grade. LSHS' students, teachers, and administrators have embraced the new initiative, and results on an external assessments show dramatic learning improvement by students in the program.

Lincoln K-8 Choice School implements Study Island to provide standards-based instruction, practice, and assessment to all students in grades 3–8. Since 2006, the school has experienced significant gains in the percentage of students achieving proficiency on the Minnesota Comprehensive Assessments (MCAs).

As STEM has become a hot-button topic among educators, schools and districts have shifted their focus toward science, math, and engineering curricula that prepare students for the 21st century. But perhaps no curricula are as much a departure from the status quo as those of Maryknoll School's new Mx Scholar Programs, which combine flexible blended learning with unmatched real-world experience.

Muhlenberg North Middle School, like many schools in Kentucky, had trouble transitioning to the Common Core State Standards. After the 2011–12 school year, the school found itself in the 38th percentile in achievement statewide and was classified as “Needs Improvement.” It wanted a better way to predict student proficiency and provide lower performing students with the help they needed. Now, with Study Island, Muhlenberg North has insight into which students will struggle before they actually do.

An elementary school in East Texas with 90 percent of its students economically disadvantaged has always found it challenging to reach its struggling students and prepare them for the rigorous STAAR assessments. Over the course of two years, Study Island has helped the school raise its achievement from underperforming to receiving distinction awards from the state.

Plato Courseware has helped Newark High School’s most at-risk students to thrive.

Pennsylvania Cyber Charter School is an online educational provider that offers students and families the opportunity to build their own school.With offices in Midland, Pittsburgh, Harrisburg, and Philadelphia, as well as four satellite locations across the state, the school is an easily accessible, customizable education resource. The cyber charter school offers a variety of proven curriculum and modes of instruction. With several thousand new students every year, Pennsylvania Cyber Charter School yearned for a web-based intervention that could help prepare its students for the state tests.

Perry County Central High School (PCC) in rural eastern Kentucky serves an area whose primary economy was built around coal mining. The past decade’s economic downturn impaired the area, and students needed educational opportunities to make them more competitive in the wider economy. Thanks to Plato Courseware, PCC’s graduation rate is at an all-time high, and the school is outpacing the state’s goals in college and career readiness.

Four rural school districts in Maine banded together 10 years ago to provide a flexible adult education environment that could help learners finish high school, prepare themselves for college, or gain certification in a career. As the 21st century economy has changed, their learners’ needs have as well. This is a pliability that only online learning can provide.

In California, offices of education provide the credentialing, financials, and specialization in alternative education services for the districts in their counties. The team at Riverside County Office of Education wanted to expand the course options for its at-risk education centers and its court school program. Plato Courseware was the remedy.

It can be hard to provide more than basic opportunities for students who cannot participate in mainstream classrooms. South Lindhurst Continuation High School in Northern California has leveraged modern technology with the timeless strategies of high expectations and building relationships to help special education and ELL students reach their goals for high school and beyond.

Tatum Elementary School in Farmersville, Texas, was in search of a program to help its at-risk students with reading. Upon instituting Reading Eggs, Tatum Elementary created opportunities for students to log on before school and after finishing assignments to focus on foundational literacy skills.With this new program, the opinions of at-risk students about learning began to shift, and Tatum Elementary even saw increased literacy rates among its previously struggling learners.

Student engagement and parental involvement are both powerful indicators of a school’s success. Tolbert Elementary School in rural Georgia has achieved both through creative leadership and a group of parents committed to providing the best opportunities for their children—including Study Island.

Union City School District uses Study Island to provide standards-based instruction in math, reading, and writing, and to help students prepare for the New Jersey Assessment of Skills and Knowledge (NJ ASK). Since implementing the online education program in 2006, the urban district has seen marked improvement in the performance of student subgroups. From 2005 to 2008, limited English proficient (LEP) students and special education students significantly increased their test scores in both language arts and math.

A small district in southwestern Indiana enlists Edmentum to serve every student's need, from kindergarteners to prospective high school graduates. As their blended learning program continues, they continue to find new and varied uses for the most comprehensive solution on the market.

Often, schools start investigating supplemental solutions if they are falling behind and desire a quick turnaround. Although that is certainly a viable course of action, and Edmentum’s suite of products can boast of plenty of those success stories, it’s also important to note that Edmentum's programs can be used as a basis for long-term success. Such is the case at Wilson Elementary School in Denton, TX.

Wrightstown Middle School in rural Wisconsin, with 20 percent of its students in RTI programs, needed a comprehensive solution to boost reading and math skills, track student progress, and provide instant feedback. Since the school implemented Study Island in 2009, students have tested out of the RTI program, and the school has seen an increase in standardized test scores.

Economically, Abraham Clark High School in suburban New Jersey has profound challenges. In the face of perceived deficits, a commitment to credit recovery, CTE, and data-driven instruction has led to a 22 percent increase in the school’s graduation rate in just four years.

Providing flexible credit options to middle school students is important, whether they need to catch up to their peers or earn credits toward high school. Northridge Middle School in Indiana has found a way to provide these alternatives, as well as other flexible options for its diverse student population.

Homeschooling and independent study programs have grown rapidly in part because of their flexibility and ability to serve students with varying needs. Pacific Charter Institute is supporting these students through a combination of in-person counseling, individualized learning plans, and lessons powered by a suite of Edmentum programs.

When a district serves a major military base, student mobility will always be a challenge. Before Onslow Virtual Academy, students’ credits may not have followed them if they moved outside the district. Now, students can continue to make progress toward graduation no matter where they finish the school year.

Beauregard Parish utilizes a suite of Edmentum programs to support improved graduation rates, ACT and WorkKeys performance, and formative assessment and practice.

To ensure that students are meeting science and civics FSA goals, Christa McAuliffe Middle School in Boynton Beach, Florida, leverages Edmentum’s Study Island to provide individualized standards-aligned practice and support. With an increasingly robust program implementation that now includes math and English language arts as well, educators continue to report impressive FSA score improvement and attest much of that success to their Study Island implementation.

Alternative education and credit recovery should be much more than another place for struggling students. The right program finds a way to reach every child and provides the necessary support for students to reach their goals. Such initiatives used to be out of reach for smaller districts with limited resources, but Van Dyke Public Schools is helping students get back on track at an impressive rate using Edmentum Courseware.

In Ohio, school districts face strong competition from charter schools, particularly when offering online programs. Seeing this competition, Ontario Local School District partnered with Edmentum to begin its own online initiative in an effort to reacquire the nearly 10 percent of its total population lost to other online programs.

Central Elementary School in Lucedale, Mississippi was looking for a way to move from ordinary to extraordinary. With a new Principal, Assistant Principal, a great faculty and a lot of positive energy they sought to take the school from middle-of-the road to top performer. Through implementing Study Island, Reading Eggs, and Exact Path, and transforming the environment of the school through clubs, houses, and high expectations, Central Elementary school's students have made astronomical gains in just one year. The school will be the first A-rated elementary in the district’s history.

Goodrich Middle and High School had difficulty recruiting the teachers needed due to its size and location. After weighing its options, the school partnered with Edmentum to allow students to take some of their courses online through Edmentum Courseware with a state-certified Edmentum teacher. Students struggled at first but eventually rose to the challenge and succeeded. With new higher levels of achievement, many students are now able to take dual enrollment courses through the University of Texas.

Every student has unique learning needs, and no one knows how to address those needs better than teachers. So, when Central High School in Burlington, Illinois, wanted to employ a blended learning solution in its new credit recovery program, the ability to customize course content was at the top of its list of requirements, and it led them to Edmentum’s solutions.

Michigan City High School is paving the way for student achievement through credit recovery and enrichment opportunities that have led to graduation success. Educators attribute student motivation, determination and accountability, along with their “equalizer” Edmentum Courseware, to their ability to meet diverse student needs and support graduation. Now, they look forward to even more progress with Study Island.

Every school has different needs, particularly in online learning. Seeking a way to help students recover credits in a more efficient manner, a high school in Michigan partnered with Edmentum for addressing specific needs while maintaining the rigor the school has been known for.

Credit recovery often focuses on students who are close to graduation. However, keeping students on track throughout their high school careers has benefits that go beyond a four-year graduation rate. In fact, for Paxton-Buckley-Loda Senior High School in rural Illinois, the ability to offer a cost-effective credit recovery solution is having transformative effects throughout the school.

In 2016, Walton County School District in DeFuniak Springs, Florida, identified an opportunity to turn around the interest and performance of its students in science. By implementing Edmentum’s Study Island in grades 3–8 beginning in the fall of 2017, educators began to explore unique ways to deliver standards-based practice and formative assessment to support whole-group, small-group, and individualized learning, ultimately leading to significant growth on the Florida State Assessments.

When Collins-Parr Elementary in South Texas won a grant to help improve student achievement, the first place the school turned for a new online learning program was its current partner, Edmentum. After hearing about Exact Path and seeing it live, school administrators were sold. In its first implementation year, 2017–18, Collins-Parr Elementary saw outstanding growth, significantly reducing the percentage of students working below grade level and more than doubling the percentage of students working at or above grade level.

In one of the most diverse schools in the country, students walk through the door with a wide range of abilities, backgrounds, and interests. In that situation, you would think flexibility and differentiation would be difficult. Not so! Malden High School in Massachusetts is helping students stay on track through Courseware.

Independence Charter Academy (ICA) is an independent study program ready to make the leap from paper-and-pencil to digital curriculum. It needed an online curriculum provider that allows students to work at their own pace through individualized assignments and one that is aligned to the standards and to the rigorous requirements of the UC and CSU “a-g” program. Through implementing Courseware and Exact Path, ICA has been able to transition seamlessly to digital curriculum and improve both the teacher and student experiences.

Between urban migration and ongoing budget shortcomings, rural schools in the U.S. have been making do with the bare minimum. This often means that those schools cannot provide opportunities for students to explore beyond the core curriculum. Through Edmentum’s EdOptions Academy, Telstar Regional Middle/High School in Maine provides more foreign language instruction, elective courses that can lead to better college preparedness, and coursework that better engages students by reflecting their interests.

Originally used as a cyber school solution to reattract students to the district, Edmentum Courseware has allowed this high school in rural Pennsylvania to offer blended learning options that fit all students’ needs, even if they learn best in the “one-room schoolhouse” approach. Now, more students are taking ownership of their learning and graduating on time.

For students at risk of dropping out, having just one teacher willing to listen to their concerns and empowered to provide alternatives can make all the difference. Such is the case at Medomak Valley High School in rural Maine, where an alternative learning strategy including Courseware and Ed Options Academy is helping students make meaningful connections, build community, and successfully cross the graduation finish line.

Kennedy Elementary School in Barrow County, Georgia, initially turned to Edmentum's Study Island as a way to engage parents in student learning while addressing the needs of the bottom-performing 25 percent of students. Now, thanks to the incredible enthusiasm and effective use of data from both Study Island and Exact Path by teachers at KES, students are not only more comfortable and confident when it comes to taking NWEA MAP assessments, they are also achieving real growth on the Georgia Milestones assessments.

The National Guard Alaska Military Youth Academy (AMYA) ChalleNGe program gives at-risk Alaskan youth a second chance to graduate and learn skills necessary to succeed as adults. Using Courseware and Edmentum Assessments, along with their own resources, AMYA has created a successful custom curriculum for their cadets. Now, AMYA has seamless credit recovery allowing even more cadets to earn their high school diplomas directly from AMYA or go back to their high schools on track to graduate on time. Additionally, through the effectiveness of AMYA's GED preparation program, about 25% of GED credentials obtained in the state of Alaska are earned by AMYA cadets.

Aiming to close achievement gaps and differentiate instruction, educators at Demorest Elementary School partnered with Edmentum to bring adaptive learning, formative assessment, and foundational literacy programs to its students. The school’s success leveraging Edmentum’s online programs continues to elevate and transform teaching practices, ultimately leading to a districtwide elementary rollout in the 2018–19 school year.

Chilton County Schools (CCS) was looking for an online learning partner who could help the district address multiple initiatives from grades K–12: foundational literacy skills, targeted intervention, individualized learning, credit recovery, unit recovery, online courses, and ACT® test preparation. After reviewing six providers, CCS decided to partner with Edmentum because of the comprehensive offerings and easy-to-use programs and due to the fact that students enjoyed using Edmentum’s programs. During the first year of the implementation, schools in the district have already begun to see outstanding growth.

Turning to Edmentum to support disparate student needs, educators at Fortville Elementary School in Indiana leveraged their NWEA™ MAP® Growth™ assessment scores to drive personalized instruction and targeted practice for K–5 students. With increased NWEA scores year after year and an improved state school rating, educators give much of the credit to their Edmentum implementation.

To better prepare students for the Statewide Science Assessment, Okaloosa County School District found that by spiraling science curriculum, it could reinforce learning and key concepts continually for students, even between testing years. The district needed an additional resource to help support its approach to science and found that Edmentum’s practice and assessment preparation program, Study Island, gave it exactly the right tools and flexibility to drive science mastery across the district.

Navasota Independent School District needed a way to effectively identify students for RTI in grades 3–8, so the district implemented NWEA™ MAP© Growth™ as its assessment tool. For instruction, leaders at Navasota ISD decided to partner with Edmentum because of its ability to provide targeted individualized instruction and practice based on each student’s NWEA MAP Growth results. After more than a year of utilizing Study Island and Exact Path, the district has a successful RTI program and has already begun to see growth on test result of the STAAR, the Texas state assessment.

Onalaska Independent School District began partnering with Edmentum in 2016 when it needed an online course provider for credit recovery and for expansion of its course catalog. Since then, the partnership has expanded to support intervention, state test (STAAR) preparation, foundational literacy, CTE, and personalized learning initiatives in grades K–12. Onalaska ISD has already begun to see results with phenomenal improvements on STAAR end-of-course assessments between 2018 and 2019.

By strengthening a longstanding partnership with Edmentum, school leaders at Cook County Schools in Georgia have been able to address a plethora of program needs, including intervention, early literacy, academic growth, standards proficiency, and credit recovery, guided by a cohesive vision and centralized support. In 2019, the district has earned the SSTAGE Star Award for Promising Practices for its superb intervention continuum across all grade spans and has achieved impressive year-over-year Lexile and Quantile growth to back it up.

The Tennessee Department of Children’s Services oversees a number of schools across the state and supports a highly transient, versatile student population, ranging across all age groups, grade levels, and educational backgrounds. They needed a tool that could help educators make students’ time with the department count. As a result, it has implemented Edmentum’s Exact Path, Study Island, and Courseware programs in order to rise to the challenge of meeting the needs of all these different students, closing skill gaps, and achieving success.

When Jeri Wolsey, assistant superintendent at Kingman United School District #20 (KUSD) in Kingman, Arizona, was looking for a program to help boost student achievement, she chose Study Island because she had experienced success using the program as both a teacher and a principal. As the district’s needs expanded, so did its partnership with Edmentum as it added Exact Path and Courseware. As a result of using Edmentum programs, two elementary schools in KUSD have improved their school ratings one letter grade, and high school students are successfully completing coursework that is much more rigorous, requiring a deeper understanding than ever before.

Every day, Caldwell Parish High School (CPHS) demonstrates that the challenges faced by students from rural and economically disadvantaged communities are not insurmountable. Through its commitment to providing every student with multiple opportunities for success, the hard work of its highly qualified educators and administrators, and its partnership with Edmentum, CPHS has achieved an A rating by the state of Louisiana for the past three years.

Flash back to district reporting from just one year ago, and you’ll find that the Vigo County School Corporation (VCSC) in Terre Haute, Indiana, was hemorrhaging students—to the tune of 367 students choosing an outside virtual option during the 2018–19 school year alone. These students were exiting to take advantage of virtual learning options that the district wasn’t yet capable of offering. However, district and school leaders were seeing many of these students return, sometimes with no progress to show and no credits earned, just to wind up further behind and back in a classroom setting that wasn’t proving to be effective for them.

The Excel Center Memphis is providing adults in the community with the opportunity and support to earn a high school diploma and develop postsecondary education and career paths that offer greater opportunities for employment and career growth—at no cost to the student.

Millwood High School (MHS) is part of Millwood Public Schools, an independent school district located in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma. In 2019, MHS was rated an F by the state; however, with the appointment of a new principal and the hard work of the faculty and staff, MHS revamped its educational approach to a blended learning model utilizing Courseware and Test Packs from Edmentum and then seamlessly transitioned to completely virtual instruction in the spring of 2020. After one school year of implementing the new instructional approach, the school has already begun to see remarkable growth in student achievement that couldn’t even be thwarted by a pandemic.

In a high-poverty, rural area of North Carolina, Halifax County School District is beating the odds to ensure that students achieve a five-star life. Challenged with a transient student and teacher population, district leaders partnered with Edmentum to support foundational literacy, achieve grade-level proficiency, attain individual student growth, and meet graduation goals.

By combining Edmentum programs with teacher-directed support, learners at the Merrillville Adult Education (MAE) program are completing flexible learning plans to close skill gaps, achieve growth, and ultimately, earn high school equivalency by achieving success on the TASC test.

Mitchell Community Schools in Indiana saw an opportunity to simplify its online programming in order to propel data-driven learning. Edmentum became the district’s primary partner in 2020, offering assessments, practice, and digital curriculum with Exact Path, Study Island, and Courseware, respectively. The mutual partnership that was created continues to meet every student’s individual needs, leading to proven academic growth.

Serving a predominately socioeconomically disadvantaged student population in Harvard, Illinois, Harvard Community Unit School District 50 strives to ensure that each of its students is empowered to beat the odds. By partnering with Edmentum, educators are supporting all K–12 learners by offering differentiated instruction, rigorous online curriculum, and standards-aligned practice to increase graduation rates and recover missed credit opportunities.

Using Edmentum’s Reading Eggs program, Indiana Math and Science Academy West helps K–6 learners of all ability and achievement levels close reading gaps and reach foundational literacy milestones during the transition to fully virtual instruction.

The math department at Cumberland Valley School District first implemented Exact Path as the online learning component of a guided math program in a small number of 6th-grade classrooms. As educators shared their experiences and successes of the program with their colleagues, the implementation grew, and it is now used by all students taking math from grade 6 through Algebra I. In addition to providing data to support math placement decisions, IEPs, and individual student goal setting, Exact Path is giving students in the district an individualized learning experience in which they can address their learning gaps and achieve growth.

Fanshawe College has partnered with Courseware for over 10 years to offer math, literacy, and college-readiness courses to adult learners hoping to strengthen foundational skills before moving to more advanced courses in their post-secondary plans. The strong combination of dedicated teachers and Courseware’s flexible curricula has helped students bridge the transition to digital learning amid COVID-19 restrictions.

California Pacific Charter School (CalPac) turned to Edmentum to provide online tools for targeted, data-driven intervention for their online learners. Initially, leaders at CalPac implemented Exact Path to assess and create individualized learning paths for middle school students working below grade level. After the first few years of using Exact Path, the educational leaders at CalPac expanded their implementation to meet the growing needs of students in grades two through eight. Educators utilize the program to not only address skill gaps, but to extend learning, and to prepare for state assessments. After extending the program, all students experienced growth, with some moving up as many as two grade levels.

The educators at Acquinton Elementary School desired an online solution that answered, “What’s next?” after receiving NWEA MAP Growth assessment data. With Edmentum Exact Path, those results were turned into personalized playlists of instruction designed to meet every student’s needs so that teachers could better equip learners to meet their growth goals and ultimately access grade-level content.

With the goal of delivering individualized, equitable education for all, KCSD began the 2019–20 school year using a range of Edmentum programs—Exact Path, Study Island, Courseware, and Reading Eggs—to create a solid foundation of easy-to-use tools that provide actionable data to drive decision-making. Dr. Robbins knew that the right tools would put valuable time back in his teachers’ hands and allow them to focus on their unique student needs.

Aiming to build a virtual learning program amidst a pandemic, leaders at Silver Valley Unified School District implemented a variety of Edmentum programs—EdOptions Academy, Exact Path, Courseware, and Calvert Learning. Through this implementation, Silver Valley USD not only provides a high-quality virtual learning experience to students who need it but also offers an expanded course catalog to support military-connected students and provide more options and flexibility to all district students and families.

WCMS educators strive to ensure that students understand they are just as capable as any in the nation, regardless of their remote location. To level the educational playing field, school leaders sought Edmentum’s support to raise test scores and individualize instruction.

Decatur City Schools began implementing Courseware as a way for students to recover credits, as well as earn first-time credits through a flexible virtual offering. Beginning in March 2020, COVID-19 added complexity that the district’s already-established partnership with Edmentum was able to greatly support. By the end of the 2020–21 school year, teachers had learned to maximize their partnership with Edmentum, providing continuous learning opportunities no matter if students attended in person or virtually.

When the global pandemic began, educators in Clover School District (CSD) sought state-aligned, flexible curriculum to meet the diverse needs of their student body in all learning conditions. They wanted to offer a variety of courses for the district’s graduation pathways, fit those courses into student schedules while addressing extenuating student circumstances, and deliver this curriculum using their learning management system (LMS), Canvas.

“This is a life skill we’re giving them.”

Dorchester School District Two discovered that some students were not ready for high school academics, raising the risk of them getting behind in ninth grade, performing poorly, and raising the possibility of dropping out before graduation. Though students were passing their middle school classes, that wasn’t always enough to prepare them for high school success.

Nationwide, approximately 750,000 incoming juniors and seniors are ready to enroll in rigorous academic programs each year. However, low-income students and students of color are not engaged at the same rate as their peers. College readiness is a strong driver in the state of Iowa, and the state has a long history of making Advanced Placement® courses a priority. Its schools serve nearly half a million students, with the majority of those students living in urban areas where AP® courses are accessible. But almost 70% of Iowa’s school districts have small enrollment sizes. Students at these small and often rural schools had little or no access to AP courses, making access to Advanced Placement courses uneven in the state.

When Kershaw County School District (KCSD) superintendent Dr. Shane Robbins arrived in the district, he envisioned the diverse school district as a model for 21st century learning. The district’s high schools had been the first in the state to provide 1:1 technology for students in and it was picked as one of the five original districts in South Carolina to pilot an online learning initiative in 2018. Dr. Robbins wanted to create comfort and competency in a 1:1 blended learning environment and in utilizing technology to give students a voice in their instruction.

In the 2018-19 school year, Vigo County School Corporation (VCSC) in Terre Haute, Indiana, was hemorrhaging students who were exiting to take advantage of virtual learning options that the district wasn’t yet capable of offering. However, district and school leaders were seeing many of these students return, sometimes with no progress to show and no credits earned, just to wind up further behind and back in a classroom setting that wasn’t proving to be effective for them.

Temecula Valley USD high schools have been recognized at the state and national level for their excellence. The district has a high school graduation rate of 94.6 percent—significantly above the state average—and 72.1 percent of its graduates complete all courses required for admission into the University of California and California State University systems.

Like many highly effective instructional programs, Cumberland Valley School District (CVSD) in Mechanicsburg, Pennsylvania focuses on the use of data to help drive instructional decisions.

Special education students at Clewiston High School in Hendry County, Florida, struggled with the online curriculum they were using for credit recovery to the point where they either dropped out of school or just couldn’t graduate. Hendry County Schools is a small, rural district and for students in this community, walking across Cane Field, the school’s football stadium, to receive their diplomas is a special milestone, and one that many special education students didn’t get to experience as they had significantly lower graduation rates than their general education peers.

When working with a young student during the spring of 2020 made it very evident that she needed to create a space unlike any she had experienced, Felicia Rattray decided to start her own school, Permission to Succeed Education Center in Ft. Lauderdale, Florida. Mrs. Rattray’s background as an educator and school counselor gave her unique insight into finding partners and learning technologies that would guarantee her students’ success.