Challenge

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.

“I try to find the curriculum or the platform that works best for each student, so they all have the opportunity to work at their level and at their pace,” Mrs. Rattray explained. “And in my quest of trying to figure out the best strategies to make sure that every student received the help that they needed in the exact moment that they needed, I was introduced to Edmentum.”

Solution

Permission to Succeed Education Center provides a unique learning environment for its K-12th grade students where about half of the learners are primarily on-site or hybrid and the remainder work entirely in a virtual setting. No matter where students are physically, they receive a combination of self-paced, asynchronous learning opportunities paired with one-to-one, targeted, teacher-led instruction. To fuel this model, students rely on high-quality, flexible programs from Edmentum.

The inaugural classes of students began utilizing Apex Learning Courses and Tutorials by Edmentum in the fall of 2020 and expanded to include Exact Path in the summer of 2022. Courses provided standards-aligned, engaging, and interactive curricula. Tutorials served as a natural complement to address learning gaps, improve credit recovery, and support grade-level proficiency. It was the introduction of Exact Path, however, that allowed Mrs. Rattray to provide all the educators and students with a tool that could identify the specific needs of a student across multiple grade bands in math, reading, and language arts, and that addition really ignited success. Students had grade-level work through Courses and Tutorials, but then they also had Exact Path as their learning tool to expand on foundational skills.

Result

The hybrid combination of asynchronous and one-to-one instruction at Permission to Succeed Education Center has given students the ability to spend an average of 40 minutes per subject, per day focusing on foundational skills specific to their individual learning needs within Exact Path, while Courses and Tutorials are continually utilized for original credit, credit recovery, and grade-level gap coverage to help students meet grade-level proficiencies. Students are challenged to master skills and standards that are specific to their needs, whether below, at, or above their actual grade level, and students and their families have a greater understanding of their expectations and of their hopes for the future. The passion for teaching and learning is being fostered by the success of the Edmentum implementation and ultimately making a positive difference in the lives of the students and families being served.

“Having the consistency and the structure and the right tools, such as Edmentum Exact Path, that is what is giving us the success stories of four-year-olds reading on a 1st grade level and kindergarteners on 2nd grade math,” Mrs. Rattray stated. “Their parents are telling me, ‘Oh, I never expected this! Thank you!’ They’re understanding their levels. They’re understanding that this doesn’t define them; it just shows them that they have the power within to change their world into whatever they want it to be.”