Swain County superintendent outlines classroom-focused plan: coaching, explicit instruction and attendance incentives

The Swain County Board of Education heard a district-level plan focused on strengthening core classroom instruction rather than increasing small-group interventions, Superintendent said during the board’s regular meeting. The superintendent recommended a systemwide coaching initiative, clearer expectations for explicit instruction in classrooms, expanded literacy training and a district-funded attendance incentive pilot to increase daily student attendance.

The superintendent told the board that district projections for 2024–25 test results are not yet public and should not be shared because the North Carolina Department of Public Instruction (DPI) has not released final data. She said assessments show stagnation and that “we don't have an intervention problem, we have a core problem in the classroom,” adding that many students “are not completing the skill sets that we need for them to have.”

Nut graf: The initiative is aimed at improving day-to-day instruction across all schools by training teacher leaders, standardizing observable instructional…