Alachua County Board hears progress report on districtwide instructional overhaul

Superintendent Patton opened the board workshop on April 1 by framing the district’s work as a multi‑year campaign to align instruction across Alachua County Public Schools and raise tier‑1 classroom practice.

Dr. Jennifer Rink of Instructional Empowerment described an integrated instructional framework that pairs two classroom‑visit tools — a “rigor walk” used for system‑level trend data and a “look and learn” used for targeted coaching and feedback. “The rigor walk serves as a continuous improvement tool that provides a common language and how we measure the impact of our instructional practices,” Rink said, explaining that the district’s coaches and literacy specialists use the metrics to guide immediate, actionable next steps.

Principals from several elementary schools told the board they have used rigor‑walk data to focus collaborative planning on standards alignment, question complexity and interdependent student tasks. “It allows us to look at trends across the school and take collaborative responsibility for strengthening tier‑1 core instruction,” a principal from Alachua Elementary said, describing weekly planning sessions, pre‑work templates and scheduled look‑and‑learn visits where leadership provides in‑class feedback.

At Metcalfe Elementary, leaders credited the approach with both higher student engagement and fewer discipline incidents. The Metcalfe principal said suspension counts dropped from 160 last school year to 24 this year, a decline presented as an 85% reduction tied to increased engagement and structured teaming; that figure was offered as a site‑level outcome during the presentation rather than as a district‑verified audit.

District staff described steps to build internal capacity: literacy specialists conduct tuning protocols and lead look‑and‑learn cycles; principals participate in monthly calibration sessions; and the district is phasing in more full‑time literacy‑specialist and math‑coaching roles next year. Sherry Estes, principal at Kanapaha Middle School, reported that the first training round drew 112 teachers, 19 literacy specialists and 50 administrators and said model classrooms would be in place by the end of the school year.

Board members asked about cost and sustainability. Staff confirmed the current Instructional Empowerment contract runs roughly $1.3 million per year and that the district is approaching the partnership as a multi‑year (three‑year) investment whose goal is to develop internal capacity to sustain the work. Board members pressed for an “at‑a‑glance” district report using the K‑12 Lift data format so trustees can see school‑by‑school progress; staff said they are building those reports and intend to keep a K‑12 Lift‑based view while also developing in‑house analytics capacity.

The board’s questions also focused on timelines and support for new teachers and long‑term substitutes. District leaders said beginning teachers receive monthly protected professional learning, and long‑term substitutes have access to the same cohort sessions; principals said new teachers are formally observed multiple times and receive immediate, job‑embedded feedback through look‑and‑learn cycles.

The workshop closed with the board thanking teachers and administrators for a year of intensive rollout, and district leaders said training continues through April and May as the district scales implementation next school year.

The board took no formal vote at the workshop; next steps include continuing scheduled trainings, hiring additional coaching staff and preparing the district’s next‑year budget request to sustain literacy and coaching positions.