Amy Boles is Director of Educational Services for Oak Grove School District (OGSD), where over 70% of students are Latino, Asian, or Pacific Islander and nearly one quarter are English Learners.
“Our students reflect a great diversity of backgrounds and needs. We’re always working to understand what they’ve come in with and where they can go next,” she says.
Amid economic disparities, budget pressures, and decreasing enrollments, OGSD is striving to invest wisely and fulfill its mission of equipping every child to achieve their maximum potential.
—Amy Boles, Director of Educational Services for Oak Grove School District
READ HER DISTRICT’S STORYIn 2014, Oak Grove was adjusting to new learning standards, a new state assessment system, and revised state funding formulas.
Superintendent José L. Manzo told the adoption team: “Whatever tool we choose, it must give teachers continuous and ongoing feedback regarding the impact of their instruction.”
They chose i‑Ready, citing its ability to pinpoint students’ placement across domains and then build out an appropriate learning progression, its coverage of K–8, and its overall ease of use.
The goal during OGSD’s multiyear implementation has been getting solid data and helping teachers to use that data to inform instruction. In the beginning, OGSD leaders knew that teachers would need to see i‑Ready work inside their own classrooms, with their own students, to believe in it.
So they gave teachers space to explore and integrate i‑Ready at their own pace, and soon, crops of “early adopters” surfaced. Says Boles, “One of the exciting benefits that came through was that teachers began training themselves and one another. They were taking ownership.”
Grades 3–8
