The program, called Learning Focused Solutions, originated in North Carolina 20 years ago, said English/language arts cadre Aleta Thompson.  It’s a framework designed to help students achieve continuous, pervasive success, she said, and has to be implemented in all classrooms to work best.

High school guidance counselor Terry Sutton said classroom activities are based in research.  “Learning that lasts needs understanding and engagement,” she said.  “When you let the kids take ownership of the knowledge they’ve received, they become the masters of it,” she said.

That can mean letting students teach, she said, because hands-on learning and sharing knowledge lead to better comprehension.

Sutton said that as part of the program, teachers preview lessons and help students who have gaps in their knowledge base by providing them aids.  “If you have a student who doesn’t know his seven times tables, you give him a sheet to use as a help until he gets it,” she said at the Thursday, Sept. 24 school board meeting.

Thompson said teachers give unscheduled quizzes to see which students have grasped the material and which ones need extra help.  It’s also a way to keep high-achieving students on task, said Sutton.  

Administrators keep an eye on progress by visiting five classrooms for five minutes each day, said Thompson.  They look to see that an essential question has been made clear to students, and that the class is engaged.  

There is a heavy emphasis on vocabulary, she said.

Thompson said teachers are enthusiastic about the program.  She said as teachers move through the training process, they learn incorporate one strategy at a time, adding more as they go along.