Rethinking School Improvement
Through Alignment and Community:
How One School Increased Proficiency by 30 Points—
Without Adding Another Initiative
A Participate Learning White Paper
School and district leaders are under pressure to improve outcomes without overloading staff or adding more initiatives.
This white paper shows how Efland-Cheeks Elementary (Orange County Schools, NC) took a more focused approach—leveraging Participate Learning’s Global Leaders to align leadership, instruction, professional learning, and community engagement, creating the coherence that led to stronger academic and community outcomes.
The Impact at Efland-Cheeks Elementary
- Math proficiency increased from 39% to 69%
- Reading proficiency increased from 28% to 57%
- Gains across student groups, including multilingual learners and economically disadvantaged students
- Improved attendance
- Increased enrollment and stronger family engagement
Inside the White Paper
- How to bring focus to competing priorities by aligning leadership, instruction, and community engagement
- What alignment looks like in practice across a school
- How this approach improves both academic outcomes, student engagement, and enrollment
- How schools can apply these lessons within existing priorities and resources
Supporting Academic Growth and Future Readiness
Through Global Leaders, schools integrate real-world learning into everyday instruction—helping students build critical thinking, communication, and problem-solving skills while strengthening core academic outcomes.
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