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We Partner with You to Change Students’ Lives

School Improvement Services That Empower You to Transform Instructional Systems for Your Students

We partner with school and district leaders to build your school’s capacity and instructional systems. Our goal is for schools to achieve rapid, measurable, long-term outcomes for their students by focusing on rigorous classroom instruction and school advancement.

If you want to build a collaborative, engaging learning culture in all classrooms that closes achievement gaps for all students, we promise to work shoulder-to-shoulder with you.

Our partnership is an investment in school leadership and systems improvement. We learn your needs and co-develop a tailored plan based on your goals and our evidence-proven methodologies. Our experienced coaches are with you every step of the way to implement a bold vision for instruction and school advancement.

Our Solutions Meet Evidence-Based ESSA Levels

“It’s more than partnering with a business—I feel like everyone truly cares and is invested in our school, in the leadership team, and in the teachers and parents.”

Sarajean McDaniel
Executive Director of Leadership Development,
Putnam County School District, FL

When Shaw Elementary School was designated by the state as needing intensive support, we partnered to transform the learning environment.

Students proudly share a thinking tool they used to self-direct their own learning in academic teams.

Our Social Mission Drives Our Results

Our social mission is to end generational poverty and eliminate racial achievement gaps through transformed core instruction.

We are so serious about our social mission that we founded our own independent Applied Research Center.

Our research center verifies every project using the most exacting federal research standards. We ensure our methods work in every school and every classroom in all the different communities that our partner schools serve.

The results of our team members tell the story of our social mission. We partner with all ranges of schools – from schools with persistently low achievement scores to schools with higher performance that want to become even better.

LEARN HOW WE ADVANCE SCHOOLS

Learn more about why our founder, Michael Toth, is passionate about breaking generational poverty.

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We Are Not a Program – We Do Systems Work

Develop a Vision for Sustainable Improvement

Our results are sustained because our partnership is an investment in school leadership and systems improvement. We focus on the core issues that hold schools back. We build your capacity for continuous instructional improvement that translates into year-after-year learning gains.

3 Pathways to Success

Every school has a story. Every school is unique. Every school has its own pathway to advancement.

We believe all schools can become an Empowerment Destination School where every student achieves grade level or above proficiency, self-efficacy, and upward mobility. We designed three unique pathways with different levels of support so no matter your initial starting point, we can help you reach your goals.

Implement Your Tailored Plan

We meet you where you are through a partnered assessment of your instructional systems. We learn your school’s exact needs and your district’s expectations. We develop a plan to meet the needs of your school, leader, faculty, and students and we help you implement it.

Explore our PATHWAYS TO SCHOOL ADVANCEMENT

Pathways to School Advancement

“The most powerful attribute of the partnership has been meeting our schools where they are and assessing what tools we can use to help support them based on their needs. Each time I collaborate with Instructional Empowerment, I walk away from the meeting feeling that they’re just as invested in the success of our schools as we are.”

Brandon White
Assistant Superintendent of Academics,
South Bend Community School Corporation, IN

100% of Our Team Members’ Schools Increased Learning Gains During the Pandemic

We will not settle for returning to pre-pandemic levels.

Our team members’ schools narrowed achievement gaps that existed before the pandemic and accelerated learning for students who have been historically marginalized.

In Schools Designated for Comprehensive or Targeted Support, Our Team Members Achieved a Perfect Track Record

We partner with many schools that have been designated by the state for Comprehensive Support and Improvement (CSI) or Targeted Support and Improvement (TSI) under ESSA.

We believe every student from every background can thrive in a rigorous learning environment, and our results prove it.

Not only do our partner school students excel academically, they build the skills for upward mobility, like critical thinking, self-regulation, and leadership.

LEARN HOW WE ADVANCE SCHOOLS

Click the image to view a larger version

State accountability data from the Florida School Grades Archives (2017-2022).

“Collaborating with Instructional Empowerment’s team members as an outside partner helped shape our district’s vision for teaching and learning. Their intensive partnerships at two schools provided our district team an opportunity to learn effective instructional practices that we then leveraged at other schools in the district.”

Dr. Rick Surrency
Superintendent, Putnam County School District, FL
2023 Florida Superintendent of the Year
Tripled State Accountability Results
Principal, teachers, and staff at Lakewood.
Lakewood Elementary School Case Study
Best Results in 7 Years
Community celebration with McLaughlin’s staff and our team members.
McLaughlin Middle School Case Study

Exiting State Accountability

District superintendent celebrating Moseley’s achievement with the school team.
Moseley Elementary School Case Study

Our Team Members Have a 100% Career Success Record for Accelerating School Achievement

Below are just a few results from our team members’ partnership schools.

Elementary Schools

Secondary Schools

State accountability data from the Florida School Grades Archives (2019-2021).

Basileo, L. (2022). South Bend Learning Rates. Instructional Empowerment Applied Research Center (Unpublished).

Basileo, L.D. (2019). How a Great City School District Is Improving Performance and Closing Achievement Gaps for All Students: A 10,000-Student Study of Des Moines Public Schools.

LEARN HOW WE ADVANCE SCHOOLS
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The Longer You Partner with Us,
the Better Your Results

Build Your Capacity

Our goal is for you to experience self-sustaining increases in student learning gains.

How? We establish instructional systems, high-capacity principal leadership, and a strong school leadership team. Strengthening systems and developing leaders’ and teachers’ instructional capacity is critical to our work.

Grow from a Strong Foundation 

Our research shows student learning gains and proficiency continue to increase each year during our multi-year partnerships. Our support level is typically more intense in the beginning to establish the core systems. As the principal and school leadership team increase their capacities to lead the work, we will build the ability to sustain the initiative.

“Catch Your Own Fish” 

Recall the old saying: Give someone a fish, and the person will be hungry tomorrow. Teach someone to fish, and the person will never be hungry. Quick fixes never lead to sustainable results. The longer we have the opportunity to coach you, the better we can build your capacity to sustain the work.

Learn more about how we partner with schools.

According to a districtwide 10,000 student research study meeting What Works Clearinghouse federal standards in Des Moines Public Schools, all students in partner schools that worked with our team members had a statistically significant improvement. Students in Year 2 schools had larger learning gains: the equivalent of an additional 21 days of learning in reading and 10 days in math.

Basileo, L.D. (2019). How a Great City School District Is Improving Performance and Closing Achievement Gaps for All Students: A 10,000-Student Study of Des Moines Public Schools.

Talk to an Expert Educator About a Partnership

The More Coaching Days –
The More Student Achievement

Everything we do is research-verified, including the effects of our school leadership coaches.

Research verifies that the more days of our side-by-side leadership coaching we provide to a principal and their leadership team, the greater the student achievement acceleration.

Instructional Empowerment goes to great lengths to provide the best school leadership coaches to our partner schools. Every one of our leadership coaches has served as a successful school or district leader. Every single one.

Basileo, L. D., Lyons, L., & Toth, M. D. (In Progress). Leading Indicators of Academic Achievement: Investigating the Predictive Validity of an Observation Instrument in A Large District.

Why Do Our Principal Coaches Get Proven Results?

More than just experience, our team members’ results have come from deep training in the Instructional Empowerment metrics and methods for school advancement and leadership development.

All our school leadership coaches are certified to do our work and have the support of their own learning communities and field supervision.

We focus on building the capacities of our team to be better able to build the capacities of your teams. All our leadership coaching is done side-by-side with your leaders. We are in your schools, helping you implement the systems work that transforms core instruction. Our coaching is always practical, hands-on, and highly valued by the principals we coach.

“They sent the best and the brightest they have from their company to help mentor and develop us as instructional leaders to really move our school forward.”

Dr. Debra Wright-Hudson
Principal, McLaughlin Middle School, Lake Wales, FL

“The partnership with IE has been amazing. I can’t imagine doing school transformation work without them. They’ve brought in such great systems and structures. Ultimately, the students are benefiting from that.”

Sarah Garcia
Principal, Shaw Elementary School, Tampa, FL

“Without a doubt, the most helpful aspect of the partnership has been the two-prong approach that is growing our leadership team AND our classroom teachers. I also greatly appreciate how available the Instructional Empowerment team is when we need help or other support. Their ‘boots on the ground’ approach definitely sets them apart from other school improvement partnerships!”

Shelly Haney
Chief of Schools, REACH Network
Goddard Junior High & Bunche Elementary, Midland, TX

“Instructional Empowerment has been instrumental for our campus. They have a thorough system to coach instructional leaders (administrators and coaches) that focuses on student-led teaching vs teacher-led teaching. Although we are barely in our first semester, we have been able to implement systemic changes within our campus that have been guided by Instructional Empowerment’s scope and sequence which in turn have increased the academic rigor of our teaching.”

Gabriel Salgado
Principal, Pease Communications and Technology Academy, Midland, TX

Why Do Our Principal Coaches Get Proven Results?

More than just experience, our team members’ results come from deep training in the Instructional Empowerment metrics and methods for school improvement and leadership development.

All our school leadership coaches are certified to do our work and have the support of their own learning communities and field supervision.

We focus on building the capacities of our team to be better able to build the capacities of your teams. All our leadership coaching is done side-by-side with your leaders. We are in your schools, helping you implement the systems work that transforms core instruction. Our coaching is always practical, hands-on, and highly valued by the principals we coach.

“They sent the best and the brightest they have from their company to help mentor and develop us as instructional leaders to really move our school forward.”

Dr. Debra Wright-Hudson
Principal, McLaughlin Middle School, Lake Wales, FL

“The partnership with IE has been amazing. I can’t imagine doing school transformation work without them. They’ve brought in such great systems and structures. Ultimately the students are benefiting from that.”

Sarah Garcia
Principal, Shaw Elementary School, Tampa, FL

“Without a doubt, the most helpful aspect of the partnership has been the two-prong approach that is growing our leadership team AND our classroom teachers. I also greatly appreciate how available the Instructional Empowerment team is when we need help or other support. Their ‘boots on the ground’ approach definitely sets them apart from other school improvement partnerships!”

Shelly Haney
Chief of Schools, REACH Network
Goddard Junior High & Bunche Elementary, Midland, TX

“Instructional Empowerment has been instrumental for our campus. They have a thorough system to coach instructional leaders (administrators and coaches) that focuses on student-led teaching vs. teacher-led teaching. Although we are barely in our first semester, we have been able to implement systemic changes within our campus that have been guided by Instructional Empowerment’s scope and sequence which in turn have increased the academic rigor of our teaching.”

Gabriel Salgado
Principal, Pease Communications and Technology Academy, Midland, TX
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Project Accountability

We hold ourselves accountable to the district’s shared school advancement goals. We believe in reciprocal accountability as the foundation for every district partnership.

Every month, our project leadership team meets with senior district leaders to report the progress of our project work through an Executive Action Team process. We do this jointly with the school principals in our partnered schools.

“The Executive Action Team meetings give us the opportunity to look at sustainability, building capacity, and leveraging resources rather than quick fixes. The new tools that our leaders and teachers are learning with Instructional Empowerment have truly impacted the systems and quality of instruction in our buildings.”

Brandon White
Assistant Superintendent of Academics, South Bend Community School Corporation, IN

“The Executive Action Team meetings give us the opportunity to look at sustainability, building capacity, and leveraging resources rather than quick fixes. The new tools that our leaders and teachers are learning with Instructional Empowerment have truly impacted the systems and quality of instruction in our buildings.”

Brandon White
Assistant Superintendent of Academics, South Bend Community School Corporation, IN
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Validated Metrics

Our keystone metrics were developed by our Applied Research Center team and are exclusive to Instructional Empowerment. These research-validated, predictive metrics show the real-time improvement of instructional systems within schools.

District leaders use our scientific indicators to see real-time progress of the instructional systems of student growth and achievement. The Rigor Appraisal instrument is scientifically correlated with both benchmark and state assessment learning gains.

Our real-time metrics have a statistically significant correlation to:

Higher ELA learning rates
Higher math learning rates
Higher student attendance
Lower behavior referrals
Lower suspension rates

“What we’re seeing is that there is a direct correlation between the Rigor Appraisal score and what we see in terms of student achievement. That gives us confidence in the tool. It also allows us as a school district to be predictive in terms of what we expect to see with student outcomes and make mid-year corrections.”

Troy Knoderer
Chief Academic Officer, MSD Lawrence Township, IN

“One of my key learnings from the partnership has been the power of tracking through Rigor Classroom Walks and tracking the alignment of the learning target, the success criteria, and the standards. We can see the progress, and we’re able to measure it. That has been key for us in terms of our progress. We know if we’re doing better, if we need to improve, and if there is an area we need to focus on.”

Iris Rocio Jiménez
Principal, Scharbauer Elementary School, Midland, TX

“What we’re seeing is that there is a direct correlation between the Rigor Appraisal score and what we see in terms of student achievement. That gives us confidence in the tool. It also allows us as a school district to be predictive in terms of what we expect to see with student outcomes and make mid-year corrections.”

Troy Knoderer
Chief Academic Officer, MSD Lawrence Township, IN

“One of my key learnings from the partnership has been the power of tracking through Rigor Classroom Walks and tracking the alignment of the learning target, the success criteria, and the standards. We can see the progress, and we’re able to measure it. That has been key for us in terms of our progress. We know if we’re doing better, if we need to improve, and if there is an area we need to focus on.”

Iris Rocio Jiménez
Principal, Scharbauer Elementary School, Midland, TX

Hope Is Not a Reform Strategy

For the first time ever, district leaders have a leading metric that confidently predicts student outcomes – without additional student testing. You will know if you are on track to achieve your goals every month – no more waiting and hoping.

Every step of our partnerships is guided by real-time predictive data. Our metric of instructional systems improvement is research-proven to predict student learning gains. District leaders have absolute confidence in the project progress with transparent data sharing.

Hope Is Not a Reform Strategy

For the first time ever, district leaders have a leading metric that confidently predicts student outcomes – without additional student testing. You will know if you are on track to achieve your goals every month – no more waiting and hoping.

Every step of our partnerships is guided by real-time predictive data. Our metric of instructional systems improvement is research-proven to predict student learning gains. District leaders have absolute confidence in the project progress with transparent data sharing.

Explore Our Partnered Solutions

Many of Instructional Empowerment’s team members previously served at another company led by CEO and Executive Director of Research, Michael Toth, before Instructional Empowerment was founded. They compiled some of the data and research on this website at this previous company. Michael Toth and the Instructional Empowerment team have perfected and applied their own evidence-based school advancement approach.