WhatWorks at Riley Institute/Furman University

WhatWorksSC^sm

Individualized/differentiated instruction must have full political/administrative support to be effective, but education suffers a great deal of fads and shifting commitments despite the body of evidence on effective instruction being rich in years and stable.

— Dr. Paul Thomas, Associate Professor of Education, Furman University

What's one of South Carolinians' top strategies for achieving educational competitiveness in our state?  Making education more individualized for students was identified as essential to school improvement in the Riley Institute's groundbreaking study on public education.  The corresponding section of WhatWorksSC, which ties key strategies identified in that Riley Institute study to some of the best initiatives in South Carolina, is now available, click here.

Read "Making Education More Individualized for Students," co-authored by Valerie Harrison, Ph.D., Former Deputy Superintendent in the South Carolina State Department of Education, and Paul Thomas, Ph.D., associate professor of Education at Furman University.  See also a case study on Project Lead the Way (PLTW) and an evolving clearinghouse of other promising initiatives in the state.
WhatWorksSC^sm also includes in-depth looks into community learning centers, early childhood education, dropout prevention, effective teaching, and school leadership.