▲ Roshounda Ellerbe, a fourth-grade RISE teacher in Prosper ISD, uses a service learning pedagogy in her classroom.
PROSPER ISD
Teachers drive innovation through personal passion in Prosper ISD by Dacia Rivers
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sk any school administrator in Texas to name some of the biggest issues facing education today, and somewhere on that list, they’re going to mention two things: teacher retention and keeping their classrooms innovative. In Prosper ISD, a growing district north of Dallas, one teacher has come up with an idea that tackles both of these issues at once.
Seth Rutledge
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The RISE program (Research Impacting Student Excellence) started as a spark in the mind of Prosper High School English teacher Seth Rutledge back in early 2017. He sat down with Holly Ferguson, then the curriculum director in the district, to discuss his wild idea — a way to help teachers go above and beyond, and be honored for it.
BRAGGING RIGHTS 2018-2019 Texas School Business
Holly Ferguson
Rutledge, who now serves the district as an advanced academics coordinator, had a proposal — one that would allow teachers to seek out, research and pilot innovative programs in their classrooms with the hopes that the new methods could grow and evolve, eventually reaching other areas of the district.
“My belief was, we can really do something here that puts a little bit more freedom and a little bit more autonomy and responsibility on the teachers,” Rutledge says. “Especially the teachers who have wonderful ideas that maybe we can’t think of because we’re not in a classroom every single day.” Administrators were on board with Rutledge’s idea, because one of the main goals in Prosper ISD is to offer “cutting-edge instructional strategies, teaching styles
Superintendent Drew Watkins