The Journey Leading to the Resilient Transformation of One High-Flying School
Format
Individual Presentation
Format
Individual Presentation
First Presenter's Institution
Greenville Middle School- Meriwether County GA
First Presenter’s Email Address
michael.perry@mcssga.org
First Presenter's Brief Biography
Michael Perry is in his 20th year of education and currently serves as the Principal of Greenville Middle School in Meriwether County. With 8 years at the helm, he has focused on enhancing instruction and promoting equity for all students. Under his leadership, Greenville Middle was recognized as a breakout school by the Georgia Association of Secondary Principals in 2018. Michael has spearheaded the creation of a wraparound center to support the whole child and, in 2024, was honored as one of 16 Extraordinary Educators by Curriculum Associates. He remains deeply committed to making a positive impact on the lives he touches.
Second Presenter's Institution
Greenville Middle School- Meriwether County GA
Second Presenter’s Email Address
laporchia.grier@mcssga.org
Second Presenter's Brief Biography
LaPorchia Grier is an experienced educator and athletic director currently serving as the Assistant Principal and Athletic Director at Greenville Middle School. With over three years of leadership experience, she plays a crucial role in overseeing school operations, student discipline, instructional support, and athletic programming. LaPorchia’s expertise spans multiple areas, including assessment, federal programs, instructional technology, and career and technical education (CTAE). As a dedicated leader, she is deeply committed to promoting inclusion and equity within her school, integrating technology into instruction, and fostering a supportive and development-focused environment for both staff and students. In addition to her administrative role, LaPorchia is pursuing a doctoral degree, where her focus on leadership, equity, and organizational development continues to inform her approach to educational leadership. Her work on addressing issues such as student behavior, mental health, and equity positions her as a forward-thinking leader, aiming to improve student outcomes and create a positive school culture.
Submitter
I am submitting this proposal as one of the presenter(s)
Location
Ballroom D
Strand #1
Head: Academic Achievement & Leadership
Strand #2
Health: Mental & Physical Health
Relevance
TBA
Brief Program Description
This session shares the transformation of a school from the bottom 5% of Title I schools in Georgia to exiting the federal list in one year and being named a high-flying school. It highlights data-driven practices that address the whole child and provides a roadmap for creating equity and improving outcomes for underrepresented students through comprehensive academic and behavioral support.
Summary
This presentation shares the specific systems and processes used to transform the learning outcomes of our students in a single year. The workshop will illustrate our focus on meeting the needs of the whole child (head, heart, health, hand, and home) while using critical data to drive both academic and behavioral improvement. Participants will leave with concrete strategies for using data, setting goals, and dramatically improving team collaboration and synergy. The workshop will lead participants through a deep dive into the data processes, adaptive support systems, and leadership transformation processes utilized to produce our transformational results. Participants will learn how a distributed leadership process strengthened our small leadership team while empowering them to significantly improve impact. The session will show how data and neuroscience were used to make changes that led to targeted increases in academic achievement. This includes how a robust after-school program-- with engaging activities and out-of-school experiences--created a space where scholars wanted to be! Attendees will be inspired to learn how one small school beat the odds to lead post-pandemic recovery along with the methods and strategies they used to do it.
Evidence
Georgia Department of Education College and Career Readiness Index Data
Subject
2021/2022 Content Mastery
2022/2023 Content Mastery
English Language Arts
33.04
39.31
Math
26.65
36.08
Science
16.30
26.00
Social Studies
10.87
48.00
Readiness
2021/2022
2022/2023
Literacy
25.60
52.83
Attendance
N/A
95.79
Discipline
132 Referrals
107 Referrals
Progress measures how much growth students demonstrate in English language arts and mathematics and how well English learners are progressing towards English language proficiency. The English language arts and mathematics indicators utilize Student Growth Percentiles (SGPs) to measure how much growth students demonstrated relative to academically-similar students on Georgia Milestones and categorical growth for students on Georgia Alternate Assessment 2.0.
English Language Arts
Math
All Students
86.13
92.49
Black
85.79
94.55
White
90.27
88.89
Economically Disadvantaged
86.13
92.49
Students with Disability
79.62
96.30
Learning Objective 1
Understand how a comprehensive focus on the whole child and an engaging after-school model were applied to create a culture of scholarship and belonging.
Learning Objective 2
Learn how to select, collect, analyze, and respond to key data to drive targeted academic and behavioral outcomes.
Learning Objective 3
Recognize how a distributed leadership process dramatically increased the effectiveness of the school leadership team.
Presentation Year
2025
Start Date
3-4-2025 2:45 PM
Recommended Citation
Perry, Michael Jr. and Grier, LaPorchia Q., "The Journey Leading to the Resilient Transformation of One High-Flying School" (2025). National Youth Advocacy and Resilience Conference. 58.
https://digitalcommons.georgiasouthern.edu/nyar_savannah/2025/2025/58
The Journey Leading to the Resilient Transformation of One High-Flying School
Ballroom D
This session shares the transformation of a school from the bottom 5% of Title I schools in Georgia to exiting the federal list in one year and being named a high-flying school. It highlights data-driven practices that address the whole child and provides a roadmap for creating equity and improving outcomes for underrepresented students through comprehensive academic and behavioral support.