The Classroom

After more than a decade of relentless work, deep learning, and unwavering partnership, reading proficiency at Vero Beach Elementary has soared—from just 38% to nearly 70%. The miracle didn’t happen in an office or a boardroom. It happened in the classroom.

This episode takes us into the heart of that transformation. We meet the teachers, coaches, and collaborators who turned a struggling school into a national model of what’s possible. And we see how the science of reading, brought to life through teamwork and tenacity, changed everything.

We explore:

• The Power of Partnership: How The Learning Alliance, district leadership, and classroom educators worked as one.

• New Ways of Teaching: The shift from intuition to research-based instruction grounded in the science of learning.

• A Learning Community: How trust, vulnerability, and professional growth created a culture where teachers thrive.

• Incorporating Coaching: Ongoing, embedded support that turned professional development into personal transformation.

• Collaborative Planning: Teachers no longer planned alone—they planned together, shoulder to shoulder.

• Data-Informed Teaching: Not to sort children, but to support them. To see each child clearly—and teach accordingly.

This is where the magic lives: in classrooms where children are known, instruction is intentional, and every adult is on mission. This is not just a story of what they taught. It’s a story of how they taught—and who they became in the process.