building a culture that inspires staff, students, and the broader community. With the highest rate of improvement of any district in the state for three years in a row, and their second consecutive “A” District rating, the SDIRC has made remarkable strides in academic standing. “We were 38th, now we are fifth in the state of Florida, and we think we will continue to move up those rankings,” says Superintendent Dr. David Moore. “We were identified by the state of Florida as an Academically High-Performing School District, which is the first time our district has done that in over a decade.” In addition to these achievements, Dr. Moore was named Superintendent of the Year for 2024-2025, selected from among 67 superintendents statewide. He was also recognized as a finalist for National Superintendent of the Year.“Those are some personal accomplishments,” he acknowledges, “but those things only happened as a result of the collective effort within our school system.” Recent years have brought financial stability, improved systems, and a transformation in school performance for the SDIRC. As it continues to raise the bar, the district is embarking on a bold new strategic plan. “We, as an organization, will be extremely aggressive in leading the way in the state, ultimately the nation, and redefining what public education looks like,” Moore asserts. “We know we have the best product in our community to educate our children. We want to be aggressive and continue to be the number one choice. But that doesn’t mean we want to stay the same.” DATA-DRIVEN DECISION MAKING The district is investing in systems that will bring forward the best educational experience possible. “What we want to do with our data systems is create an environment that analyzes multiple sources of data, distills it down to actionable items,” outlines Dr. Brian McMahon, Director of Accountability and Research. “We don’t want our principals, teachers, school leaders spending time on spreadsheets evaluating data. We want to do that for them and present it in a digestible, easy-to-access manner, so that allows them to focus on what they’re super good at- teaching kids.” With this in mind, the SDIRC is gathering realtime data and applying it to guide instruction and accelerate student success.“Oftentimes in education, we are data-rich but analysis-poor,” notes Dr. McMahon. “We have lots of assessments and ways of measuring students. What we want to do is take 3 CIVIL AND MUNICIPAL VOLUME 06, ISSUE 07 SCHOOL DISTRICT OF INDIAN RIVER COUNTY
RkJQdWJsaXNoZXIy MTI5MjAx