Innovating Education and Redefining Student Success

With a Forward-Thinking Approach, Students are in the Driver’s Seat

With a renewed focus on innovation, efficiency, and student achievement, the School District of Indian River County (SDIRC) is one of Florida’s most dynamic and forward thinking school systems. Guided by a strong and passionate leadership team, the district is not only achieving success but also 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 38^th, 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 real-time 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 all that data, distill it down to a place where they can understand where kids are and what they need to do to move kids in the right direction.”

The district uses Microsoft’s Power BI, a product that allows information across many assessment systems to be combined while keeping local control. “We’re not relying on a third party to make a change, and we’re not relying on some external company or vendor to aggregate data,” reports McMahon. “Our principals can access it in real time, so they’re seeing the results of those assessments and how they impact school performance, and then they can make changes and adapt from there.”

This approach also utilizes artificial intelligence to project year-end performance from the earliest assessments, such as state tests and diagnostics like i-Ready. “We have the ability for our principals to look from day one at where their students are performing and how it relates to a predictive model at the end of the year,” Dr. McMahon recounts.

“As they make changes to interventions, as they regroup kids, as they change schedules, they can see an almost immediate impact on how that performance is going to relate to the end of the year.”

Dr. Moore sees this approach as capable of creating better student outcomes and teacher satisfaction. “We believe we will be the district that incorporates AI, which takes the ability to save time and create efficiency across the entire organization, and the district that figures out how to apply artificial intelligence into public education in a way that can effectively be used to change the game,” he asserts.

Guiding Educators

Recognizing the complexity of teaching today, the SDIRC has developed a wealth of support. Each elementary school has dedicated reading and math coaches as well as interventionists, while secondary schools receive direct support from curriculum specialists.

“Most districts are using coaches, and they’re wasting a significant amount of time asking them to disaggregate data and do administrative services,” Dr. Moore points out. “Our agreement with our instructional coaches is that 80% of your time must be in direct support of teachers, and if that’s not happening, I’m going to hold the administrator accountable.”

This coaching model is backed by a strong partnership with The Learning Alliance, a local nonprofit focused on early literacy. The organization funds 25 instructional positions throughout the district. Their goal is to ensure that 90% of students are proficient readers by third grade. The collaboration has also enabled the creation of a district-operated lab school designed to develop and test innovative practices.

“We call it our Moonshot School, where The Learning Alliance has provided a total of six additional instructional positions, all of which are either at the administrative level, instructional coach level, or direct support services for students,” Dr. Moore expands. Student supports include an arts integration specialist, and a success coach who acts as a liaison between parents and school.

“What we’ve done is use that as a model school,” he says. “Teachers are mastering skills at a faster rate because of all of the additional expertise that’s in that building. We have strategically designed ourselves to bring in other elementary schools to accelerate their growth.”

This holistic approach has significantly strengthened teacher development and retention. Teacher turnover has decreased dramatically, from 150 hires three years ago to just 25 to 30 projected hires this summer. “We’ve been able to drastically improve the layer of support that we’re providing teachers by investing in these strategies that ultimately improve retention, which eliminates the need for all of the additional dollars around recruitment.”

A Focus on Success

Student achievement has improved markedly at SDIRC, with the proportion of students graduating with advanced certifications, AP credits, or industry credentials going from 63% to 82% over the last year. This rising number is due in part to the career pathways the district is building through partnerships with two of Indian River County’s largest employers: Piper Aviation and the local hospital.

“Piper has over 100 openings, high-level engineers that are needed to build the next generation of planes,” Dr. Moore depicts. “The hospital doesn’t have the high-level nursing, doctors, and accountants that they need here in Vero Beach. So we’re working on creating a partnership with both of those entities to eliminate that problem by creating our own local talent.”

Along with workforce development, the district is also preparing students for postsecondary education. “We’ve spent a lot of time building community stakeholder relationships with the businesses within the county,” Dr. Jennifer Beagan, Director of Strategic Initiatives and Community Impact portrays.

“What that investment of time and resources helps us with is personalized learning pathways. Through those pathways that we intricately work through across our campuses, we’re ensuring that students receive instruction that is tailored to their levels of readiness as well as their career goals.”

The SDIRC is also working hard to meet the expectations of parents and the community. Dr. Kyra Schafte, Director of Strategic Communications and Marketing, highlights, “We’re a choice district, and each of our schools has unique choice programming. We are auditing programming through innovation architecture mapping to make sure our choice of programming spans K-12.”

Capital investments have followed this vision of innovation. With students describing the district’s media centers as dated libraries that didn’t represent the world around them, SDIRC knew it was time to update these spaces. The newly redesigned Student Union areas include 3D printers, Esports labs, entrepreneurship hubs, and even device repair stations.

“There are high top tables in there, there’s flexible, modular seating. Everything is on wheels to be reconfigured,” describes Dr. Schafte. “It’s pretty exciting when we think of capital. We are reimagining spaces with students at the forefront.”

 Looking to the Future

With its progressive approach, and enthusiastic vision, The School District of Indian River County is preparing students for success in an ever-changing world. Looking ahead, Dr. Moore says there will be continued efforts to use AI to improve efficiency and outcomes.

“We want to really help make leaders more impactful at their job and spend more time on leading, which would lead to higher levels of innovation,” he concludes. “We are a school system that is nationally recognized and known for innovating and reforming what public education looks like, not only in the state, but across the nation.”

AT A GLANCE

Who: School District of Indian River County

What: A progressive and innovative district focused on student success

Where: Vero Beach, Florida

Website: www.indianriverschools.org