Dr. Liz Norton: Founder, President, and Coach
Liz is an experienced educational leader with a history of leading successful change initiatives at the state and district level. At the state level, Liz has led:
High School Redesign: Through the Innovative School Models initiative, Tennessee saw middle school CTE participation rates double in 3 years, going from 58,377 to 115,936; industry credentials increase 27.9% in a single year, and students participating in early post secondary opportunities earned an average of 23 college credits before they graduated high school.
Pandemic Recovery: 2021-22 scores in TN English Language Arts (ELA) increased to a rate higher than the pre-pandemic level and math proficiency rates recovered about half of the lost learning during the same time frame.
Literacy Achievement and High Quality Instructional Materials: 97 percent of districts indicated they adopted and purchased new materials for classroom use in 2020 and over 100 districts participated in literacy implementation networks from 2020-2022, contributing to a 4.3% increase from 2017 to 2023 in Tennessee’s 3rd grade reading proficiency.
Turnaround Schools: Nearly 50% of TN schools listed as either priority, TSI, or ATSI met the necessary exit criteria for their designation in 2020-21, the largest number of exits in state history.
District Support Framework: Developed first-of-its-kind model for coherent district support aligned with state agency priorities which over time has contributed to Tennessee's continuous growth on the NAEP assessment, moving from around 44th in overall rankings (loosely, adding up the 4th and 8th grade reading and math in 2011) to the top 20 in 2024, beating the national average in all four assessed areas.
At the district level, Liz served the third largest district in Tennessee as Assistant Superintendent of Strategy and Executive Master Teacher. Liz led:
Organizational Redesign: In 2022-23, data dashboards and after-action review structures were integrated across the new regional leadership structure.
High Quality Instructional Materials Implementation: 7.4% increase from 2021 to 2023 in literacy proficiency rates across tested grades.
Turnaround Schools: In 2015-2016, Liz coached leaders at 18 previously low-achieving schools resulting in 7 of those schools earning the highest level on the state accountability growth measure (Level 5 TVAAS).
