May 29, 2025

Driving Student Growth in Alabama Schools

Driving Student Growth in Alabama Schools
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Season 1

Ever wondered how schools transform federal funding into real student success? Melissa Scott, Federal Program Supervisor for Decatur City Schools, pulls back the curtain on effective intervention strategies that actually work.

Spotlight 4 Success Website: Spotlight 4 Success

00:00 - Introduction and Guest Welcome

00:53 - Melissa's 30-Year Educational Journey

01:32 - Success with ABC ACAP Materials

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Welcome to Spotlight for Success by American Book Company.

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I'm Devin Pintosa, your host.

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We are here in sunny Alabama at the Alabama Federal Programs Conference.

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I am here with our special guest, melissa Scott, with Decatur City Schools.

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Melissa, welcome, thank you.

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All right, melissa, tell us a bit about your journey.

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What brings you to the Alabama Federal Programs Conference today?

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Well, I am the Federal Program Supervisor for Decatur City Schools.

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I've been in this position about five years, and so every year they have a conference to kind of update us on.

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You know, the various information, federal regulations and things like that that we need to make sure that our school is running properly and we're using federal funds the way we should be.

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Oh, that's very, very important.

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Very important.

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yes, yes, Can you tell us a bit about your journey into being federal programs director?

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Well, I've been in education about 30 years.

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I taught.

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English.

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I've been a cheer coach, I've been an assistant principal, a principal.

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I've done that on all levels elementary, middle and high and I've worked mostly in schools that were either title or in school improvement of some sort, or maybe even failed in school so a lot of my administrative experience was there or maybe even failed in school, so a lot of my administrative experience was there.

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So I've been able to take that into federal programs and actually use it to help schools improve.

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Oh, that is wonderful.

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Now I understand you've used American Book Company materials before.

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Yes, we have used American Book Company materials and actually our middle schools and Decatur City Schools have bought into using American Book Company's ACAP practice books and we have seen some growth there with our students, so we're very pleased with that product.

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Oh fantastic.

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Can you tell me a little bit about what you'd like to share with the Alabama Federal Programs community?

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Well, you know, when it comes to the ABC, ACAP practice books, I can tell you right now it's a very good tool for intervention for students.

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Our 6th, 7th and 8th grade students have actually been able to use those.

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We've been able to hire interventionists to go home and work with the students through books.

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So we are hoping that we can continue to see growth.

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So if you're a federal program supervisor or director out there and you're looking for an intervention tool to help your students, this is a good one to try.

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Well, thank you so much, Melissa Scott, for speaking with us today.

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Again, melissa Scott, federal programs director at Decatur City Schools, alabama, thank you so much.

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Thank you for having me.