Building a strong foundation for student success in every classroom

For first-year teacher Harold McGhee, Renaissance Next for Teachers was a lifeline.

McGhee had plenty of life experience, having served in the US Army, where he specialized in logistics and IT. He’d also worked in education, as a math intervention aide and SPED resource aide in Carbondale Elementary School District 95.

When he heard the district’s Lewis Elementary School would be hiring a fifth-grade teacher, he saw a great fit—especially because it would mean working alongside his wife, who teaches grade 4.

McGhee learned a lot during his first weeks in the classroom, and Renaissance Next helped him get up to speed quickly. “My mentor teacher told me to start with Freckle, because the students would already know what to do,” he recalls, referring to Renaissance’s program for differentiated practice.

“I was impressed that Freckle immediately engages students in math and ELA practice while allowing me to differentiate at each student’s level. But the lightbulb really went off when I started reviewing the Freckle reports,” he continues. “Everything is there—the skills the students are proficient in and the skills they need to work on. The reports are even color coded.

“I thought, ‘As a former logistics officer, I know exactly what to do!’”

Planning impactful classroom instruction—and closing skill gaps

Over the course of the school year, Renaissance Next became “like an AI assistant,” McGhee explains. Renaissance Next brings together data and resources from multiple Renaissance products—including Star Assessments, Nearpod, myON, and Freckle—along with AI-powered insights to show what’s next for every student.

“It was practically doing the lesson planning for me,” he recalls—while also giving him critical information so he could make the best use of instructional time.

“As one teacher with a class of many needs, Renaissance Next really helped in the moments when the curriculum didn’t ‘fit’ the students,” he explains. “When we reached the unit on fractions in our math textbook, I saw on my Freckle report that 72 percent of my class had a gap with third-grade skills related to fractions. Renaissance Next recommended additional practice on common denominators and other prerequisites, helping me to ‘bridge’ this gap and get students ready for grade-level material.

“Without that insight, I would have been left wondering why so many students were struggling. I probably would have thought, ‘I just don’t know how to teach fractions…’”

Renaissance Next helped McGhee to make the curriculum more impactful in other ways as well. As an example, he points to a social studies unit on the Great Chicago Fire. His curriculum materials included a few activities to scaffold instruction, such as a graphic organizer. His students’ interest was really piqued, however, when he supplemented these resources with a Nearpod lesson.

“Reading about a historical event is one thing. But when you see everything that Nearpod offers— pictures and videos and interactive activities—it really makes the learning come alive,” he says.

“As one teacher with a class of many needs, Renaissance Next really helped in the moments when the curriculum didn’t ‘fit’ the students. It recommended additional practice, helping me to ‘bridge’ gaps and get students ready for grade-level material.”

—Harold McGhee, grade 5 teacher

When delivering Nearpod lessons, he pauses the videos and lingers over photographs to invite classroom discussion. “I have a really chatty class, and I realized early on that if I ‘lean in’ to this, the students learn more. They know I’ll be asking them questions throughout the lesson. And if they don’t know the answer, that’s OK. What matters is that they try.”

Using classroom technology to foster a strong data culture

McGhee’s use of Renaissance Next to identify and close skill gaps, track progress, and engage students in learning fully aligns with the vision of the district’s superintendent, Janice Pavelonis. When Pavelonis first saw the platform, she recognized how its real-time data and student-specific recommendations would help her educators to make the best use of both time and technology.

“Renaissance Next not only makes planning instruction faster and easier, but also the delivery,” she says. “Our goal is for our teachers to be facilitators of learning, circulating through the classroom to work with small groups and individual students on exactly what they need. This requires them to be facilitators of technology as well, so they can pull together a small group to work on a skill, while other students are working in Freckle or myON on the skills they’re ready for. Renaissance Next makes this possible.”

Pavelonis adds that Renaissance Next fully supports the district’s deep data culture. For example, following universal screening, teachers spend a full afternoon reviewing the data in Renaissance Next to understand how each child is performing and plan next steps. These data deep-dives then inform “state of the classroom” conversations, where teachers discuss the screening data with students.

“In the past, these discussions often happened by grade band. Renaissance Next allows us to take the conversation down to the classroom level, with teachers having a dialogue about data with their students,” Pavelonis explains. “Even in kindergarten, the teacher is able to say, ‘Remember we took that test? This is how we did as a class, and this is what we’re going to be working on next.’

“As a leadership team, we want to ensure students at all levels understand their data, so they can set learning goals and work toward these,” she adds.

“Renaissance Next not only makes planning instruction faster and easier, but also the delivery.”

– Janice Pavelonis, Superintendent

Setting goals is certainly a key part of McGhee’s classroom routine, and students are eager to share their accomplishments. “They’ll say, ‘Mr. McGhee, when is our next meeting? I can’t wait to show you my Freckle data!’ This really gives the students ownership of their learning,” he notes, adding that it’s important to put the emphasis on progress, not on perfection.

“What I like so much about Freckle is that I can have an advanced student and a student who is struggling, and they can be practicing different skills, but they can still make the same amount of progress, which we can celebrate together,” he explains. “Nobody is left out. I also don’t have to think, ‘How am I going to differentiate? How am I going to meet the needs of students who are working at such different levels?’ Freckle already does this very well.”

One of McGhee’s most important takeaways from his military service is the importance of focusing on details. He works to instill the same lesson in his students, whether it’s listening respectfully to peers during class discussions or practicing math facts to build accuracy and automaticity.

And Renaissance Next gives him the insights and resources to focus on the details that matter most, so he can help his students develop a strong foundation for the future.

Looking for similar success in your schools?

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