Teacher, assistant principal, principal, coordinator of elementary and federal programs, coordinator of personnel, deputy superintendent, superintendent.
In her 34-year career with the , Suzanne Lacey has held a job at nearly every level of the district. Sheâs spent those decades transforming the educational environment in the sprawling, low-income, rural district.
That has meant putting a device in every studentâs hands, creating high-tech tinkering spaces, providing teachers with innovative professional development, and showing the Talladega school board, students, educators, and the community what lies beyond the engine roar of the Talladega Superspeedway.
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Lacey, 56, uses technology to bring the worldâs resources to Alabama, but she also wants to open the wider world to her community. Sheâs taken students, parents, and school board members to see what project-based learning looks like in Sacramento, Calif; she brought educators to Pittsburgh to soak up innovative uses of maker spaces. Last year, Talladega middle school teachers found themselves at Googleâs Sunnyvale, Calif., headquarters for specialized technology training.
âWe donât have the most resources, but weâre going to find a way to provide really great opportunities for our kids,â Lacey said. âThat is our driving force, and it never gets old.â
The Talladega County district is 60 miles long dotted with small communities and wide swaths of rural woodland, including the Talladega National Forest, and, of course, the famed NASCAR speedway. Seventy percent of the districtâs 7,600 students are low income, and 36 percent are minority.
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To understand Talladega County schools today, it helps to look at the path of Winterboro High School, a district standout, attracting visitors from around the country to observe its project-based-learning model.
In 2007, the low-income, 300-student school had discipline problems and a graduation rate that was below the state average. Test scores were dismal. Its rural locationâGPS struggles to get visitors thereâmeans the school is a linchpin for the community.
The historic Winterboro school building, constructed in the 1920s with stones parents dug out of their yards, was dilapidated and crumbling. In 2007, under a previous superintendent, the district had planned to partner with a national group to overhaul the school, complete with a new building.
Lacey became superintendent in 2008, and shortly after, Alabama lawmakers slashed education funding. Lacey was undeterred, though she had to pivot, said Vicky Ozment, the deputy superintendent of the district who was at the time the Winterboro principal.
âOne of the deepest driving forces in her soul is that every single student in our district gets the same opportunities as a student in an affluent district,â Ozment said.
Winterboro cobbled together a project-based-learning model relying on the schoolâs own educators as experts, giving students âvoice and choiceâ in solving real-world problems in their community. It forces them to work collaboratively, take control of their own learning, to present, to research. Technology helps to boost and support the effort, but it isnât the focus, Lacey said.
Simultaneously, the district invested in a physical school redesign, tearing down walls and beefing up tech infrastructure. In a nod to the schoolâs history, Lacey kept the buildingâs stone façade that previous generations helped build.
A year after project-based learning was implemented, the graduation rate rose from 64 percent to 82 percent, and disciplinary referrals dropped from 1,800 to 300. Last year, all seniors graduated, with a college-acceptance rate of 96 percent, said Winterboro Principal Emily Harris. The transformation wasnât without some painâa number of teachers not on board with the new approach left, Lacey said
Today, visitors might see 8th graders racing robotic Sphero chariots in the hallways, after learning about the Roman Empire. 69´ŤĂ˝ might be using the 3-D printer or coding in the schoolâs STEAM lab. In 2014, the Alliance for Excellent Education highlighted progress at Winterboro High, featuring the high school at a Library of Congress ceremony.
Lacey pressed for the changes at Winterboro because of her commitment to students, said Eric G. Mackey, Alabamaâs state superintendent. âThat community has no political cloutâno state senator or board member saying, âYou have to do something,ââ â he said, âShe was just not willing to let students there lag behind.â
Within a year of Winterboroâs success, Lacey began to roll out the project-based model to other schools in the district.
Now, Talladega students in grades K-2 have iPads, and those in grades 3-12 use Chromebooks. All schools have adopted some form of project-based learning. Lacey continues to push the technological envelope with a focus on maker spaces and STEM or STEAM, insisting schools incorporate those concepts into all classesânot just science and math. All 17 schools are seeking specialized STEM certifications from nonprofit AdvanceEd.
Childhood Ambitions Realized
There was never any doubt that Lacey would be a teacher. Growing up in a neighboring county, Lacey set up a classroom in her house, complete with school library and chalkboard. Her Christmas presents came from the teacher supply store. âI truly felt like it was a calling from early on,â she said.
She came to Talladega County right out of college and recognized it as a progressive place. The district has a history of strong female leadershipâthe two superintendents who preceded Lacey were womenâin a state dominated by district leaders who are men.
But Lacey never aspired to the superintendentâs job. In fact, when first offered the job of an assistant principal, she couldnât imagine leaving the classroom and initially turned it down. But after taking that step, she steadily climbed the ranks in the district, reaching the central office and taking on the superintendentâs role. Over that time, sheâs built up an unprecedented level of trust with her community, observers say. Sheâs legendary for remembering the names of current and former students, recalling family members and interests. She writes notes to board members, students, and colleagues thanking them, praising them, recognizing their accomplishments.
Jennifer Barnett, whose children have attended Childersburg High School, said Lacey sent her youngest son a note after he became the schoolâs first male cheerleader. âShe said she was so proud of him not being afraid to go for what he wanted,â Barnett said.
Lacey is known for being prepared, a motivator, well-organized, and setting a high bar for herself and her staff. Sheâs not a superintendent who hogs the limelight, often shifting praise for the districtâs accomplishments away from herself and toward her team.
âShe sets the culture for the whole county,â said Monique Chatman, the technology-integration specialist at Talladegaâs Drew Middle School. âShe helps us understand that weâre all in the process of learning so weâre not afraid to take risks.â
Laceyâs rapport with the Talladega school board makes members receptive to her often experimental ideas, said Mackey, the state schools chief. âWhen she tells them she wants to do things that are kind of earthshaking ⌠the board doesnât hold her back. They stick with her,â Mackey said.
That comes down to the relationship sheâs built with board members, said board Chairwoman Sandra Tuck, who taught for 35 years in Talladega County. âWe really trust her,â Tuck said. âShe doesnât leave us out of anything.â
Lacey calls or texts board members once or twice a week with updates. She often takes them to see cutting-edge programs in other districts, or brings students to board sessions to present about their school projects.
âI try to educate [the board] on the front end, so when itâs time to make a decision, they have all the facts and knowledge,â Lacey said.
Getting Creative With Funds
To do all this, Lacey and her staff have had to be creative with funds. When the district was starting to emphasize technology, Talladega took castoff PCs from a bigger district. When the state of Alabama told districts they could use state textbook funding to pay for technology, Lacey jumped on board. Sometimes she chooses to patch a school roof instead of replace it or wash walls instead of paint them, in order to buy more devices, said Avery Embry, the districtâs chief financial officer.
Embry admits to being âa numbers guyâ but said Lacey insisted he understand what was at stake beyond the spreadsheets. âShe changed my focus,â he said. âShe gave me the opportunity to go into the schools and see what students were doing with this technology.â
We donât have the most resources, but weâre going to find a way to provide really great opportunities for our kids.
A $300,000 grant from the Alabama Math, Science, and Technology Initiative helped her bring training around STEM, coding, and computational thinking to the district. Other grants followed, including $1 million from the National Science Foundationâshared with two other districtsâfor teacher PD. Sheâs also willing to share what sheâs learnedâLacey is a former president of the School Superintendents of Alabama, as well as the Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development, among other state and national leadership positions.
To sustain her efforts in Talladega, Lacey emphasizes a âgrow-your-own model.â For example, Ozment is finishing a Ph.D. in computational thinking. âWe canât go out and hire people to do this,â Lacey said. âWe may not have the money, but we have extraordinary talent.â
Lacey voraciously seeks out opportunities. âSometimes I think, âLord donât go to that conference,â because sheâll come back with 100,000 ideas,â Ozment said.
A big part of that has been the districtâs acceptance into Digital Promiseâs League of Innovative 69´ŤĂ˝, Lacey said. Through Digital Promise, Talladega was chosen to participate in the Dynamic Learning Projectâa partnership with Google to train teachers on innovative ed-tech uses. Thatâs where the trip to Google came in.
For educator Chatman, visiting Google was a âcomplete game changer.â The experience helped her understand how to coach teachers to avoid using technology as a substitute for learning. Chatman felt Google officials were surprised by how advanced the rural Alabama district already was in this area.
âThey were shocked, working with our system,â she said. âBut thatâs because Dr. Lacey gave us a strong foundation.â
Laceyâs vision isnât limited by technology. The schools in the Munford area of the county partner with the National Forest Service on projects like tracking black bear movements or the health of the fisheries environment. Talladega schools tap the resources at the Speedway to study physics and motion. Sheâs constantly trying to connect project-based learning to the community. For example, a notable project had 5th graders research the redevelopment of a city park and present findings to the Lincoln City Council.
âWhen I see what our kids and families donât have, that drives me harder to make sure what we do at school is the very best,â Lacey said.
âI will spend my last working hour with that as the ultimate goal.â