How to get 100% of 3rd Graders Proficient in Reading with Dr. Layne Dillard

In this episode, Jethro Jones interviews Dr. Layne Dillard, an educational leader with over 27 years of experience in transforming schools and empowering leaders. Dr. Dillard shares insights on achieving 100% reading proficiency among third graders, the importance of teaching at grade level, and strategies for effective school improvement.

• Cast a vision, shoot for the moon, maybe you’ll hit the stars
• With 37% special education students.
• We realized we just changed lives.
• First state report card was an F.
• Looking at our “Why”
• Going to have to do things that are hard for adults and right for kids.
• Tier 1 at grade level.
• How can we expect them to be proficient if they never see that content?
• Every year they don’t see grade level, they’re even further behind.
• Fill in gaps from last year, then you never get to current year.
• Look at data like blood work, not personal.
• Data can feel like we’re blaming people.
• Data can be used as a weapon.
• True differentiation is…
• Intentional grouping of students.
• Teaching a skill.
• Knowing your data.
• Your data is like skeleton.
• Nobody is a queen bee.
• How to be a transformative principal? Get a clipboard and go down the halls and look for everything in your building going right.

Dr. Layne Dillard
Transformative Educator | School Turnaround Strategist | Creator of the LEAD Framework

Dr. Layne Dillard (X, LinkedIn, Web Site) has dedicated over 27 years to transforming schools and empowering leaders to create environments where students thrive. With 18 years of experience as a principal, she led a high-poverty school from an "F" to a "B" on the state report card, earning recognition as a CLAS Banner School and a National Blue Ribbon School of Excellence. Under her leadership, all 3rd graders at her school achieved 100% proficiency in reading on state assessments.

Layne’s extensive career spans every level of education, from Pre-K to high school seniors. She has also served as the principal of an alternative school, where she worked to ensure that even the most at-risk students could succeed.

Her journey inspired the creation of the LEAD Framework—a student-centered, research-backed approach designed to help schools make meaningful, sustainable progress. Currently serving as an Educational Administrator in the Office of School Improvement with the Alabama State Department of Education, she specializes in data-driven strategies, leadership development, and building positive school cultures.

Layne is a passionate speaker who loves motivating districts, schools, and educators to be the absolute best they can be every single day—because students deserve nothing less. Her mission is to help principals turn challenges into opportunities and imagine the possibilities for their schools and students.

Layne earned her B.S. in Secondary Education and an M.A. in Educational Leadership and Administration at the University of North Alabama. She earned a Doctor of Education in Learning Organizations and Strategic Change from Lipscomb University in Nashville, Tennessee

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