JP Associates, Inc. partners with schools and districts across the country to provide intensive professional development for scientifically based reading programs including Direct Instruction, classroom management, and the development of school-based teacher leaders and coaches.  For 20 years, JP’s staff of highly-experienced and expertly trained School Improvement Specialists has worked with a wide range of schools to develop internal capacity for ongoing, site-based professional development that directly impacts student learning.

The JP Professional Development Program, in which all School Improvement Specialists must participate, includes three intensive trainings a year. This ensures our staff is up to date on all of the latest developments in the field and that you get the best trained staff of consultants in the country. In addition to instructional methodology, each JP School Improvement Specialist is also trained in behavioral techniques.
Founded in 1989, JP has trained thousands of teachers and site-based coaches in the selection, assessment, and delivery of scientifically based literacy curricula with a focus on Direct Instruction as a tool to dramatically accelerate the academic progress of every student.

JP’s services include assistance in selecting effective intervention curricula, developing programs for responsive student assessment and grouping, student placement, pre-service training, on-site side-by-side coaching, customized after-school training sessions/workshops, site-based curriculum coach development (including our acclaimed Institute for Team Leadership), grant-writing, leadership team development, classroom/behavior management, and administrator training and coaching.

All of JP’s School Improvement Specialists and the majority of the executive management are former classroom teachers and administrators with a wide range of educational experiences from preschool to college instruction, administration, research, and community outreach.  All School Improvement Specialists hold a degree in education and many maintain active teaching credentials in their home states.  JP School Improvement Specialists’ degrees range from bachelor’s degrees to doctorates in curriculum/instruction and educational leadership.

As may be expected, the majority of JP’s partner sites begin their partnership with JP as a result of high populations of under-achieving students.  In most cases, this is coupled with an extremely high poverty rate and a very racially/ethnically diverse student population.  Since schools facing these challenges are JP’s primary partners, the majority of our School Improvement Specialists have been recruited from teaching experiences in similarly challenged schools.  This gives them an authentic understanding of the challenges faced by educators in racially/ethnically diverse and high-poverty settings.

In addition to JP’s individual work with schools implementing SBRR-based literacy curricula, JP is part of a national strategic network of providers including the Consortium on Reading Excellence (CORE), Project ACHIEVE, the Haberman Foundation, and other professional development concerns that address virtually all areas of academic and social development.
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At its core, Project ACHIEVE is a blueprint that is based on research-proven and empirically-demonstrated effective practices that have been woven together into an implementation process that works.  Using the blueprint, schools complete a needs assessment to determine their current needs, the current approaches they are using that are working, and the gaps that are preventing them from improving further.  Project ACHIEVE then employs a whole school improvement process that has professional development and ongoing technical consultation as its foundation.  The professional development process focuses on teaching staff (a) research-based information and effective instructional and educational practices that (b) translate into skills that are successfully implemented in school and classroom settings in a way where (c) staff confidence and autonomy develops over time.

Using its school effectiveness and professional development process, Project ACHIEVE places particular emphasis on increasing student performance in the areas of social skills and conflict resolution, improving student achievement and academic progress, facilitating positive school climates and safe school practices, increasing and sustaining effective school and schooling processes, and in increasing parental involvement and support.

In summary, Project ACHIEVE is an innovative school reform and school effectiveness program targeting the academic and social development of all students.  In doing this, Project ACHIEVE implements preventive programs that focus on the needs of all students.  It develops and implements strategic intervention programs for at-risk and underachieving students.  Finally, it coordinates comprehensive and multi-faceted “wrap-around” programs for students with intensive needs.  

Project ACHIEVE teaches and reinforces critical staff skills and intervention approaches that focus on helping staff to strategically plan for and address the immediate and long-term academic and behavioral needs of all students. Project ACHIEVE uses an integrated process that involves strategic planning and the building of school and staff resources, internal capacity, and system independence.  Formative and summative evaluations using “real-time” data help to determine whether Project interventions and procedures are improving student, staff, and home/community outcomes.  Project ACHIEVE has demonstrated its ability to positively impact schools and districts across the country, and it has earned its designation as a National Model Prevention Program from the U. S. Department of Health and Human Services.  Project ACHIEVE truly lives its motto: “Building Strong Schools to Strengthen Student Outcomes.”
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