Greenville Independent School District and Discovery Education, the leading provider of digital content and professional development for K-12 classrooms, today announced an expansion of their long-term partnership. In the latest phase of this collaboration, Greenville ISD educators will receive additional support in growing the district’s culture of Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math (STEM) education by participating in STEM Professional Development from Discovery Education.  Through this innovative initiative,  teachers and administrators will learn new strategies and methods for building STEM learning environments that provide students opportunities to solve real-world problems and build literacy and math proficiency as they develop critical thinking skills essential to college, career and citizenship readiness.

Discovery Education’s STEM professional development offers Greenville ISD educators robust professional development opportunities, job-embedded instructional coaching, and administrative leadership support. Participating educators will learn how to develop high-quality STEM lessons involving multiple subject areas, and gain the leadership skills they need to help grow a culture of STEM teaching and learning in their school system. Carver, Crockett and Travis Elementary Schools have each selected 10 educators to serve as teacher-leaders who will progress through the professional development program. These teacher-leaders will then share the new instructional strategies they have learned with their peers so that they can be scaled district-wide.

The professional development program kicked off last week when Discovery Education and Greenville ISD collaborated to host a unique leadership retreat that engaged educators, administrators, community members, and business leaders from across the Greenville area to develop a collective vision and strategy for creating a culture of STEM in their school system. On Friday, August 12, a Teacher Academy will be held for 30 elementary educators at the Greenville ISD Wesley Martin Administration Building from 8:00 A.M. – 4:00 P.M. During the Academy, participating teachers will learn more about designing STEM lessons, how to implement the engineering design process, and what the research says about the need for STEM education.

This new professional development initiative builds on Greenville ISD’s longstanding commitment to STEM education. Since 2007, Greenville ISD has offered a STEM Academy for students beginning in Pre-K and lasting through 12^th grade. In addition, the district’s afterschool program (ACE) incorporates STEM into afterschool and Saturday activities, which offers students hands-on learning activities in Robotics, Plant Science, Space, Chemistry, Physics and Herpetology. In recognition of its efforts, Greenville ISD’s STEM initiatives were recently featured in Texas School Business magazine, and earlier this year, Greenville High School received the T-STEM Academy designation from the Texas Education Agency as a Texas Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (T-STEM) Academy.

“The Greenville Independent School District is committed to providing each student a world-class STEM education that prepares them to compete and succeed in our global economy,” said Donald R. Jefferies, Superintendent of the Greenville Independent School District. “We look forward to continuing our collaboration with Discovery Education and growing our culture of STEM, which will provide our educators the content and skills needed to prepare the students of today for the careers of tomorrow.” 

Since 2004, Greenville ISD and Discovery Education have partnered to bring digital resources to classrooms to empower teachers, enhance curriculum and inspire students. Students district-wide currently have access to Discovery Education Streaming, a comprehensive digital service supplementing instruction across all K-12 curricular areas. Resources are aligned to state standards and are searchable, and include videos, images, primary source documents, podcasts, oral interviews, audio books, articles and more.

The Discovery Education Community will continue to support Greenville ISD educators in their efforts to transform students’ learning experiences. A global community of education professionals, the Discovery Education Community connects members across school systems and around the world through social media, virtual conferences, and in-person events, fostering valuable networking, idea sharing and inspiration.

“Discovery Education is proud to support Greenville Independent School District’s efforts to advance STEM education,” said Phillip Mikula, Director of Education Partnerships at Discovery Education. “We are excited to continue working with their talented team as they grow their culture of STEM teaching and learning to support the success of each student.”

For more information about Discovery Education’s STEM Professional Development and other Discovery Education services and initiatives, visit www.discoveryeducation.com.

About Discovery Education
Discovery Education is the global leader in standards-based digital content for K-12, transforming teaching and learning with award-winning digital textbooks, multimedia content, professional development, and the largest professional learning community of its kind. Serving 3 million educators and over 30 million students, Discovery Education’s services are in half of U.S. classrooms, 50 percent of all primary schools in the UK, and more than 50 countries. Discovery Education partners with districts, states and like-minded organizations to captivate students, empower teachers, and transform classrooms with customized solutions that increase academic achievement. Discovery Education is powered by Discovery Communications (NASDAQ: DISCA, DISCB, DISCK), the number one nonfiction media company in the world. Explore the future of education at www.discoveryeducation.com.