Inside Ferristown’s Playbook

Policy shifts don’t raise scores—people and routines do. From a busy hallway in Lexington, we sit down with Principal Angie Alexander of Ferristown Middle School to unpack how Kentucky’s new accountability pathway and the push for “vibrant learning” translate into daily wins for real students. Angie shares a grounded playbook: align resources to standards, make math engagement visible, and build relationships that keep students in the struggle long enough to learn something durable.

Website: spotlight4success.com

Chapters

• 0:06 Welcome & Conference Setting
• 0:37 New Accountability & Vibrant Learning
• 1:08 Math Engagement Priorities
• 2:22 Angie’s Path into Education
• 3:10 Relationships That Change Trajectories
• 3:34 Using ABC Materials in Practice
• 4:03 Measured Score Improvements
• 4:15 Engagement as the Lever
• 4:40 Thanks & Closing

Transcript

SPEAKER_00: 0:06

Welcome to Spotlight for Success by American Book Company. I'm Devin Pentosi, your host. We are here in sunny Lexington, Kentucky today at the Kentucky Continuous Improvement Conference. We are so excited to be here today with our special guest, Angie Alexander. Hello, Angie.

SPEAKER_01: 0:24

Hi.

SPEAKER_00: 0:25

Angie joins us. She is a principal with the Madison County Schools.

SPEAKER_01: 0:30

Yes, Ferristown Middle School.

SPEAKER_00: 0:32

Ferristown Middle School. Wonderful, Angie. Angie, tell us a bit about what brings you here today.

SPEAKER_01: 0:37

Well, we come to this uh conference because of um specifically there are a few groups from KDE here, and uh we're on the beginning of a new uh accountability uh pathway, and so we're uh here uh to listen to some um information about how the new testing system might roll out and it's a little a little bit more explanation about vibrant learning in Kentucky and what that's gonna mean uh for our testing system. And then also we had um there are several um uh sessions about math and math engagement, which is um specifically in our district an important component of us trying to make improvement right now.

SPEAKER_00: 1:23

Wonderful. And uh can you tell us a bit about your educational journey? What uh got you into education? Thank you for watching Spotlight for Success. I am David Pentosi, the Chief Operating Officer of American Book Company. We are located here in our headquarters in Woodstock, Georgia. All of our materials are printed in the USA. We have horse and online testing mathematics. These materials are all designed. We guarantee score improvement. You can get free samples of our materials either in print or in electronic formats at abc12.com. We look forward to hearing from you.

SPEAKER_01: 2:22

Well, um a long, long, long time ago in second grade, um I loved helping my teacher be a teacher. So uh that was probably the beginning of me wanting to be a teacher. I've always helped with things like Bible school and that kind of thing uh when I was younger, and then it was just a natural progression for me to try to teach. I thought I wanted to teach high school, I did for about five years, and then I moved to middle school, um, and I have been in middle school for about 27 years, either as a teacher, um an instructional coach, or now as a principal.

SPEAKER_00: 2:59

Wow. Do you have any uh special moments uh during your educational career you'd like to share with the audience?

SPEAKER_01: 3:04

Oh, I've had lots of in 32 years, there's been a lot of moments that have been great. I really especially love it when uh I build a good relationship with a student, uh especially that's had some struggles, and then see them go on to do better. Um, you know, they'll often come back during high school and visit and uh tell us how how well they're doing in high school, and you know, we've been through quite a struggle in middle school, and that's always probably the best part.

SPEAKER_00: 3:32

That is awesome. That's awesome. And I understand in the past you've used uh American book company materials.

SPEAKER_01: 3:38

Yes, we have consistently used American book company materials uh for the last several years at Ferristown. Uh we find uh the material to be very closely aligned to the standards uh that we're trying to get across the students, and um the platform is good for students uh um as we seek to try to help them, you know, grow through middle school.

SPEAKER_00: 3:58

That's wonderful. And uh have you seen score improvements associated with working with?

SPEAKER_01: 4:03

Yes, our scores have steadily increased over the last uh four or five years.

SPEAKER_00: 4:06

Gosh, that is wonderful to hear.

SPEAKER_01: 4:08

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00: 4:09

Um do you have anything you'd like to share with the uh uh Kentucky community today?

SPEAKER_01: 4:15

Well, I do think that the ABC book company, the um the materials we get from them are a very positive impact on our instruction and just continuing to push for engagement, which is what this conference has kind of been about. So uh the engagement piece I think is extremely important over my years. That's kind of been what we've kind of focused in on to make big change in school.

SPEAKER_00: 4:39

Wonderful. Thank you so much for joining us today.

SPEAKER_01: 4:41

No problem, I enjoyed it.

SPEAKER_00: 4:43

Yes, Angie Alexander uh in Kentucky at the Kentucky Continuous Improvement Conference. Thank you for joining us.

SPEAKER_01: 4:49

No problem.