SWPR Group

We help education organizations blow past their competitors with strategies that make an impact. Learn more about who we are at http://www.swpr-group.com/.

We think beyond traditional press releases and generic communication tactics and seek out big, bold ideas to create meaningful results for our clients. Are you an education nonprofit, startup, think tank, research institute, or school looking to get the word out about your organization, but you don't know where to start, or you can't find the time to make any progress with PR? Or maybe you are jus

t looking to refine and develop your existing PR program. Understanding what strategies are the most effective - and how to execute on those strategies - is where we come in. We help education organizations launch their own PR programs, streamlining the process to yield the biggest impact. We help you build the foundation to create press releases, conduct media outreach, develop powerful case studies and land key speaking engagements that will create a launchpad for your organization - building your credibility, increasing your profile and growing your business. Grab our free guide on How to Launch a Killer Case Study: https://casestudy.swpr-group.com/. Learn more about how how to humanize your brand in our latest podcast episode: https://www.buzzsprout.com/1350046/5578141.

05/13/2026

Measuring the success of a new district-wide initiative can be daunting. To avoid having to rely on anecdotal and qualitative results that amplify successes while masking challenges, leaders must ensure the tools for gathering and analyzing comprehensive are set up from the start.

Because Jefferson County Public Schools in Louisville, Kentucky, put in the hard work up front, the district was able to show results like these from the first year of its Journey to Success implementation:
▪️80% of fifth-graders met “Ready” or “Excelling” criteria for demonstrating their next steps to achieve future goals.
▪️82% of eighth-graders were “Ready” or “Excelling” in their ability to reflect on how their learning journey helped them develop knowledge of content and standards.
▪️Among seniors, those numbers were 92% and 91%, respectively.
▪️In addition, 85% of seniors were able to analyze how their skills can be applied personally and academically.

In their piece for DATIA K12, Elisabeth Read and Dr. DeNay Speaks describe the JCPS Journey to Success initiative and explain how the district’s partnership with Otus brought together assessments, data, and progress monitoring from 150 schools into one centralized platform where measurable outcomes were defined. https://www.datiak12.io/student-success/article/15821514/how-accessible-data-and-greater-student-agency-helped-one-district-pave-a-journey-to-success-for-every-child

A new competency-based developmental framework is having a transformational impact in Jefferson County Public Schools.

05/05/2026

This is a challenging time in higher education. But hope and enthusiasm rippled throughout the room when OPB hosted a Think Out Loud broadcast from the Linfield University campus in Oregon. https://www.opb.org/article/2026/04/29/think-out-loud-liberal-arts-education-student-debt-unemployment/

Students and professors from Lewis & Clark College and Linfield joined the conversation with OPB’s Dave Miller, Linfield President Dr. Mark Blegen, and Lewis & Clark Executive Director of Community Partnerships Sarah Warren.

SWPR CEO Sarah Williamson was thrilled to be able to join this lively and thought-provoking discussion in person.

Student debt in the U.S. has risen dramatically in the last few decades, while recent college graduates are having a harder time finding work. We sit down with students, faculty and administrators from Linfield University and Lewis & Clark College to ask whether a liberal arts degree is still worth....

04/29/2026

As a regional literacy specialist in Alabama, Shaquala Holmes has an opportunity to see what works when partnering with schools and educators across the state to strengthen early instruction and improve student outcomes.

Among her insights: Placing emphasis on foundational reading skills in the early grades through strong Tier 1 instruction positions students to thrive. And implementing supports like Secret Stories as a multisensory tool helps students understand the “why” behind tricky letter-sound behaviors.

When students receive consistent, brain-based phonics instruction, they can progress from struggling to achieving fluency benchmarks like reading 39 words in one minute within just a few months.

Read more in Shaquala’s DATIA K12 op-ed titled "In literacy instruction, student growth is just the start. Proficiency should be the goal." https://www.datiak12.io/teaching-learning/curriculum/literacy-reading-language-arts/article/15820245/progress-is-the-start-proficiency-is-the-goal

When foundational reading skills are secured early, students are far better positioned to thrive across all content areas in the years that follow.

04/21/2026

As a former middle school teacher, Otus President and Co-Founder Christopher Hull understands “classroom teachers bring something no analytics platform can replicate, including years of insight, relationships, and empathy that give data its proper context.”

In a new opinion piece for District Administration, he shares an important observation—one that many educators share: “As decisions move further from the classroom, those human insights are too often overruled by numbers that tell only part of the story.”

Read his refreshingly student-centered perspective on data analytics in the piece titled “If It Saves Money But Fails Student, It Is Not a Win.” https://districtadministration.com/opinion/k12-analytics-if-it-saves-money-but-fails-students-it-is-not-a-win/

K12 analytics move beyond one-dimensional test scores to reveal patterns across performance, behavior and engagement.

04/14/2026

Small districts that can’t compete on salary often lose teachers to competitors with deeper pockets. But as Superintendent Michael Hayden shares in this piece for The 74, that loss of talented educators is not inevitable.

In “How Child Care and Coffee Helped My Small Rural District Improve Staff Retention,” he describes how Clyde-Savannah Central Schools in New York became the first school system approved by the state’s Office of Family and Child Services to operate a district-run child care center. “Today, 18 children between the ages of 6 weeks and 4 years attend the program each day. For many employees, but especially support staff and teacher’s aides earning minimum wage, the program has been life-changing.”

Read the full piece at: https://www.the74million.org/article/how-child-care-coffee-helped-my-small-rural-district-improve-staff-retention/

Superintendent's View: Small districts can't compete with larger ones on salary. But they can create a warmer, more welcoming school culture.

04/02/2026

are at the heart of , whether the happens in the classroom or in the school library. One of the most exciting aspects of is the time it frees up for educators — and librarians! — to interact with students.

Check out this piece for DATIA K12 to learn five ways AI creates efficiencies that translate directly into ROI measured in minutes, as compiled by Shannon McClintock Miller, the Innovation Director of Instructional Technology and District Teacher Librarian for Van Meter Community School in Iowa. https://www.datiak12.io/technology/ai/article/15820243/how-ai-gives-time-back-to-school-librarians

We love that words like “fun” and “joy” appear in conjunction with ROI in Shannon’s piece, and we appreciate our partners at Follett Software for helping elevate the power of in learning spaces.

Five ways AI can create efficiencies that translate directly into ROI measured in minutes returned to learning.

03/26/2026

The path to for still looks different for women than for men. Over the past seven years, the Coalition of Oregon School Administrators and its Oregon Women Superintendent Network have considered how to best navigate that path—and COSA’s Executive Director Dr. Krista Parent shares three insights in this piece for Education Week. https://www.edweek.org/leadership/opinion-how-to-help-more-women-advance-to-the-superintendency/2025/12

1️⃣ Encourage professional connection among women
2️⃣ Recognize multiple paths to leadership
3️⃣ Improve the hiring process for both boards and applicants

It was an honor to partner with COSA and Dr. Parent on this piece, and we salute your efforts!

Despite ambition and talent, not enough female teachers break the glass ceiling as district leaders.

03/18/2026

If you were ever a permit driver, you can relate to the stress of testing day, when you had to navigate the unfamiliar streets around the motor vehicles office while a total stranger rated your every move. Wouldn’t you have been a more effective test-taker if you had been able to practice on those streets beforehand and correct the situations in which you struggled?

Now extend this analogy to elementary students. Wouldn’t they be more effective on tests like the California Assessment of Student Performance and Progress if they had been able to navigate a similar set of questions ahead of time and address the challenges? Principal Rudy Sandoval of Montera Elementary School says yes — and he has the data to back it up:

“In one year, our 6th graders’ math scores on the CASPP increased by 8.5 percentage points while their English language arts scores rose by 14 percentage points. In addition, for the first time, 70% of these 6th grade students performed proficient or better in the Smarter Balanced Assessments for English language arts/literacy.”

Read more about how learning the reasons behind Montera students’ struggles set them up for testing success in this piece from K-12 Dive. https://www.k12dive.com/news/learning-the-reason-behind-student-struggles-sets-them-up-for-testing-succe/812621/

Thank you to our partners at Classtime for connecting us with Principal Sandoval and helping spotlight these students’ achievements!

A California principal writes that digging into the “why” behind student confusion and frustration helped fuel significant achievement gains at his school.

03/10/2026

This is a moment of rapid change in , and it brings new challenges for leaders. On the one hand, they are being asked to prepare students for a world by building their ability to create, collaborate, and think critically. On the other, they are trying to ensure is meaningful, to keep students safe online, and to treat technology as a means rather than an end.

In a new piece for The Learning Counsel (available below and linked in the comments), Dr. Matthew Joseph shares three suggestions for navigating the challenges. His perspective is informed by his role as the assistant superintendent of technology and learning in New Bedford, Massachusetts.
1️⃣ Lead with vision, not tools.
2️⃣ Co-design with teachers, librarians, and other educators.
3️⃣ Educate users to build sustainable change.

We appreciate leaders like Dr. Joseph and partners like Follett Software who advocate for a vision of the future that keeps purpose and people at the center.

Technology alone doesn’t transform schools. People do.

For district leaders, successful digital transformation means supporting educators while moving innovation forward.

In this article, Dr. Matthew X. Joseph shares how K-12 leaders can drive meaningful technology change while keeping teachers and students at the center.

Read more from The Learning Counsel:
https://ow.ly/biYL50YpNu2

03/04/2026

English learners comprise 10.6% of public school students nationwide, and there is a growing need to ensure these 5.3 million students are served by programs.

Oregon set out to address this challenge in 2015 through landmark legislation. The grant-funded English Learner Outcome Program is one of the ways the state is improving outcomes among language-diverse students in smaller districts that may have a limited number of ESOL-endorsed teachers, and few, if any, dedicated EL teachers.

English Learner Specialist Ashley Harsin works in one such district. Her piece “How to Use Storytelling as a Phonics Resource for English Learners” in District Administration walks through the accessible, budget-friendly tools like Secret Stories she and her colleagues use. https://districtadministration.com/opinion/how-to-use-storytelling-as-a-phonics-resource-for-english-learners/

“EL students face a barrage of potential barriers as they work their way toward reading mastery,” she explains. “Making the journey more joyful through memorable songs, characters and visuals helps ease the frustration young learners experience, breaking down the confusing rules of English phonics into engaging, relatable moments.”

With all the phonics tools educators try, sometimes the solution is a story about cars and screeching brakes to capture students’ attention.

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