About RSS

top 10 nationally

for pioneering uses of technology

$ 33 million

in scholarships in 2019

1 of 6

Districts to Watch in 2020

Innovative Teaching for the Real World

Our community deserves a school system with autonomy that empowers schools to create an engaged learning environment so students enjoy learning and teachers enjoy teaching.

That’s what Rowan-Salisbury, the Renewal School System, is all about! You may be wondering how Renewal came to be—it’s an exciting story.

The History Behind Renewal

At Rowan-Salisbury Schools, we’ve been ranked top 10, nationally, for pioneering uses of technology in our schools. We’ve won Discovery Education’s Innovation in Education Award, the National Digital Curriculum Strategy Award and the National Digital Content & Curriculum Achievement Awards as well. In 2019 our students earned more than $33 million in scholarships. Education Dive named us one of the Six Districts to Watch in 2020. The list goes on.

One reason for our success is that teachers and leaders are committed to incorporating innovative teaching strategies into our schools—and our state leadership took notice.

This history of high-quality education—and pushing for more local control—is how Rowan-Salisbury Schools’ Superintendent Dr. Lynn Moody ended up in a room with a North Carolina state senator and representative in spring of 2018 asking for charter-like flexibility.

Dr. Moody shared about her experiences as a coach, teacher and superintendent. She was able to show state politicians what Rowan-Salisbury teachers and students have already achieved (in a district with a 63 percent poverty rate), while explaining how much higher the school system can soar with the right flexibility and resources. She outlined her strategic plan for the district, explained how charter-like flexibility would benefit our schools and asked for their help making it happen.

The legislators were inspired by her data and experience-backed vision for Rowan-Salisbury. They introduced legislation, which then passed in less than a month. North Carolina’s Renewal district was born!

Renewal Directional System

In the Renewal School System, every learner masters the fundamentals of English, math, science and social studies. We focus on strengthening our students’ interpersonal skills, too. However, we don’t stop there. We work with our students to set goals based on their unique smartness, career goals and personal passions— students like Mira, who wants to be a welder, and Isaiah, who is weighing his options between schools such as Harvard and Stanford.

We focus on three specific areas to ensure learners are engaged and on track for a successful future.

“We want EVERY child to discover their passion, find their unique smartness and apply their learning to solve complex problems.”

Superintendent Dr. Lynn Moody

The Flexibility of Renewal

Through Renewal flexibility, we’re changing what traditional public education looks like for our students. We’re the first and only school district in North Carolina with charter-like flexibility. This empowers us with:

Curriculum Flexibility
Through Renewal, teachers are the leaders, designers and creators of instruction. They have the flexibility to create curriculums that speak to each student’s passion and interest–with the possibility to be exempt from some standardized testing. Our teachers coordinate with one another so projects engage students in every class, while teaching the fundamental standards that students can actually apply in the real world. Students then get to work on cross-subject projects like designing schools from storage containers or creating toys for children! As a result, students thrive.
Personnel Flexibility
The Renewal model gives us the opportunity to hire instructors with industry expertise who can teach in their areas of strength, even without obtaining their teaching license. This means our students benefit from the real-world experience of teachers like Erik Barton, who started at RSS after working in science laboratories and earned his master’s degree in school administration while teaching. In addition, our flexible model allows us to focus on the whole student with our hiring. For example, research shows that yoga can be highly beneficial to children with trauma histories, so some Rowan-Salisbury schools have been able to hire yoga instructors to lead classes during the school day.
Financial Flexibility
As the Renewal School System, we receive state funding in one installment, rather than in multiple, restricted allotments. This budget flexibility means we can now focus our funding on what will truly help students flourish. For example, we’ve taken students to New York City, national parks and to the ocean at the Outer Banks. At the beach, 4th graders learned about different career options like marine biology and incorporated science into the trip (and many left the county for the very first time). Our teachers always incorporate trip-related literature, vocabulary, experiments and more into these excursions, tying academic work into experiential learning. These are opportunities many of our students would never have otherwise because of their families’ home or financial situations.
Calendar & Schedule Flexibility
Since we’re preparing our students for the real world, we use our calendar flexibility to coordinate our programs with local colleges, businesses and nonprofits. We also have the opportunity to think differently about how we structure the time of day when students attend school. Our school calendar and schedule now meets the needs of students, parents, staff, community and the designed curriculum!