Keighley George is a champion for her students at Forest Lake Elementary School where she serves as lead interventionist to students from kindergarten to fifth grade. As a former third grade teacher, George is adept at creatively tailoring her educational approach to students at every stage of learning, ensuring that they are confident in their abilities and achieve academic growth. Through personalized data binders, she tracks academic progress with students and encourages them to self-reflect and set goals for improvement. George’s growth mindset is the foundation for meaningful, productive relationships with students, parents, and fellow educators.
George’s positivity and enthusiasm resonate throughout the school in her work both inside and outside the classroom as part of the school’s leadership team and Advancement Via Individual Determination (AVID) site team. She revamped the Response to Intervention (RTI) program—a vital framework designed to deliver high-quality education to students with disabilities and mitigate potential learning challenges. As a passionate advocate for students and their families and highly skilled in teaching structured literacy and multisensory education, George organizes data meetings with classroom teachers to assess individual needs and create pathways for success. She spearheads parent university sessions, during which she provides effective strategies for families to reinforce subject matter covered at school, and hosts family literacy nights to support families in enhancing their children’s learning at home.
George’s leadership extends to the district and state levels where she has assisted with summer school intervention, served as a supervising mentor to student teachers, served on the faculty advisory council, and conducted professional development for her fellow lead interventionists within the district. She serves on the district curriculum committee, the South Carolina Department of Education Social Studies Alignment Guide committee, and has presented regionally and at the state level on literacy, phonics and social studies.
George earned her Bachelor of Science in elementary education from Presbyterian College in 2013 and her Master of Education in teaching from the University of South Carolina in 2018.
Press Release: Columbia Educator Surprised with $25,000 Milken Award
