The Focus folder helps us simplify using data to provide targeted interventions and enrichment. Our team is able to plan for both struggling students and students who needed to be challenged. The targeted activities are especially helpful and easy to use. The use of lessons with the PDSAs helps us continually monitor student progress and focus on results for all individual students.
–Melissa Geffre
Debbie Hunsaker, M.Ed., is the Owner and Lead Implementation Consultant of STRIVE Educational Consulting, a national organization dedicated to improving literacy and math achievement for all students. Debbie has devoted her career to elevating teaching and learning through evidence-based professional learning, leadership development, and sustainable systems of support for educators and schools.
At STRIVE, Debbie leads a team that partners with schools and districts across the country to meet them where they are and support them in building coherent systems for teaching and learning. STRIVE’s work focuses on helping educators plan, teach, and assess reading, writing, and math through aligned, research-driven professional development and implementation support. Core areas of expertise include building effective multi-tiered systems of support resulting in both growth and achievement in literacy and math.
Prior to founding STRIVE, Debbie served as the Division Administrator for Educational Opportunity and Equity at the Montana Office of Public Instruction, where she led statewide literacy and equity initiatives to improve outcomes for all learners. She directed programs including Reading First, Early Reading First, Title I School Support, and the Montana Comprehensive Literacy Project.
Debbie is the author of multiple professional and children’s resources, including:
STRIVE’s Data System: A How-To on Planning, Teaching, and Assessing Reading Groups...soon to be Striving Readers
The STRIVE Coaching Handbook
Striving Writers
The Striving Mathematician System
L.I.T.E.R.A.C.Y.
and the children’s book We Made Do
Debbie continues to collaborate with schools and state partners nationwide to transform research into action—helping educators build the knowledge, systems, and confidence to ensure every student and teacher thrives. Reach out for references and success stories through our partnerships with schools and districts.
