Piedmont Elementary School math teacher Cassie Holbrooks helps a small group of fourth-grade students with a three-digit subtraction problem in Piedmont, Ala., on Thursday, Aug. 31, 2023. Piedmont, a 1,100-student district where seven out of 10 qualify for free or reduced-prince lunch, has stuck with an approach it began before the pandemic: It gave teachers more time to dig into data on student performance and increased instructional time for math teachers to focus on specific skills. (Trisha Powell Crain/AL.com via AP)
