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WNC Business

It’s My Job: Lloyd Jones — Associate Vice President of Content and Implementation, Curriculum Associates

Jul 27, 2024 11:19AM ● By Randee Brown

Beginning a career in education to offer a positive impact to students, Lloyd Jones’ job with Curriculum Associates allows his positive impact to spread nationwide.

Jones taught middle school math for 11 years, and truly enjoyed engaging with students. In 2008, he hosted a workshop teaching teachers about using curriculum products. He was offered a job on the spot, and has now been hosting these types of workshops for 16 years, 10 of which have been with Curriculum Associates.

Curriculum Associates develops curriculum programs and products educators can use in the classroom. Jones’ role is traveling to cities and towns all over the US, hosting workshops and engaging with teachers with the intention of these products being adopted as tools to support their lessons.

“The idea is to make an impact for students,” Jones said. “These programs really help teachers figure out assessment data, and how to translate that data to support their classroom” 

Jones teaches educators how to use programs and products including assessment and  instructional resources and additional materials to support reading that can be customized based on the needs of the student rather than their current grade level. Teachers use these tools, some virtual-based and some teacher-led, to help build the confidence of children who are struggling at the same time as challenging students who are excelling in the same classroom.

Throughout the country, 30% to 40% of children in kindergarten through eighth grade, 440,000 of those in North Carolina, are using products created by this company. Jones and others in his position play an integral role in helping teachers understand how to best leverage this technology for their students.

Travel is a large portion of Jones’ work. His job requires him to travel to all 50 states to teach workshops, introduce programs to new districts, and gain feedback to learn about challenges teachers are experiencing. Jones takes this feedback to his product team, where it can be used to address specific issues and redesign lessons, getting  updated materials to teachers much faster.

“Textbooks are updated every five years,” Jones said. “With 2,500 employees across the country sharing feedback with our product design team, they can create these needed materials and we can share those lessons as soon as they are ready — even in the middle of the school year — wherever there is the greatest need and where we can have the greatest impact.”

With extensive traveling as part of Jones’ job, he particularly enjoys being able to participate in local workshops as well. A recent workshop hosting Henderson County principals analyzed and discussed how much math vocabulary students should understand in order to do well on NC math tests.

“I love it when I can do local things like that and work with teachers in my own community,” Jones said. “It’s great to have the discussions. I especially love to talk about different ways to solve math tasks, and how educators would teach children to solve these problems.”

Whether on the road or near home in WNC, supporting teachers is Jones’ top priority. In this work, he is able to help build confidence in children, and enjoys seeing new data showing positive trends in student performance.

“It makes my day to know so many teachers are using my techniques and kids are growing,” Jones said. “Data shows kids using our programs are scoring higher than kids who are not. It feels so good to know this work has such a positive impact.”

Lloyd Jones is an Associate Vice President of Content and Implementation at Curriculum Associates. Learn more at CurriculumAssociates.com.