How Academity's 12,000-Strong Community is Broadening the Definition of Gifted Education
Her entrepreneurial path began in the Texas classroom. As a schoolteacher of over 10 years, she has had the bulk of her professional career advocating for gifted children's achievement in areas where their needs have gone unmet.
"It is quite common within the public school system that gifted students are left to fend for themselves in their most full potential, and for their potential to not be realized," Meredith explains. "Students who might not appear as a typical gifted child deserve educators who are educated to comprehend their individuality and requirements. They should be able to have their eccentricities, concepts, beliefs, and intensities honored and respected. ."
Through her in-classroom experience, Meredith realized that there were gaps in the solutions within her field of specialization. There was no online high-quality professional learning services which could provide teachers with the best practices for gifted education.
Two months ago Meredith decided to expand her passion for gifted education to the outside world. Armed with only her education degree, she created Academity -- an online learning community that provides well-designed and researched programs that satisfy the essential needs of teachers in gifted education formation.
Since then, over 12,000 educators have taken part in her programs. Here's how she did it.
Jump ahead:
- She took the leap of faith without a business background
- She cultivated an organic, like-minded audience
- She designed an easy sales funnel
- She combined her unique program with existing frameworks
- She made sure her team was united in their goal
- She capitalized on the benefits of online community by utilizing forums for discussion
- She took advantage of the advanced features and accessibility of HTML0.
She took an unintentional leap of faith even though she had no business experience.
Today, Meredith remains transparent about the fact that she had not had any prior business experience prior to embarking on her online course journey. But she has since learned to embrace that as a strength.
"It might sound like a lot, but I don't have any experience with anything that has to do with business. I'm from the educational world and I'm a techie. I am a tech enthusiast, and I enjoy learning about new technologies, and that sense of fascination led me to this place," she says.
"I'm very comfortable jumping into something even if it's scary. As someone who has a background in education I try my best to teach my children the concept that it's OK to fail. Good things can come from things not going well. When something isn't working, I can always improve it .'"
Even without the traditional business skillset, Meredith was able to identify a gap that she could address.
"Within my home state of Texas, there's 30 hours of mandatory training teachers have to go through for the purpose of specializing in gifted education. Teachers in general it's quite a bit expected of them within this training and not a lot of money or time devoted to it," she explains.
At the time, Meredith's school district had a very outdated system of training that has proven to be an unreliable option. The pandemic was the reason that Meredith began to experiment with online courses.
"When the pandemic began to spread in the early days, there were many schools in the Houston area that needed the teachers to receive training and there was not way to access it since it was all in-person. Then I thought"Whoa, let's try creating a course. We'll test it out,'" she recollects.
"Everyone loved it. What kind of feedback I got was "This was the very best course I've taken. It was extremely fascinating and engaging ."
Her goal was to create an organic, similar-minded community
After the initial positive reaction, Meredith realized that she found something that was unique. Meredith continued to expand her curriculum and elective courses in order to provide services for the Houston community, and later the school expanded to other state districts.
Meredith says she owes a significant part the success she has had to her organic techniques for marketing.
"Word of mouth is extremely important. Teachers haven't been rolling the dough, so I incorporated that in my marketing strategies. The thing I love about this marketing is that all of these teachers share attitude of equity. ."
In comparison to more conventional strategies she's employed, Meredith found this personalized, relational form of marketing is a hit with her target audience in a far more meaningful way.
"Me as well as my readers have a common desire to educate gifted students and to expand the concept of the gifted educational. When putting that into practice We know we're positively affecting so many districts -- it all boils down to the shared messaging that I advocate for. ."
To enhance this natural communication element, Meredith was intentional about getting in touch with contacts she had already made in the education world. As a fellow educator, she partnered with various parent associations and the Texas Association of Gifted Children to make appearances at occasions, appear in publications, and get recognition.
She developed an easy sales funnel
Furthermore, Meredith established a sales funnel which allowed her to transform her existing audience into loyal, paying customers.
"I decided to offer one of my less intensive course courses available for free. It was an successful trial for teachers who haven't fulfilled the required number of hours may enroll in a free three-hour course," she explains.
"I've gotten numerous customers that way for a couple of reasons. They're saying"Oh, I've finished this amount of time, I might as well do a little more. But also because these tester courses really excel at receiving important feedback. I've made sure to be very deliberate as making these courses to try and keep that feedback loop active ."
She integrated her revolutionary course with frameworks that were already in place
Ever since her student numbers increased, Meredith realized that she was in a unique position in regards to her course curriculum. There was an established training framework on the market, she had the necessary tools and experience to improve it.
"When I created my course, I was aware there were various requirements available. I created a mind map and outlined the essential elements that should be covered in the mandatory thirty hours. From there, I was able to develop the exciting additional elements," she says.
"I'm extremely committed to staying in the cutting-edge of things when it comes to studying. As I was writing these classes, I constantly thought, "What is it that they saying right now about this? Why do we have to keep repeating this? What can I do to instruct these standards with enthusiasm? What needs are my core understandings satisfying? What understanding do I want my teachers to leave with? ?"
Meredith was able to answer these crucial issues not just due to her expertise, but also due to her equity-minded mindset.
"I have a doctorate in gifted education, so I was able to trust myself to fill in gaps when it came to the creation of course content. In addition to that I took a deliberate approach to designing my curriculum using an equity mindset. I made sure to ensure that I'm not writing the curriculum solely from a white, female, Texas teacher's viewpoint. I try to incorporate lots of different ideas."
She made sure her team had a common goal.
Since the beginning of Academity's existence until today, Meredith has placed great importance on her key value of destigmatizing the structures around gifted education. It is a personal mission that she has set the groundwork for her curriculum and business model.
She says that there is no government-issued definition of gifted educational opportunities in Texas, however, the Academity community is developing their own.
"Several definitions of gifted education are super inadequate and outdated. I subscribe to the framework that describes a kid who requires more than the typical curriculum gives the child. They're in front of their peers, but they're languishing. My goal is to bring the definition to life." She says.
Meredith has made it her goal to ensure that all of Academity's staff and instructors are united in this goal. Her belief is that this has greatly helped in the success of her platform.
"We are averse to the common perspective that states that giftedness is a synonym for strange. There are a myriad of ridiculous myths that are a part of politics and populism. Over the years the gifted education system has been ripened with discrimination and inequity. Our goal is to rebrand this narrative and find kids who require more than what they're currently getting," she says.
This common understanding of Academity's core value proposition ensures Academity's team works toward the same end. Without a defined goal it is impossible to achieve it.
She leveraged the value of online community by utilizing forums for discussion
This common goal is evident in all levels of the Academity Community. Meredith believes that everyone in her community of over 12,000 is in alignment to her new approach to gifted education.
"One of my favorite parts of my course offerings are the discussion boards which look at the question of, 'What is gifted?' Teachers contribute across the State of Texas about what their impressions of the giftedness. The questions we ask are"Is the child gifted or are they gifted? What is gifted vs bright? Is this child in need of more than what they're getting?" she asks.
"By discussing the issue individuals tend to be in the same tone overall and leave with a new kind of knowledge."
7. She made use of the latest and readily accessible capabilities
Meredith is convinced that 's platform has unlocked endless possibilities for Academity's platform, regardless of whether it is considering the present, past or even the future.
When Academity was first founded, Meredith longed for an user-friendly platform that would help her realize her dream. Like many other creators of courses, she's found that 's offering is an ideal fit for her as well as her company's needs.
"One one of the things I enjoy about it is the fact that there's only an extremely small amount of learning curve for figuring out how to make the most of the platform's greatest capabilities. As a designer and developer and also for my students who are taking the course, there have been very few technical obstacles that I've come across," she says.
"Right from the beginning I was able adapt my design to Academity and create a very minimalist, modern interface. The templates for courses have been extremely valuable and so have the resources for support," she says. " This has helped make all of this feasible."
Are you inspired by Meredith's tale of creating a successful online-based course company? Ready to take the leap for yourself? Join and begin today.