How Connecting the Community Transformed a Rural School District

THE Journal: Under superintendent Matt Akin’s leadership, Piedmont City School District, a three-school district in rural Alabama, has gained national acclaim. The district’s Piedmont High was named one of “America’s Best High Schools” by U.S. News & World Report as well as “Apple Distinguished School,” and a Blue Ribbon School by the U.S. Department of Education. Akin may be best known for using federal funding to make the entire town wireless as a way to increase equity for Piedmont students, about half of whom did not have Internet access at home.

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