About Actuate Development Company, LLC
Changing lives. Transforming performance.
Actuate is dedicated to transforming educational excellence by empowering educators with the skills and tools to unlock student potential. Led by Dr. Essie Hill, an experienced instructional leadership coach, we believe strategic, literacy-focused practices are the key to improving student performance and lives.
Dr. Hill’s experience in K-12 education highlighted a critical issue: too many students—particularly those from marginalized communities—are locked out of future opportunities due to low literacy skills. Our mission is to transform the secondary school experience by equipping educators with specialized literacy tools. We foster student achievement and well-being while building a more confident, motivated, and satisfied educator workforce.
Our Expertise
Leadership Consultation
Literacy Leadership Strategy
Bridge the gap between literacy and success. We help you build a powerful, school-wide framework to improve overall literacy among secondary students. Through professional development/ongoing coaching and actionable data, we help you implement a strengths-based strategy that prepares students for the future.
Literacy
Coaching
Professional Development Support
Shift from teaching generic literacy strategies to teaching disciplinary literacy. We provide disciplinary literacy coaching to content-area teachers, helping them integrate reading, writing, and thinking skills specific to their discipline. This involves helping teachers implement strategies to apprentice students in how experts in their field (e.g., historians, scientists) construct knowledge, read complex texts, and solve problems.
Educator
Workshops
Active Learning Sessions
Participate in workshops focused on equipping educators with the tools to implement disciplinary literacy instruction. Learning sessions will include topics such as shifting from content area reading to disciplinary literacy, disciplinary reading and writing, advanced reading skills, and other effective literacy practices for secondary students.
Actuate Insights
100%
Educator Satisfaction
98%
Student Achievement
20+
Years of Impact
Our Strategy
1
Tailored Consultation
Our consulting transforms instruction through an evidence-based, strengths-focused approach, providing sustained professional development and tailored data protocols to ensure lasting results.
2
Empowerment Solutions
We empower educators with a robust, schoolwide literacy plan designed to unlock content-area access, college, and career readiness for secondary students.
3
Student-Centric Focus
We help educators implement literacy instruction that allows secondary students content-area access and academic and career readiness that prepares them for the future.
4
Innovative Practices
We use a literacy coaching model to help content-area teachers provide discipline- specific instruction. This strengths-based approach empowers students to think, read, and write like practitioners in a field (e.g., historians or scientists).
Our Approach
Leadership Consultation
A consultant collaborates with leaders on how to build a schoolwide literacy plan. This involves an initial assessment, ongoing implementation, and evaluation.
Literacy Coaching
A coach collaborates with teachers to plan for and implement discipline-specific literacy instruction through modeling and co-teaching, coaching cycles, and targeted feedback.
Educator Workshops
A facilitator guides the learning of participants by using elements of group coaching, collaborative discussions, brainstorming or other small group activities, and peer learning to support teachers' implementation of disciplinary literacy instruction, ultimately to improve student academic success and achievement.
