Julie Marshall has taught a lot of students. More than 3,400 students have passed through her classrooms in her more than 30 years of teaching. She thought she had seen it all. Until this past year.

“I have worked hard to engage students for more than three decades. It wasn’t until this year, that I saw the change I’ve been hoping for,” said Marshall of Saluda Trail Middle School in Rock Hill, South Carolina. The big difference is the classroom itself.

Marshall currently teaches seventh grade at Saluda Trail, in a community where the majority of students come from families living at or below the poverty level. In 2015, the school was one of 12 recipients of the Steelcase Education inaugural Active Learning Center Grant bringing flexible mobile furniture, new technology and interactive learning tools to Marshall’s students.

Following the classroom redesign, Marshall’s 2015-16 seventh grade students completed assignments 98 percent of the time – up from her previous year’s class who had a 52 percent completion rate.

Read more research and observations about the difference the Active Learning Center Grant has made: https://www.steelcase.com/blog/reading-targets-double-classroom-redesign/. Plus see before and after photos.