Meyersdale-based Action Driven Education empowers teachers to improve academic outcomes

By Stephanie Kalina-Metzger

Timothy Kretchman, founder and educational strategist at Action Driven Education in Meyersdale, spent 24 years in the education sector, starting out as a special education teacher, then taking on a role as a K-12 principal, before moving on to director of curriculum and instruction, and finally taking on the role of director of special education. During these two decades, Kretchman was almost as much of a student as the students were. “I learned so much from each role and am still learning today,” he said.

Kretchman said that Action Driven Education came about at a time in his career where he felt like he wanted to change education in a global way. 

“As I worked with other colleagues in the education field, I learned that there was a tremendous need for solutions and that many educators spend unnecessary time being reactive, as opposed to proactive,” he said. 

His solution was to create an innovative and easy-to-use tool to help teachers empower students by transforming daily practices. He developed the tool he calls Accomods, Action Driven Education’s primary product, in 2018. 

“It was designed with the general education teacher in mind,” said Kretchman, explaining the proactive part of the platform is to spot problems before a child is labeled as “special ed” and given an Individualized Education Program (IEP). (An IEP is a legal document that is developed for each public-school child in the United States who needs special education). 

According to Kretchman, the platform can be used after an IEP is assigned, or before. “It’s just another tool in the toolbox of the teacher, to empower them to help steer their students in the right direction and is not meant to exclude anyone. Some teachers are using it for an entire class of students,” he explained. 

How it works

According to Kretchman, using the platform is extremely simple. 

“The teachers are provided with a prepared list of students’ strengths and weaknesses and teachers identify them with a checkmark. Then, using AI, the platform specifies what accommodations are aligned to the student’s individual needs.” Kretchman offers an example. “Say a student is struggling with emotional regulation problems and reading below grade level. The platform would offer the following suggestions: Reprimand the student privately, pair the student with a well-behaved peer, focus on vocabulary and take advantage of computer apps like Prizmo Go, which enables the child to hover a phone over a piece of text to hear the audio.” 

Teachers can also click on a screen to do a deeper dive into the accommodations that the program is suggesting and why.

Ramping up

Kretchman said that getting the word out about his business, in the beginning, was a challenge. 

“That’s where I struggled the most at first. I attended a lot of educational conferences and put it on display. As an educator, I wasn’t familiar with the business end of things and learned that along the way,” he said. 

The conferences eventually became unnecessary. “We’re doing so well that we’ve pulled back on that, relying almost exclusively on word of mouth now,” he said.

Kretchman is a big proponent of partnering with experts. “I worked with Pittsburgh’s Build in Motion for software development, marketing experts for marketing, psychologists and other professionals in the school system,” he said.

And he’s paying that expertise forward with his own clients. For those who purchase a yearly Accomods subscription, they can reach out to Kretchman for additional resources. “We respond to our schools, asking them what they need and if we can pull it off, we do it,” he said.

Today, Kretchman’s biggest cluster of clients are in Pennsylvania, but he also has subscribers in Florida, Tennessee, Ohio, Illinois, Virginia, Iowa and Kansas. “We also have individual subscribers in every state in the union and across the globe, with a recent subscription in the United Arab Emirates,” he added.

Through it all, what Kretchman said he likes the most is not only helping students, but also collaborating with experts. 

“I enjoy working with school leaders who are partners. Working proactively with professionals is my favorite part of the job,” he said.

Stephanie Kalina-Metzger is a Pennsylvania-based freelance writer whose work can be seen in publications across the United States.