When Haywood County Schools began piloting Stile in early 2025, teachers at Canton Middle faced a familiar challenge: new state standards, limited prep time, and the pressure to engage every learner. For Karma Schuford, a veteran teacher with 30 years in front of a classroom but minimal experience teaching science —she wasn’t sure what to expect with a new curriculum.

She was delighted to find that the ready-to-teach lessons shaved hours off her lesson planning time each week. Even better, her students instantly gravitated to the narrative-driven lessons, varying question formats, engaging videos, and labs.

“Probably my favorite part about Stile is the ease that I'm able to present to the students and the engagement level they have,” Karma said. “They have bought into the system. They're very excited about it. They'll walk in and say, ‘hey, are we doing Stile today?’

She’s also found that she’s able to pull more out of her students using feedback tools like the model answer, which can be released by a teacher in real-time to show students what a response should look like. Now, students are trying to anticipate what elements the model answer will include.

“They are trying to out-model the model answer, which is great because then they're given more complete, deeper thoughts.”

Across the district, Stile’s customization has been a benefit for veteran and new teachers alike. Over at Bethel Middle, Dylan Sharp is quite the opposite of Karma — he has a background in science but is relatively new to teaching.

“You're given the standards and told, ‘Teach,’” Dylan said. “You’re not handed a textbook or materials, you’re expected to build it all yourself while managing everything else.”

His experience with lesson planning has been nearly identical. The alignment to North Carolina’s new science standards meant that Dylan could shift his focus from building materials to building momentum in the classroom.

“It’s decreased my planning time by 75 to 80 percent,” he said. “Now I can focus on teaching, not making slideshows.”

That shift has translated directly into classroom gains. Real-time tools like Analyze Mode have helped Dylan and his fellow teachers spark meaningful discussion, catch misconceptions early, and give students the feedback they need to grow. Principal Casey Kruk has seen firsthand the ease with which teachers have adapted to Stile throughout the pilot, and the response of the students at his school.

“It's intuitive, it's easy to use,” Casey said. “And at the same time it provides a good amount of rigor for our students. I think it's easy for me to go in and log in with a teacher and be able to see exactly what should be done on that day, how they interpret that information, how they use it, and how they implement that in a classroom.”