Our Team

Laura Middleton is the director of school and district support in Tennessee where she works to increase the knowledge of, access to and footprint of Expanded Learning Time (ELT) opportunities in the state, as well as provide direct support to districts working to implement ELT. Prior to joining NCTL, Laura served as a State Literacy Liaison for the University of Texas at Austin. She worked to support the Texas Literacy Initiative as part of the Texas Striving Readers Comprehensive Literacy Initiative to improve school readiness and success in the areas of language and literacy for disadvantaged students in targeted Local Education agencies and their associated Early Childhood Education providers through the development and implementation of the Texas Literacy Plan. Before working at the University of Texas at Austin, Laura lead successful turnaround efforts as the Executive Director/ Chief Academic Officer at three different high-need public schools in the state of Texas, significantly improving student outcomes taking schools from low-performing to achieving the state’s highest school rating. During her 12 years of leading schools, she has served on state panels, regional advisory councils, Southern Association of College and Schools Accreditation teams, and other civic and social organizations.