Dee Elementary School in Ogden School District has been the lowest-performing school in the state for years, but in 2010 the district was given a multi-million-dollar improvement grant to help failing schools, like Dee, succeed. “Our students wanted to learn so badly they just didn’t know how to be successful,” said Sondra Jolovich-Motes, who is the principal at Dee Elementary School. With the funds, Motes was sent to a special leadership program at the University of Virginia. She came back with training and began research on the school’s teachers and students.