"pockets of progress" is correct and usable in written English.
It refers to small areas or instances of improvement or advancement within a larger context. Example: Despite the economic downturn, there are pockets of progress in certain industries, such as technology and renewable energy.
But narrow the focus and pockets of progress can be found.
Vilakazi, the player trolled over her gender, agrees that her sport doesn't get the recognition or support it deserves but says she has been encouraged by pockets of progress at home.
There are pockets of progress, but overall it's still a very difficult, very grim picture.
In keeping with insights on how systems learn and change, it appears best to experiment widely, connecting and building on pockets of progress.
While growth in child obesity has slowed and some research has show pockets of progress, rates of child obesity remain well above where they were when the federal government first started tracking such data in the late 1970s.
Malala has transformed an attempted assassination at age 14 into a global spotlight on how equal education for girls is still a very real human rights crisis despite pockets of progress (such as U.S. girls' record rates of going to college, thanks to girls education trailblazers like YWLN -- a partner of my organization, The Respect Institute).
While German technology has created pockets of glossy progress, much of the country is poor, run-down and beaten down.
Despite the progress, pockets of food insecurity remain in some parts of the country.
(With respect to acceptance of Jews and Christians at a distance, there has been some progress in pockets of the traditionalist camp).
When the administration claims that they're seeing "progress" in pockets of southern Helmand and Kandahar (a claim open to serious dispute, by the way, and strangely contradicted by some of Petraeus' own spin), they're displaying a familiar kind of confusion between the tactical and the strategic, one that seems to always pop up when we're confronting a failed war.
It has permitted, in the name of progress, the dismantling of the manufacturing sector, leaving huge pockets of postindustrial despair and poverty behind.
