This week I was at another inspection and this university is doing so many things well. There data management systems and processes were on-point, they had good content and teaching skills in coursework, and their candidates overall were doing well in the field. They have a number of amazing grant initiatives that faculty are involved in and have some amazing collaborations happening with each other and with their faculty-in-residence models which just began in their local school systems. One of these faculty-in-residence models is happening in the Orange County Public School Academic Center for Excellence (ACE).
The ACE school is the “true” model of a community school. It has everything that a family would need right on site. In education, when the term community school is used, people sometimes mean that the school serves the local community that lives there by providing their education. Some community schools extend a step further by serving the community by connecting families with community partners (dentists, doctors, and other needed services) they may need. This school, however, goes even beyond this and has all the services a family needs on site. ACE has a preschool, hospital, food pantry, career training, and grade level classrooms (K-8) on-site. It also has extra-curricular activities and enrichment opportunities that extend before and after the school day. This school was built with the conception of this true community—where all services are at one location in permanent fixtures. This really separates it from other schools who retro-fit this partnership and services outreach for families. While visiting the school and watching teacher candidates teach, I learned that anyone that graduates from high school from this school they are given free tuition to any Florida state university and if they decide to go to medical school in-state this is paid for, as well. This was only one of the activities I was a part of this week, so I did not get to dive as deep as I would have liked to into learning more about this school and its model—but it was one of the many “cool” things I saw this week. This school’s website offers more and I’ll probably spend some time learning more about this school and how the faculty-in-residence model supports their teacher candidates, teachers, students, district initiatives, and community partnerships as they use a wrap-around holistic approach to educating and supporting students. Here is their website: https://ocpsace.ocps.net/
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorKristina Scott Archives
February 2023
Categories |