Learning academy boasts innovation, online resources
Monday, February 13th, 2012
ShareThisWith the opening of the University’s first charter school just six months away, education officials have begun hosting a series of public meetings to discuss school operations.
Through innovation and unconventional teaching, the UT Tyler Learning Academy will provide an educational experience that is unavailable at most public schools, Eli Crow, an author of the proposal for the school, said.
“One of the critical pursuits of a university charter is the ability to be innovative in terms of delivery and instruction and to use that innovation to help further the research agenda … (and) share best practices with local school districts,” he said.
Directors of the academy held the first public meeting Feb. 13 at the University’s Ornelas Activity Center. The remaining meetings are scheduled for 6 p.m. Feb. 16 at the Palestine Campus and 6 p.m. Feb. 21 at the Longview University Center.
The academy is set to open in the fall to grades three through six, with campuses in Tyler, Palestine and Longview. Crow said enrollment will be free and open to all students in the regions surrounding each campus.
If the classes reach capacity, Crow said officials will use a lottery to select participants.
Crow said the idea to begin a charter school was borne from the University’s Ingenuity Center, one of seven Texas Education Agency-funded Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics centers.
The Ingenuity Center offers programs at the local, state and national level, which provide professional development for teachers, technical assistance for schools and other STEM-related functions, he said.
Center officials decided to take advantage of a state policy that allows universities to establish charter schools, which Crow said promote innovative learning that positively affects community school districts.
Non-university charter schools, such as academies created by a group of parents, must complete a competitive application process in order to be considered, Dr. Michael Odell, another author for the school proposal, said.
“Because we’re a University, we just have to show that we can actually do what we say we’re going to do, because we’re already in the education business,” Odell said.
He said officials at Stephen F. Austin University and The University of Texas at Austin also have established university charters.
The University’s learning academy will be governed by The University of Texas System Board of Regents, which has delegated authority to President Rodney Mabry.
Crow said Dr. Mabry will give control of the academy to a governing board composed of faculty members from the University’s College of Education, parents of the academy’s students, an ad hoc community member and a University student.
Dr. Wesley Hickey, associate professor of education, will serve as superintendent.
Crow said the academy’s curricula will emphasize three fundamental changes to grade-school education: project-based learning, the flip model for homework and exposure to technology.
The crux of the academy is project-based learning, which Crow said is a teaching concept used in the Ingenuity Center, the education department and the UTeach program.
In most classes, Crow said instructors teach a concept and then ask students to work on a project that illustrates what they have learned. With project-based learning, instructors introduce the project first, and then allow students to learn and develop skills as they work.
“It’s much more like real life,” Crow said. “In real life, … I’m faced with problems and projects and products and things that I need to do, and I don’t always know everything that I need to know to be able to do it,” Crow said. “I have to go out and learn those things.”
Crow said the academy also will introduce the flip model, which reverses the role of traditional homework.
Instead of completing an assignment based on the material they learned earlier that day, students will be asked to read over the topic scheduled for the next day, he said.
“What you may have found out in college is that if you read the textbook before you go to the class, you’ll do so much better,” he said. “Now, when you’re hearing it in class, you’ve heard it before and you’ve got some idea of how these things are supposed to work.”
Technology, the third element of the academy’s strategy, will be used from the first exposure to new material, Crow said.
Students will participate in an online learning environment with videos, simulations and reading assignments, he said. Online tests will gauge students’ comprehension and highlight areas that need more study.
“What we’re offering is a different way of delivery that utilizes the tools that you see in business and the work place and other things that you typically don’t see in public schools,” Odell said. “They take advantage of social networking and also the distant education technology that is so prevalent in the real world.”
Crow said the fusion of technology, project-based learning and the flip study model will help the academy’s instructors prepare students for higher education.
“We anticipate that a large percentage of our students will be taking college classes at UT Tyler by the time they’re juniors or seniors in high school,” he said.
Because the academy will be a public school, students will have to take the State of Texas Assessment of Academic Readiness exam each year. However, Crow said the academy’s programs are designed to develop the skills students need at each grade level, rather than teach students how to pass a test.
“Instead of teaching to the test, we want to test what is taught,” he said. “We want to make sure students are prepared for that test and any other test.”
