Collaborations

BF Day Literature Circle Collaboration

UCDS faculty collaborated with a neighborhood public school, BF Day Elementary, to bring Literature Circles to the early elementary classrooms there. A grant from the Kiester Family Foundation has paid for sets of books, release time needed for teachers, and professional development for BF Day teachers. Students participating in this project have improved reading scores and BF Day is planning to expand the program to the upper elementary grades. The UCDS faculty involved in this project have learned a great deal from BF Day teachers about working with students who speak English as a second language. Many of these students began speaking English for the first time in Literature Circle discussions. This project illustrates the potential benefits that can result from collaboration between local schools in any community.

Thurgood Marshall Math Collaboration

UCDS is participating in a collaboration with the University of Washington to improve math instruction at Thurgood Marshall Elementary School in Seattle. UCDS teachers and UW graduate students are working alongside teachers in Thurgood Marshall classrooms to implement a new math program. In the previous school year, only four students at Thurgood Marshall met standards in math as measured by the Washington Assessment of Student Learning, WASL. This triangular collaboration, funded by a grant from the National Science Foundation, not only unites public and private education but also brings together K-12 and higher education. Each member of this collaboration brings critical knowledge and expertise to this partnership. Collaborations such as this one, encourage the kind of resource sharing that is possible between the educational institutions that exist in most communities.