Each quarter, the The Educator Academy takes time to highlight a school partner that best exemplifies one of our core values. This quarter, we chose to focus on Troost Elementary School. The Educator Academy believes Troost’s principal, Dr. Jenise Hampton, and her staff embodies our core value of Care and Love. The school mission statement reads:
Our mission is to lead all students to become academically competitive, socially competent, self-driven learners. This will be done through collaboration of the school, family, and community as students prepare for careers and college readiness in the 21st Century.
Troost lives its mission statement via the following three focus areas evidenced building wide:
1. Positive Behavior Referrals
Students at Troost are recognized daily for what they are doing right in the classroom. Dr. Hampton gets on the loudspeaker and reads positive behavior referrals written by teachers at the beginning of each school day. Students who are positively referred are then eligible for prizes in a monthly drawing.
2. No Kid Hungry
If students arrive at Troost hungry, they can go directly to the front office and receive a snack to help them focus in class. This allows the school to partner with families in helping students to succeed.
3. Trauma Informed Care
Troost Elementary has doubled down its focus on Trauma Informed Care through the implementation of “Calming Corners” in its classrooms. Instead of immediately referring students to the office when they are upset, the corners are designed to give students a safe space in class to process their feelings and rejoin the group.
The The Educator Academy Way…
As an organization focused around supplying high quality, mission driven teachers to students in need, the partnership with Troost Elementary School and ultimately Kansas City Public Schools just makes sense. Our residents are learning to create a truly inclusive and collaborative environment for students who need it most. They are gaining experience in parent engagement, positive workplace culture, and data driven instruction. Once their residency year is over, not only will they be prepared to tackle their first year of teaching, they will be able to do so with a year’s worth of experience putting best practices to work in a classroom because of the efforts of their Mentor Teachers at Troost Elementary School. At the The Educator Academy, we believe that by continuing the work of educating our nation’s most vulnerable student populations and providing them access to quality instructors we are closing the achievement gap, socioeconomic gap, and opening up pathways to success that may have otherwise remained closed. Troost Elementary School is our partner in that work and we are glad to have them.