By Marc R. Masferrer, University Communications and Marketing
Teaching at economically disadvantaged schools like Manatee Elementary or Daughtrey Elementary, both in Bradenton, requires more than the ability to instruct students on reading, writing and arithmetic.
A successful teacher will also have an appreciation of and empathy for outside challenges — like poor health and diet, living in an unsafe neighborhood and an unstable home life — many of their students must overcome just to make it to school each day, much less be academically successful. In such an environment, it can be difficult to recruit and retain teachers when circumstances of life that usually are not part of their lesson plans, spill over into the classroom and hurt their students’ progress.
She readily admits she still has a lot to learn — “To say it’s a walk in the park would not be the truth” — but Sydney Melvin, a senior majoring in elementary education at USF Sarasota-Manatee working fulltime as a teaching intern in a fourth-grade classroom at Daughtrey, said her experiences this year have reinforced the importance of acknowledging and responding to not only the educational, but also the emotional and social needs of students facing so many non-school challenges. The stakes are too high, Melvin said, to not meet students where they are struggling, so that teachers can help them succeed.
“I have to understand how they feel about certain things,” Melvin said. “I have to speak so they understand.”
USF Sarasota-Manatee student Sydney Melvin was a teaching intern at Daughtrey Elementary School. It is of two Manatee County schools the College of Education is providing interns and other assistance as part of the Community Partnership Schools program
Melvin’s internship is one way the College of Education at USF Sarasota-Manatee is contributing to a community-wide effort to give students at Daughtrey Elementary and Manatee Elementary, and their families and communities, much-need support and guidance to lift them from the effects of poverty, according to Cheryl Ellerbrock, campus dean for the College of Education at USF Sarasota-Manatee.
The Community Partnership Schools program recognizes that the two schools, where many students receive free or reduced-priced breakfasts and lunches and score below average on standardized tests, face particular challenges that can affect students’ performance. Many students and their families have inadequate access to health and social services — or don’t know what’s available to them; and the schools often have a difficulty in recruiting and retaining teachers equipped to properly serve students facing so many challenges.
The Community Partnership Schools program, which has been at Manatee Elementary since 2020 and at Daughtrey Elementary since last fall, has brought, among other services, community health clinics to the two campuses, a food pantry to Manatee Elementary and, from USF, student interns and special training for teachers.
USF Sarasota-Manatee Regional Chancellor Karen Holbrook said the Community Partnership Schools program has boosted efforts by the College of Education to prepare graduates, like Melvin, for the many challenges they might face as teachers in their classrooms.
“Dr. Ellerbrock and her team have done an outstanding job in working with the Manatee School District and other partners to address the needs of children and their families at Manatee and Daughtrey elementary schools," Holbrook said. "I am also excited about the inroads the program and the work of our faculty and students have given us into communities that we have not always been able to reach."
USF and the Community Partnership Schools program
USF’s role in the program is to help transform how teachers teach at Manatee Elementary and Daughtrey Elementary and instill the expertise and stability often missing in the teaching ranks at the schools, Ellerbrock said.
Daughtrey Elementary School is one of two economically public schools in Manatee County where the USF College of Education is part of the Community Partnership Schools effort.
The partnership model, which has been the subject of considerable academic research, is also giving USF Sarasota-Manatee a chance to show residents that the university is present and addressing issues facing their children and neighborhoods and offering them opportunities they can take to improve their lives.
As part of the program, the College of Education at Sarasota-Manatee is:
- Placing undergraduate education students as interns at the two schools, providing them with invaluable training experiences as they prepare to start their careers and the schools with the expert guidance of faculty members who also go on campus with the interns.
- Offering a leadership training academy for teachers, training that they can use to improve their work and develop as leaders on their campuses. Teachers who complete the four courses earn a certificate they can use toward obtaining a graduate degree from USF.
- Marshaling strategic initiatives, like Project Parasol, a grant-funded program that is preparing paraprofessionals in the Manatee School District for careers as dual language teachers, to benefit the Community Partnership Schools. Project Parasol students are also working in the schools as interns.
- Engaging closely with other partner agencies, parents and other community members in a holistic effort to address students’ myriad needs that is the CPS program’s calling card.
Other partners in the Community Partnership Schools program include MCR Health, which is operating health clinics serving the students, as well as residents of the surrounding neighborhoods; the Boys and Girls Club of Manatee County; the Children’s Home Society of Florida; and the School District of Manatee County.
Brett Kemker, regional vice chancellor and vice provost of academic affairs and student success, founded the effort to open Community Partnership Schools in Manatee County, along with longtime Bradenton physician Dr. Richard Conard and former schools superintendent Cynthia Saunders.
Brett Kemker, regional vice chancellor and vice provost of academic affairs and student success at USF Sarasota-Manatee, was one of the original organizers of the Community Partnership Schools program.
“The Community Partnership Schools program is another example of the many ways our faculty and students in the College of Education on our campus are engaging with — and for the betterment of — our community,” Kemker said. “A bonus is the many opportunities, like internships and other hands-on training that our participation has created for USF students preparing to the enter the teaching profession in Manatee or elsewhere, especially at schools with the greatest needs.”
USF and other Community Partnership Schools participants are operating under a 25-year memorandum of understanding, which highlights the long-term commitment they have made to the effort. Ellerbrock said the model provides the time needed to fully transform the culture at the schools.
"We’re taking a multi-tiered approach to supporting teaching,” Ellerbrock said. “This approach includes the preparation of future generations of teachers who seek to teach in community partnership schools, the teaching practice of current teachers at those sites and teacher leadership development to help uplift the school community and support student success.”
USF offers student interns and leadership training
Landing an internship at one of the partnership schools is an opportunity for USF’s student interns to break any pre-conceived notions they might have about working at a school like Manatee Elementary or Daughtrey Elementary after they graduate, said Associate Professor Jen Jacobs, the College of Education’s director of clinical education.
"People make assumptions about what these schools are. And when they actually work with the students and the teachers there, they realize, ‘No, this is an environment where I want to teach. I can make a difference, and this is where I want to be,’” Jacobs said. "If you can learn to teach in that space, then those principals want to hire them to work there. And they have a leg up against the teacher maybe coming from a different environment, because they really know that school and the context.”
Melvin, the teaching intern in Nicole Swanson’s fourth-grade classroom at Daughtrey, has signed a contract to teach in the School District of Manatee County next fall. She said the elementary education program at USF Sarasota-Manatee “has made me very prepared.” Swanson was enthusiastic about what Melvin has brought to her classroom.
Sydney Melvin, center, poses with Rocky D. Bull and other College of Education graduates who have accepted teaching positions in the School District of Manatee County next fall, during an Educator Signing Day event on April 29.
USF faculty members are also in the schools teaching leadership courses to current teachers that equip them with skills that will help them become better teachers and develop as mentors for their colleagues. The courses also help with teacher retention because they nurture a sense of professional fulfillment and give them another reason to continue their careers at the schools, Jacobs said.
Jacobs, who has taught leadership classes at Manatee Elementary, said USF’s training academy is “innovative” because the classes take place at the elementary schools. Also, the curriculum is flexible enough to allow faculty members to address specific challenges the campuses might be facing, like teacher retention or the campus’s school improvement plan.
“We're able to really make sure that what we're doing is relevant and connected to those teachers. The assignments and work they do in the teacher leadership academy then directly impacts that school and their students,” Jacobs said.
Sara Woeltjen, a second-grade teacher at Daughtrey Elementary with about four years of teaching experience, said the academy has helped her develop as the leader of the school’s seven-member second-grade teaching team, most of whom are older and / or have less experience than her. She also supervises one of the Project Parasol interns.
Daughtrey’s principal, Melissa McCullough, and Tammy Sommers, an assistant professor for the College of Education at USF Sarasota-Manatee, said Woeltjen is developing as a strong leader at the school at a relatively early point in her career.
“Being a leader isn’t dragging the team with you,” Woeltjen said. “It’s not you doing all the work.”
Sommers and Associate Professor Marie Byrd, also a faculty member in the College of Education on the Sarasota-Manatee campus, meet regularly with representatives of other Community Partnership Schools participants to evaluate how the program is working at Daughtrey Elementary and Manatee Elementary, respectively.
"We look closely at the student data, from attendance and achievement to how many families were provided food, how many students were seen by the behavioral therapist,” Byrd said. “We're constantly looking at the big picture, the whole child, because if a child is hungry, they're not going to be able to concentrate. If they're having issues emotionally and disrupting the class, then that's not going to assist them. So, it's really going beyond the traditional academic achievement and looking at all the aspects of the child.”
USF introduces itself to new communities
The Community Partnership Schools program has given USF Sarasota-Manatee and the College of Education a gateway into communities that may not be familiar with the university. Byrd and Sommers frequently represent USF at school and community events like fall festivals and family literacy nights.
By showing up and engaging with residents where they live and where their children go to school, USF has an opportunity to recruit future students, parents and children alike, who might not otherwise think a college education is possible for them.
“I think that lets them know that USF Sarasota-Manatee campus is local and that getting a higher education degree will really uplift the entire family,” Byrd said.
Jessie Garcia, director of the partnership program at Daughtrey, said USF’s presence at the elementary school could plant a seed with many students.
“They may not understand it now but when they are in high school, they may see USF and say that’s where they want to be,” he said.
Sommers said the Community Partnership Schools model has given USF and the other organizations in the program a unique opportunity to help break the cycle of poverty at the schools and in their communities.
"There are large groups of people who are committed to making a difference,” she said.
Garcia spends a good part of his time trying to identify services, like parenting classes, that might benefit Daughtrey students and their families, many of whom are migrants not fluent in English. He said he would like to maybe recruit more USF Sarasota-Manatee students to work on campus as tutors and mentors for Daughtrey students.
“We’re trying to bring the community into the school,” Garcia said. “A lot of our parents are just focused on work, and they don’t know what’s out there to help them and their kids.”
The Community Partnership Schools program, said Dean Ellerbrock, highlights the willingness of USF and other participating organizations to meet those needs and “to work collaboratively to uplift these students, these teachers, these parents, the school, the community.”