Partnerships with Schools & Communities

Positively impacting the lives of children and families through education involves multiple levels of support. It requires teachers and educational leaders who have exceptional preparation to work with students of diverse backgrounds. It requires the development and implementation of improved approaches for teaching and learning. It requires new ways of providing community-based services promoting socio-emotional well-being of individuals and families. These support systems can only thrive if universities have strong partnerships with schools and community organizations to allow our students to develop their clinical skills through extensive field experiences.

We are dedicated to the ongoing cultivation of partnerships with schools and community organizations, and many of those efforts are housed right in the School of Education (SOE) building. The Piedmont Triad Education Consortium (PTEC) — the primary provider of educator professional development in the region — is located on the first floor. Our SELF Design Studio, a state of the art makerspace on the third floor, helps prepare teachers from across the region to integrate technology into their teaching and learning. Our building is also home to the New Teacher Support Program, which provides coaching services to new teachers across the region.

While our physical building and aforementioned resources reside on the campus of UNCG, our partnerships extend to hundreds of schools, public libraries, and community organizations across North Carolina. Working in continuous collaboration with the Reidsville community and surrounding school district, we have launched a new elementary school, the Moss Street Partnership School. SOE faculty lead a broad network of research-practice partnerships, including the STEM-Teacher Leader Collaborative (TLC), the Healthy Relationships Initiative, and the Gate City Writes professional development program to enhance the teaching of writing and the associated Young Writer’s Camp.

Just as these partnerships serve as extensions of our campus, they also provide substantial extended capacity for schools and community organizations. Each year, the faculty and students of the SOE provide more than 250,000 hours of service to these organizations and allocate capacity and support to the community valued at more than $11 million.

The training we provide our students is connected to every point of these partnerships. Through a wide range of experiential learning opportunities through practicums, internships, field placements, student teaching, and service learning, our students gain real-world experience in the very same professional settings where they will begin their careers after graduation.