Edgecombe County Public Schools

Learner-centered school models: The district has designed two new school models in collaboration with their students and communities: North Phillips School of Innovation and ImagineWest. Both models are learner-centered, providing students with a myriad of opportunities to explore their identities, design their own learning, engage in deep discourse with one another, and build strong relationships with their peers and caring adults.

Providing universal Pre-K: The district has formed a team of ECPS teachers, administrators, and early learning specialists to explore four prototypes aimed at ensuring all Edgecombe three and four year olds are prepared for Kindergarten, whether or not they attend an ECPS Pre-K. To support this effort, they have formed an Early Learning Collaborative; added 3-year olds to Pre-K classrooms; operate a Parent Academy and a home visiting program, to help parents of young children teach literacy and SEL skills; and developed Early Learning Pods in the community to provide hands-on, developmentally-appropriate learning experiences for young children and their caregivers.

Nurturing students’ interests: Three school design teams are currently developing school-specific Learning Hub + Spoke pilots for the district. In these pilots, students spend a portion of their day in their “Hub” engaging in core content classes, and the other portion in “Spokes,” where they work with a small group of peers and an adult facilitator to deeply explore their interests in both on and off campus settings.