As experienced educators and administrators, we know for certain that strong partnerships can result in a better school! Nowhere is this more true than at UT Elementary School. Our mission at UT Elementary has three parts, and each part is rooted in partnerships and collaborations to make our school successful. These include parent and community involvement, providing professional development and outreach opportunities for The University of Texas at Austin, and serving as a model for exemplary education for diverse learners. All of our partners are essential and important to our children’s education, but it is our relationship with
UT Austin that has been at the heart of our school’s progress for the past 13 years.
As a part of the Division of Diversity and Community Engagement, our school represents an important component of DDCE’s educational pipeline work that includes helping all students succeed at high levels. Because of that a liation with the university, we have always had a management board lled with top-notch educators and administrators. We have also had the pleasure of training and in uencing hundreds of pre-service teachers. Because of this, we have had more than one teacher in most classrooms most of the time. Our excellent faculty has the chance to mentor young teachers, while our students bene t from the enthusiasm and attention of some of the top students in the College of Education. We hear time and time again from our student teachers and student interns that their time at UT Elementary has positively in uenced their careers in many ways. As well, we have bene ted from the research and knowledge of numerous UT professors which has meant we have in uenced new educational practices while staying on top of advancements in the eld.
Finally, we are able to create a college-going environment even in the early grades because of our UT in uences and partnerships. This year, our second group of UT Elementary School students graduated from high school and Alexis Blackman will be our rst graduate to enter the “big UT.” Congratulations to Alexis, who was awarded a four-year tuition scholarship from the University Co-Op and is now majoring in engineering.
We are focusing on some of our UT partnerships in this year’s annual report, and as you read about how they have enriched our students’ education, you will see the importance of UT Austin in the life of our school. We are extremely grateful, too, that we will be able to break ground within a year on our new classroom facility thanks to nancing available from the university. We truly are better together.
Dr. Melissa M. Chavez
Superintendent
Ms. Tonya King
Principal
