McKinley Middle Magnet School
EBR/LSU Partnership School
Katrina Bickham, Coordinator
McKinley Middle Magnet School is one of two East Baton Rouge Public Schools that is identified as an EBR/LSU Partnership School. The MMAM teachers and administrators contribute to the LSU teacher education program by serving as models for LSU teacher candidates while LSU faculty and students contribute to increasing our student achievement by helping with instruction and providing educational opportunities. The overall mission of this partnership is to provide quality education for all children in a learning community of teacher candidates, mentor teachers, school administrators, and university faculty and administrators.
The partnership is a collaborative relationship designed to meet the needs of McKinley Middle Magnet School, its students, and the teacher preparation programs at Louisiana State University. Included in the partnership are innovations in the area of enhanced mentoring of on-site teacher candidates, field experiences for LSU teacher candidates, and curricular enhancements aligned with the mission of providing a quality education for all children.
LSU provides many activities that MMAM would not ordinarily have including the resources of the entire university and its staff. For instance, we are given open access to its curriculum and professors and have a standing invitation to participate in any of their classes to whatever extent we might need. We are able to have the professors come to our school to illustrate their programs, including those from arts, dance, music, as well as any of the core subject areas. Our students can receive first hand information from experts in fields such as astronomy, history and biology to name just a few. The students are welcome on the LSU campus for a variety of activities including plays, sporting events and academic and artistic exhibits. Professors from LSU work with our faculty to provide resource materials that can facilitate many research projects.
MMAM provides mentor teachers for the LSU Holmes Intern Program, a five-year teacher certification program culminating in a master’s degree. These teacher candidates are in the mentor teacher classrooms every day learning from them as well as planning and carrying out their own lessons for a semester. Teacher candidates are frequently hired to work here at McKinley to further provide enriching student experiences.
The partnership is one of the reasons MMAM is able to reach the high level of excellence that it does and it will be linked to future changes that benefit both the university and our school.
Feel free to contact Katrina Bickham for further information.
email: kbickham@ebrschools.org
School Phone: (225) 388-0089
