Incubator School Story Archives - West Virginia Public Broadcasting

Explorer Academy Begins Voyage

Some Cabell County students took part in their first full day of classes Monday at the Explorer Academy.

It’s the first Expeditionary Learning School in the state of West Virginia. It’s an undertaking of the Cabell County School Board. Peyton Elementary and Geneva Kent Elementary were closed and consolidated to form the academy.

The students will eventually attend classes at the former Beverly Hills Middle School, which is being renovated. The building was left after the consolidation of middle schools in the area just a year earlier. But until the building is ready around spring break, classes are underway at Geneva Kent. As for now, the increased number of students has forced the county to add modular buildings behind the school.

As part of the expeditionary learning environment students will become part of a crew working together on an assignment, each taking their own responsibilities with hands-on experiences. The hope is to promote more engagement and less time sitting behind a desk listening to lectures.

The new Explorer Academy opened Thursday, but had two days of staggered classes, meaning only half the students went each day. Monday marked the first day of full student attendance.

The name Explorer Academy is appropriate, since assignments from kindergarten through 5^th grade will involve exploration and hands-on experiences.

It’s a learning environment that principal Ryan McKenzie says will set the school apart.

Our kids will be in the field a lot more, expeditionary learning calls it field work, and there is a real emphasis on how it’s tied to the curriculum back in the classroom. The kids may go to the same spot more than once say if we’re doing a water quality analysis the kids may be there two or three times, so it’s a little different approach to the way we do curriculum.

McKenzie says it’s the same material, content standards and tests, they’re just teaching the material to the students in a new way. He says it’s that novelty that will make a difference. McKenzie says the county has been told that they can expect to see a bump in test scores as a result of the new learning environments. About 500 students are attending the Explorer Academy.

Demolition and Renovation Begins on Expeditionary School

Expeditionary education refers specifically to learning associated with exploration and hands-on experiences. An expeditionary learning school planned for Cabell County has already undergone some changes even before the doors open.

The original plan was to have the middle school ready to become an expeditionary school that would combine the two local elementary schools, Geneva Kent and Peyton, by August 2015.

But once the project was put out for bid, the original cost estimate of just under $7 million dollars proved to be too low. It’s now believed it will take just over $13 million to turn the former middle school into a facility that could become an elementary school that meets today’s standards. The board later increased the budget to over $14 million for the project.

The new time table pushes the opening of the facility from fall 2015 to at least the start of the 2016 calendar year.

So the board was left with the decision to delay the opening of the school by a year or put the two groups of elementary students together somewhere else.

The former Geneva Kent Elementary will serve as the new school for approximately 460 students the first part of the 2015-2016 school year.

An expeditionary learning school uses unconventional teaching methods, that include less lecturing and more participation. The method also includes projects that involve the community.

The Cabell County Board of Education is still deciding on the new school’s name, school colors and a mascot.

Cabell County to Develop Incubator School for Expeditionary Learning

Cabell County School officials are excited about a new school they hope will set an example for schools around the state. Cabell will develop the incubator school through a waiver they attained with an innovation zone grant.

The school will open in the fall of 2015 in Huntington and Cabell County School Board officials hope it is the next step in education. It will be a consolidation of Peyton Elementary and Geneva Kent Elementary in the east end of Huntington. They’ll use the former Beverly Hills Middle School facility that was vacated in December for a brand new Huntington East Middle School.

Cabell Superintendent William Smith is excited about the possibilities.

“What you should see in a classroom like this is more student engagement, a high level of student engagement,” Smith said.

Cabell officials say it’ll be the first expeditionary learning school in the state. Known as EL for short, students will learn about completing projects that will stretch across different subject areas and can sometimes take the entire school year.

The Cabell Board has made trips to EL schools in Chicago, Denver and Asheville, North Carolina.

They describe the school as an incubator school because of the experimental learning environment. They hope what they learn from their experiment leads to others around the state doing their own experiments and developing expeditionary learning environments of their own.

Cabell County Schools will team with the Harless Center at Marshall University to study how educational concepts are working and what the next step might be to continue the growth that will take place in the classroom.

Ryan McKenzie is Principal of Peyton Elementary. He’ll be the new principal of the developed school. He says the work students do here will be beneficial to the community.

"The kids will be engaged in learning that is real out in their communities," McKenzie said.

“The kids will be engaged in learning that is real out in their communities, out in the real world,” McKenzie said. They’ll be doing water analysis projects in the community and sending that report off to the Mayor’s office or the commission

The board will depend on the teachers to relay and adjust how the learning environment is working

Renovation will begin soon on Beverly Hills Middle to turn it into the new incubator school.