BCF, Graceville Elementary School partner for A’s

GRACEVILLE (BCF)—Walking down the halls of Graceville Elementary School (GES) in the rural Florida panhandle community brings sights and sounds of childhood memories. Colorful art projects line the walls and the sound of children’s laughter fills the air. Around the corner happy chaos fills the indoor playground as students and teachers alike avoid the unusually frigid air outside.

At the school office, the secretary points to the check-in book and sticky visitor tags as she continues to scribble a note with the phone tucked under her ear. Shortly a chaperone emerges from an office across the hall and access to the extraordinary life of an elementary school is granted.

In the next hour students stare wide-eyed, seemingly wondering what all the fuss is about as a photographer snaps photos in their classrooms. For them it seems just another day, but to the outsider it is a peek into the future of America.

After a quick tour of the school, Linda Cox happily sits down to discuss her trials and triumphs as the five-year principal of the school. As she pulls up a chair in the modest office, on her list of triumphs is a partnership forged with The Baptist College of Florida (BCF) two years ago.

As sounds from the lumber company across the road float through the air, Cox explains that just a few years ago the school was suffering from mediocre state ratings and declining standardized test scores. Part of her plan to turn the tide on the snowballing problems included a joint effort with BCF to create a mentoring program for her students. She says that since then, in great part due to the help from BCF students, the school has made vast improvements.
The program was fleshed out over a lunch shared by Cox and Evelyn Collier, chair of BCF’s education department, during the summer of 2002 after Cox realized a drastic change was needed to increase test scores and turn around the school’s two year run as a “C” school. School grades are assigned to each school based on state-wide standards instituted by Florida Governor Jeb Bush, and GES was just not measuring up.

BCF had long sent education majors to the elementary school for specific projects or to observe in classrooms, but there was not a formal, consistent contact between the schools. As a result of the meeting, a mentoring program was established to provide individualized instruction to those GES students who needed a little extra help. BCF has long strived to be a good neighbor and active participant in the local community. The program seemed a perfect fit, explains BCF’s Collier.

“In addition to our students having an opportunity to use education skills they are learning in their college classrooms, they are getting a chance to share their faith by showing their love and concern for the children they are working with,” Collier says of the interaction between the two institutions. “This program has been as much a reward for BCF as it has been for Graceville Elementary. We are very fortunate to have so many wonderful Christian teachers and administrators at a public school with whom our BCF students may work and learn.”

The partnership indeed proved a success in its first year when student FCAT scores, the results of a state-wide standardized test, rose in 2003 and the school jumped two grades in overall ratings to become a prestigious “A” school.

The 2003 results were not a fluke, proving again the effectiveness of the partnership when scores continued to rise and the school was once again awarded an “A” grade in 2004. “I really do attribute a lot of [the success] to the support of the college,” explained a beaming Cox. “We were designated an ‘A’ school for the first time since school grades were instituted. That says a lot.”

With increasing class size an ever-present concern, the mentoring program proved successful by putting into practice what educators have long known: individualized attention increases the success of students. Each mentor is assigned a student and is given strategic plans for helping that student with reading or math. “The students really look forward to those mentors coming because it really makes them feel special,” explains Cox.

These days the partnership continues to flourish with about 50 volunteer mentors participating each year from a variety of BCF majors. GES is also host to four BCF student teachers this semester and employs two BCF grads as full-time teachers.

It’s easy amidst the state-wide recognition to get caught up in the big picture, but mentors like John Campbell say it’s really about touching the life of a child. “The Lord just told me that I am there for a reason. I am investing in a child’s life,” he explains. “It’s not something I do for me. It’s something I do to give to a child.”

Campbell, a 38-year-old Christian counseling major with two of his children at GES, began his volunteer work during the fall 2004 semester not expecting a huge result from the effort. “I thought it would be too demanding on my time,” he explains about his early doubts. “But every week when I walk in the room they can’t wait to go. They just run up and hug me,” he says.