Partnership between Maupin and Spalding Paves Way for Educational Success
The relationship between the Spalding University College of Education and Milburn T. Maupin Elementary is a true partnership in every sense of the word. Since its inception, the College of Education’s faculty, administration and students have worked with the faculty at Maupin to promote academic development in struggling elementary school children through afterschool programs and career-oriented classroom activities that provide real-world application.
“The opportunities for this partnership to grow are limitless…. there are new creative ideas coming forth each and every time that we meet,” says Dr. Keepers, Dean of the College of Education. “Our mission is to foster student engagement and develop students who will have a life-long love for learning. At Maupin Elementary, this is definitely possible.”
The Spalding-Maupin partnership exposes Maupin students to a variety of programs related to academic and personal development. Students have designed and assembled hydroplanes, communicated with pen-pals and participated in activities to raise cultural awareness.
“What I have noticed in the three years that we have been [at Maupin] is a growth in the children, the faculty and the overall atmosphere of the whole school,” says Dr. H.A. Hasan, Associate Professor in the College of Education. “The energy has increased. For example, young children today tell me that they want to be surgeons, architects and math specialists. So, at a very early age they are looking on to their future. It’s amazing. When we started, we weren’t hearing that.”
This fall the Spalding University community collected backpacks for students in need, and this winter the university will host a book drive so that every student at Maupin will have a book to read over the holiday break. According to Terri Davenport, Principal of Maupin, the partnership between Spalding and Maupin has helped her staff to break down the barriers—such as attendance, hunger, lack of school supplies—that stand in the way of a successful education for many of her students.
“The Spalding-Maupin partnership not only has an impact on our students but it has a direct impact on our staff as well,” Dr. Davenport says. “I have staff members that are Spalding graduates. They are prepared they are ready to meet and prepare our students for the future.”
Now, in its third year, the partnership has proven to be just as beneficial to Spalding’s College of Education and the development of its teacher candidates as it has been to the students of Maupin Elementary.
“Over the years, both the university and Maupin have grown in terms of our development, our commitment and our connectedness in preparing the teachers,” says Dr. Rita Greer, Director of the Doctoral Program in the College of Education. “Every college that prepares teachers is looking at the amount of field experience that students get and what they are doing to prepare [teachers candidates] not in the classroom of the university but in the classroom of a real school. We from [Spalding] get the opportunity to come [to Maupin] and actually work in a school that is moving forward, that is very innovative and that is willing to accept our students. We can’t prepare teachers in a vacuum, so working with our partner school gets our students out in to the real world in a very diverse setting.”
Those directly involved with the partnership understand that this type of collaboration has the potential to grow and impact the lives of both parties for years to come, paving the way for educational success of both the students at Maupin and the future educators at Spalding.
