Johnny Taylor
TMCF officials have announced that the initiative aims to launch as many as 10 college prep academies over the next five years at or near HBCU member campuses. TMCF, which counts 47 public historically Black universities as member schools, has turned to Connections Education, a division of education services giant Pearson Education, to provide online instruction and the technical support for the new schools.
The “blended” secondary schools “will deliver students a rigorous college preparatory curriculum, while also addressing 21st century learning needs,” according to officials.
Designated TMCF member schools will join in the collaboration by hosting the new secondary schools, supporting them with professional development and student teacher placement, and delivering early college programming.
TMCF president and CEO Johnny C. Taylor Jr. says each fully blended instruction school will be designated as a ‘TMCF Collegiate Academy.’ The academies will be developed as tuition-free, public charter schools and enroll students between sixth and twelfth grades. High achieving students will gain eligibility to receive TMCF scholarships to attend member schools.
“We believe that blended [education] is where everyone is going and we better make sure that HBCUs and the students that are likely to matriculate on [HBCU] campuses know how to perform in that environment,” Taylor says.
Since the summer when the initiative was first announced, two HBCUs have begun working on either a partially or fully blended learning college prep academy. Southern University New Orleans has committed to developing the first full-fledged TMCF Collegiate Academy, which university officials want to launch in Fall 2014. In North Carolina, Winston-Salem State University, TMCF, and Connections Education are developing for Fall 2013 what will be the TMCF College Prep Café at the Winston-Salem Preparatory Academy, an already existing magnet school in the Forsyth County school system.
