Democracy’s Laboratory

Welcome to Democracy’s Laboratory

 
Democracy’s Laboratory delivers professional development to teachers to upgrade their performance with two special populations of students in high-need classrooms … English Language Learners and Students with Disabilities. During the summers of 2009 and 2010, four independent colleges and universities (Saint Thomas University in North Miami, Jacksonville University in Jacksonville, Flagler College in St. Augustine and Beacon College in Leesburg), working with four diverse school districts (Miami-Dade, Duval, St. Johns and Lake) hosted summer laboratory sessions for 200 teachers, district staff and faculty.

The sessions focused on:

1) Tactics and techniques to teach English Language Learners and Students with Disabilities more effectively;

2) Demonstrating those tactics and techniques to address the new Next Generation Sunshine State Standards for the Social Sciences at various grade levels; and

3) Incorporating American History, Geography, Government and Economics to enliven those lessons.

The Florida Independent College Fund developed from these laboratory sessions 2 modules available online at the FICF Multimedia E-libary. During the 2009 academic year, the partners followed up with the laboratory participants through 8 school-year sessions. Participating teachers that pledged to become coaches in their schools received coaching scholarships for the following school year study to expand their content and teaching skills.

In 2011, the partners will expand Democracy’s Laboratory into a Chautauqua Circuit Series with 8 expanded summer sessions of laboratory and faculty presentations. When completed in 2011, Democracy’s Laboratory will have reached more than 500 educators with these social sciences lessons to engage and educate English Language Learners and Students with Disabilities more effectively.