Collins Learning Academy is leveraging resources and working with local, statewide, and federal partners in Jefferson, Texas to create sustainable economic revitalization based on answering the needs of underserved individuals and their families.  This approach recognizes education as the primary means to improve lives by creating pathways for the acquisition and maintenance of high-level academic knowledge and 21^st Century workforce skills.  By identifying solutions to long-standing problems and using available natural, cultural, and human resources, the Academy is testing a new paradigm for rural viability.

Initial Academy offerings include:

• Enrichment Programs

   

  The Collins Academy will offer after school academic enrichment for tuition paying middle school and high school students four days a week (Mon-Thurs).  Adventure Learning will present multidisciplinary modules that enrich public and home school course offerings by using local issues as the integrating context for learning.  Student groups will examine issues of importance within the existing natural and social systems of their community by asking questions, designing valid investigations, gathering scientific information, analyzing their data, and reporting their findings.

   

  Technology including basic Geographic Information Systems, 3D modeling and animation, convergence media applications will enable students to map study sites and plot data, recreate historic points of interest and events, and to produce convergent media presentations for public audiences.

   

  Adventure Learning instructors will include master teachers, experts associated with public agencies involved in local scientific and heritage projects, a cadre of recently certified Texas Master Naturalists, convergent media professionals, and knowledgeable volunteers. 

• Adult Outreach-credit recovery, GED preparation, and industry certifications; computer technology, software applications, and convergence media courses.

  • Due to the unique character of rural Northeast Texas, the Collins Learning Academy is designing programs to focus attention on and advocate for the needs of rural adult learners. Program design will focus on overcoming identified barriers to rural adult learners: poor preparation for postsecondary learning, the absence of a cultural appreciation of education's value that is compounded by a sense of fatalism, cost, lack of child care and transportation, inflexible scheduling, and lack of information.  Central to all barriers is the lack of public awareness of rural issues and lack of legislative support for rural concerns.

• Formal Academic Programs-access and instructional support for Texas Tech University Division of Outreach Education including K-12 credit options, independent study courses, dual-credit courses, and enrichment of advanced learners; and tutorials for public school students and home-schooled.

  • The Academy is a “Special Project” site for Texas Tech University Division of Outreach and Distance Education.  K-12 credit options include independent study courses as well as a comprehensive K-12 curriculum that provides a high school diploma track – a program particularly appealing to home-schooled.  Credit by Examination gives students the option of testing out of courses to accelerate their academic progress.  Academically strong high school students may choose to take a dual-credit course, allowing them to earn both high school and college credit simultaneously.  Flexible college offerings include independent study courses and a Bachelor of General Studies Degree.

              
• After School Academic Enrichment- multidisciplinary modules that enrich public an home school course offerings by using local issues as the integrating context for learning.

  • The Collins Academy will offer after school academic enrichment for tuition paying middle school and high school students four days a week (Mon-Thurs).  Adventure Learning will present multidisciplinary modules that enrich public and home school course offerings by using local issues as the integrating context for learning.  Student groups will examine issues of importance within the existing natural and social systems of their community by asking questions, designing valid investigations, gathering scientific information, analyzing their data, and reporting their findings.

  • Technology including basic Geographic Information Systems, 3D modeling and animation, convergence media applications will enable students to map study sites and plot data, recreate historic points of interest and events, and to produce convergent media presentations for public audiences.     

• Adventure Learning instructors will include master teachers, experts associated with public agencies involved in local scientific and heritage projects, a cadre of recently certified Texas Master Naturalists, convergent media professionals, and knowledgeable volunteers.

 

 

 

Staffing updates coming soon.

Gary Endsley, Director

Michael Gannon, Asst. Director