The West Liberty University College of Education has received a $228,000 grant from the Claude Worthington Benedum Foundation to create two elementary lab schools in Ohio County.
“The grant will be used to create two elementary lab schools in our College of Education, one with a private school and one with a public school,” explained Dr. Keely Camden, Dean of the WLU College of Education, who co-authored the grant with Elizabeth Hofreuter-Landini, Head of School at Wheeling County Day School (WCDS).
Emphasis of study will be placed on environmental science and the integration of science into the language arts curriculum, in the preschool and primary grades. The labs will begin in August of 2011, initially at WCDS. The second phase of the grant will be to establish a lab school at West Liberty Elementary School.
WLU students are currently on the campus of WCDS twice a week for their elementary method courses in math and science. This grant will allow WLU students to add additional professional development to the lab schoolwork. Additional funding for curriculum consultants, the study and creation of innovative pedagogical strategies, shared professional development, and related summer workshops will also come as a result of the funding.
“We are very excited to be working with two excellent schools in this initiative and very appreciative of the Claude Worthington Benedum Foundation for their support,” added Camden.
The Claude Worthington Benedum Foundation, founded in 1944, provides grants that support specific initiatives in the areas of Education, Economic Development, Health and Human Services, and Community Development. For more information please visit. https://benedum.org/
For more information about the WLU College of Education please contact Dr. Keely Camden at kcamden@westliberty.edu.