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N.C. A&T seeks state approval for 'laboratory school'

Paula Groves Price, a professor and the dean of the College of Education at North Carolina A&T, says the proposed laboratory school would also include partnerships in the local community to provide wraparound services for Guilford County Schools students and their families. KERI BROWN/WFDD

Officials with North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University are laying out plans for a new laboratory school in Guilford County. The initiative would be a partnership with the local school district to help improve student outcomes.

In 2016, the state legislature passed a law that called for the UNC system to open a series of laboratory schools. It aims to provide enhanced educational programming to students in low-performing schools and serve as a hands-on training site for future teachers and school administrators.

The schools are run by a university and districts provide transportation and other resources.

North Carolina A&T is partnering with Guilford County Schools to create a laboratory school in the community. Details are still being worked out, but university officials say the focus would be on grades 3-5, which are the elementary testing years.

Emphasis will be placed on STEAM -– science, technology, engineering, arts and math. They hope to serve up to 100 students.

Paula Groves Price, the Dean of the College of Education at N.C. A&T, says they are looking at sites off-campus, and their focus is East Greensboro.

“It's not just about raising test scores for kids, but it's really about I think changing kind of the life trajectory and really disrupting some of the generational poverty that we have had in our community for quite some time.”

The proposed name for the lab school is Aggie Academy. Groves Price says the university will present an update to the North Carolina Board of Governors for consideration next week.

The N.C. State Board of Education would have to give final approval and is expected to review the proposal in early March.

If all goes well, the lab school will open in the fall.

Follow WFDD's Keri Brown on Twitter @kerib_news

Keri Brown is a multi-award winning reporter and host at 88.5 WFDD. She has been honored with two regional Edward R. Murrow awards for her stories about coal ash, and was named the 2015 radio reporter of the year by the Radio Television Digital News Association of the Carolinas (RTDNAC).Although she covers a variety of topics, her beats are environmental and education reporting.Keri comes to the Triad from West Virginia Public Broadcasting, where she served as the Chief Bureau Reporter for the Northern Panhandle. She produced stories for the state's Public Television and Radio programs and was honored by the West Virginia Associated Press Broadcasters Association for her feature and enterprise reporting.She also served as an adjunct instructor at Wheeling Jesuit University and Bethany College in West Virginia. She worked with the Center for Educational Technologies in Wheeling, WV, and other NASA centers across the country to develop several stories about the use of science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) concepts in the classroom.Keri's journalism career began at WTRF-TV 7 in Wheeling. She worked in several roles at the station, including the head assignment editor. She also was a field producer and assignment manager at WPGH-TV Fox 53 in Pittsburgh.Keri is a graduate of Ohio University. When she's not in the studio or working on a story, she enjoys watching college football with her family, cooking, and traveling.Keri is always looking for another great story idea, so please share them with her. You can follow her on Twitter @kerib_news.

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