Old Dominion News

RICHMOND, VA – The Virginia Board of Education today approved the Commonwealth’s first lab school. Since announcing his run for office, Governor Youngkin has made lab schools a top priority in his legislative agenda and called on the General Assembly to allocate funding for new lab schools. After securing $100 million for this initiative, today’s unanimous vote further delivers on the promises made.

The inaugural lab school, the VCU x CodeRVA Lab School, is a joint venture between the Virginia Commonwealth University (VCU) Center for Teacher Leadership at the VCU School of Education RTR Teacher Residency program and the CodeRVA Regional High School. The VCU x CodeRVA Lab School will provide an innovative computer-science focused comprehensive high school education to a diverse student body, will serve as a training site for teacher residents, and will afford professional learning opportunities for educators across the state. 

“Lab schools are a critical part of restoring excellence in the Commonwealth’s education system,” said Governor Glenn Youngkin. “During the first month of my administration, we launched a partnership between colleges and universities to establish K-12 lab schools across the Commonwealth and I’m pleased were delivering on that promise today. This is the first step in giving parents new options for their kids to learn in innovative and creative ways and break the status quo of a one-size-fits all education.” 

“Today’s vote to approve the Commonwealth’s first lab school is a win for students, teachers, and parents,” said Secretary of Education Aimee Guidera. “Lab schools like this one will support student’s academic achievement and make learning more relevant and connected to the world outside the classroom. In this innovative model, not only will students benefit from high-quality computer science education, but the next generation of teachers will learn how to be best in class instructors.” 

“Congratulations to VCU and CodeRVA on the approval of their new lab school,” said Superintendent of Public Instruction Dr. Lisa Coons. “The VCU x CodeRVA lab school is bringing two model programs together to create a national exemplar on innovation, accelerate their impact and scale best practices across the Commonwealth, and create stronger talent pipelines - not only to develop excellent computer science teachers where we need them most - but to create immediate career pathways for graduates to high-demand jobs in technology and AI through real-world computer science instruction.” 

“We envision this as a program to empower younger students to see their own potential for a career that embraces computer science,” said Dr. Kim McKnight, Director of the VCU Center for Teacher Leadership at the VCU School of Education and Executive Director of RTR Teacher Residency. “We are excited to integrate the successes we have seen preparing teachers for classrooms through RTR Teacher Residency with the cutting-edge academic programming CodeRVA provides.” 

“I’m excited for the leadership potential this collaboration between CodeRVA teachers and RTR teachers presents,” shared Dr. Kume Goranson, CodeRVA’s Executive Director. “We are thrilled to amplify the results CodeRVA has already seen through this partnership in mentoring teachers and to take this approach across the Commonwealth and the nation.” 

In addition to VCU x CodeRVA, the Virginia Department of Education is working with more than 20 additional lab school partners to open in 2024. Find more information on lab schools here.

VCU x CodeRVA Lab School 

CodeRVA Regional High School has been preparing students for college and careers in computer science through personalized, integrated, and applied project-based learning since 2017. CodeRVA students acquire real-world work experience through an internship program that starts in eleventh grade.  

VCU’s RTR Teacher Residency Program (RTR) is a proven undergraduate and graduate teacher residency program that places aspiring teachers with highly qualified mentor teachers while they earn an education degree from VCU. The program integrates research with best practice to equip residents with the knowledge, skills, and experience to be effective teachers and more likely to stay in the profession. RTR is the largest and longest standing teacher residency program in Virginia and has prepared over three hundred teachers to work in high-needs schools. 

Based on the approved proposal, students in the VCU x Code RVA Lab School will learn from high-quality computer science curriculum, real-world work experience and have the ability to graduate with a Virginia high school diploma, an associate degree from the Virginia Community College System, industry certifications, and as many as 360 hours of practical information technology work experience, making them incredibly marketable in this high demand field.

The overlay of VCU’s RTR Teacher Residency program encompasses a nationally recognized teacher residency program to ensure aspiring teachers receive proven and effective training to lead our students’ classrooms and best-in-class computer science instructional practices and delivery to meet significant teacher shortages and demand.  

Original source can be found here.