A delegation of administrators from Kingsport City Schools in Tennessee visited Beechwood schools Monday for guidance on Beechwood’s EDGE program.
The program is a postsecondary readiness initiative and representatives from Kingsport went to classrooms to watch it in action. The program helps students learn skills that can help them after high school. Beechwood works with more than 70 university and industry mentors, whether they come speak to students in the classroom or students go offsite for things like internships.
“The EDGE program took years of intentional thought, research and preparation for us to be at the point where we were ready to make it available to 100% our students,” said Dr. Mike Stacy, superintendent of the Beechwood Independent Schools. “A very valuable part of that due diligence involved us traveling around the country to learn best practices and benchmarks from elite educators. Any opportunity for us to pay it forward is something we will gladly do and our session was a huge success.”
The partnerships allow students to see what’s possible career-wise after graduation, Stacy said.
“I became aware of the EDGE program by reading an article in a publication that was focused on apprenticeship programs,” said Dr. Jeff Moorhouse, superintendent of the Kingsport City Schools, a system with thirteen (13) schools that serve approximately 7,600 students. “While we are a larger district, we want to be able to think through what is necessary to take this approach to a larger scale.”
The EDGE program has been about five years in the making at Beechwood, and will continue to grow and evolve, school officials said.
“The EDGE has the capability to positively impact a generation of kids as we continue to mold the program around our student needs at Beechwood,” Stacy said. “And to have our colleagues in Kingsport City Schools along for the journey will be a huge benefit to both parties as we move forward.”