An East Dallas school is undergoing a major transformation right now, thanks to community efforts.
Over the decades, Edna Rowe Elementary School has seen waves of progress. The campus has gone from a D-rated campus to an A-rating within Dallas ISD and underwent a total remodel in 2019.
Now, the next evolution will turn it into a Montessori school next year.
“It's going to be an amazing opportunity,” said school principal Aron Joseph. “It's going to be an innovative approach at accommodating our students and providing the equity that they need – removing some of the restraints and encouraging choice, freedom, exploration and a new environment for our students to be able to learn.”
Get top local stories in DFW delivered to you every morning. Sign up for NBC DFW's News Headlines newsletter.
Edna Rowe is an existing neighborhood campus in the Buckner Terrace community. When community members expressed interest in transforming the campus, leaders worked to make Montesori a reality, made possible by the Dallas ISD Public School Choice process.
All choice schools are designed around an innovative anchor model, such as Performing and Visual Arts, Montessori, Personalized Learning, or STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math).
The PSC application invites internal and external teams to submit proposals. Each school is selected a little differently and can depend on the community needs or location. In Edna Rowe’s case, the surrounding community pushed for a Montessori model to meet local needs.
Local
The latest news from around North Texas.
"Over the last five years, our enrollment has been declining. We've been losing students to surrounding districts and this is our approach to being innovative,” said Joseph. “To challenging the status quo and trying to recapture some of the families that we've been losing."
Montessori education is a popular instructional model and the district said due to high demand from families, they are working to provide this learning option in communities across the district.
Montessori classrooms feature hands-on materials, multi-age grouping, and guided choice of work.
“A traditional classroom is more teacher centered where the teacher has all the knowledge and she gives the knowledge to the kids. Then they just all have to learn it the same way at the same pace,” explained Cristina Llamozas, a bilingual second grade teacher at Edna Rowe. “With Montessori, we follow the kid. They are responsible for their own learning in the classroom and we, as teachers, are guides to help them through the process.”
The prepared learning environment fosters self-motivated growth for children in all areas of their development— cognitive, emotional, social, and physical. Scholars have individual, small group and collaborative learning opportunities.
“If one student feels like doing math in the morning and doing reading in the afternoon, they can because they are going to be working at their own pace,” said Llamozas. "So I think it's a beautiful opportunity for me as an educator to grow and learn more, but also to offer this opportunity to our kids.”
Teachers and staff are currently in training and are ordering new materials and new furniture for the classrooms.
Montessori style of learning can usually cost families a lot in tuition but Edna Rowe will be free of charge. The school will become application based through a lottery but 3rd, 4th, and 5th graders will be grandfathered to remain at the school during the transition.
Edna Rowe Elementary will officially kick off the new format next school year starting August 2023. It will become the eighth DISD Montessori campus.
