In an interview with Invest:, Ben Troge, Executive Director of Central Florida Preparatory School, discussed the school’s emphasis on a family-oriented approach to fostering growth, with personalized communication and individualized student meetings. The school prioritizes differentiated learning through tailored plans and focuses on building relationships between students and teachers.
What innovative ways does the Central Florida Preparatory School employ to foster student growth?
It is a family-oriented approach, and our teachers do a phenomenal job communicating to parents how their kids are doing. Our administrators meet with parents whenever there is a need to discuss growth, improvement, or remediation, and we are genuinely invested in the individual student. The school-wide events we put on are for families. We have Family Fridays, for example, where we invite families once a month to come in and say hi to teachers and the class. That individual family approach is our innovative way of letting them know we care about them.
In what ways does the school emphasize a differentiated approach to learning?
Based upon the information we receive about the student upon enrollment, we have individualized meetings if needed and work with our guidance counselor on working with students’ 504 plans or Individual Education Plans, which we then provide to teachers so they can provide the necessary accommodations in the classroom. When the school first began, the mission was to instill a love of learning in all students by providing top-quality and innovative education while recognizing that each student is unique and worthy of receiving what he or she needs. There isn’t a cookie-cutter approach; it is individualized. In my opinion, there are a lot of catchphrases that people use, but at the end of the day, it comes down to the relationships between students and teachers.
Kids need to feel like someone cares about them, and I don’t think a student’s true potential is fully reached unless they feel like someone genuinely cares about them. While we want kids to think big and have big aspirations, we want to make sure they are happy and content with who they are as individuals. I have this approach with my own five kids, who are all very different from one another. They just need to be supported and use the gifts that they have been given to the best of their ability.
Can you elaborate on the school’s STEAM program?
We participate in the Project Lead the Way curriculum that starts in our elementary grades and extends through our middle school and into our high school; exploring several different factors like utilizing 3D printing, basic carpentry, crime scene investigation, and much more. We are looking to expand that into aerospace and engineering. Ultimately, it is about fostering a creative mind. It is not so much top-down driven as it is helping students explore, develop, and implement what they know and have learned. We help children develop their critical thinking skills and encourage them to be active participants in the learning process rather than providing straightforward instructions so that they can be innovators and creators.
How does STEAM play a role in helping students enter adult life?
I knew a student who was highly creative and had a mechanical mindset. He was extremely proficient in robotics and was accepted into his number one college of choice. Using the skillset he had already developed while he was here, he decided to change course and enlisted to serve his country so that he would be equipped with the tools needed to be a mechanic without having to pay tuition dollars. He figured that out on his own. Many kids who previously had no interest in a subject like math, engineering, or the arts develop a great deal of passion for it.
What exciting developments and strategies are in the pipeline for the school?
We are on the cusp of a building project that will give us a gymnasium. When we talk about a well-rounded education, we speak about the arts, math, science, social studies, and athletics. We will add several different classrooms that will allow us to expand our middle and high schools and bring in other course offerings. One teacher is working on developing a hybrid music appreciation class, and another teacher has put together a plan to start a finance class as an elective that will focus on personal finance. As we often hear people say, some of the basic things they wished they had learned in school include filing taxes, managing a bank account, buying a car, and applying for a credit card. This will give our students some of the real-life skills that they need that you often do not get in college.
