Media Contact:
Matt Pozel, 816-932-1263; mpozel@kauffman.org, Kauffman Foundation
Kauffman Foundation's Latest Animated Sketchbook and Program
Video Feature the Values, Philosophy, and Expectations at the Heart of the
Kauffman School
(Kansas City, Mo.), March 26, 2012 – In a new Kauffman Foundation sketchbook video titled "The Fire to Teach," Leah Marr, a fifth grade literature teacher at the Ewing Marion Kauffman School, takes viewers behind the scenes into classrooms that set high expectations for students and push teachers to provide the best education possible. The public charter school, located in Kansas City, Mo., serves students from the city's urban core. The school opened last August with its inaugural class of fifth graders.
"Before we even talked about curriculum or about assessments or about development, we talked about teamwork, about our identity as a team, and what it’s going to require," Marr says. "Up front, we knew it wasn't going to be easy. It's still not easy. It probably won't be easy for awhile, but we're a team and we're in it together."
The new Kauffman Sketchbook is being released along with a video feature that highlights the values, philosophy and expectations at the Kauffman School. "Creating College Graduates" takes viewers inside the school and tells its story by offering insights from the school’s administrators, teachers, students and parents of the students.
"Our expectation is that every child who walks in our door is being prepared to succeed in, and graduate from college," says the school’s principal Hannah Lofthus.
About the Ewing Marion Kauffman School:
The Ewing Marion Kauffman School is a public charter school that will serve middle and high school students from grades five through twelve. The mission of the Kauffman School is to prepare students to excel academically, graduate from college, and apply their unique talents in the world to create economically independent and personally fulfilling lives. The Kauffman School offers a rigorous education to enable each student fully to compete in our nation's colleges and universities. Students will be prepared to contribute to their local, national, and global communities. The Kauffman School opened in August 2011 with its first class of 100 fifth graders, and an additional class will be added each year until the school serves middle and high school students. For more information, visit www.kauffmanschool.org.
