The Pipeline

WashU alumni are partnering with their alma mater to improve teacher quality and retention.

The Institute for School Partnership at Washington University in St. Louis has launched a comprehensive COVID-19 curriculum. The free unit can be adapted for both synchronous and asynchronous learning and helps middle school students understand the history of infectious disease, the nature of COVID-19, the power and limitations of modeling and the importance of scientific literacy.

The school year has ended, but Learning Lodge, a free online tutoring service founded by Washington University in St. Louis students, continues to help local elementary and middle school students practice math, social studies, even the bassoon.

Stagnant scores, frustrated students, daunted educators — such is the state of math education across the nation and in the region. That’s why the Institute for School Partnership at Washington University in St. Louis is introducing Math314, an innovative program that will improve math instruction and boost students’ enthusiasm for the subject.  

Cindy Brantmeier, professor of applied linguistics and education, has designed a social reading program that employs online games to help adolescent refugees and immigrants. The results are promising — test scores have improved along with student confidence.

High school students need computer science skills, but who will teach them? The Institute for School Partnership is addressing Missouri’s desperate shortage of computer science educators through the Code.org professional learning program, which prepares educators with no coding experience to lead computer science classes. The need is urgent: only one-third of Missouri high schools offer computer science.

About 500 seventh-grade girls from across the state visited Washington University in St. Louis to learn about careers in STEM. Barbara Schaal, dean of the faculty of Arts & Sciences, told students that STEM careers are as diverse as they are rewarding: “What STEM education does is give you a cafeteria of options and opportunities.”

The KIPP College Partnership will connect Washington University to bright, young minds across the country, create a more diverse student body and deepen ties with KIPP St. Louis, which educates 1,200 students at its two elementary and two middle schools. Washington University is KIPP St. Louis’ public charter school sponsor.

The College Prep Scholarship will provide a free Washington University undergraduate education to qualified graduates of its College Prep Program, which serves talented low-income and first-generation high school students. The scholarship supports two top priorities — to make Washington University a more diverse and welcoming campus, and to improve K-12 education in the St. Louis community.

The inaugural cohort of Washington University’s College Prep Program will spend its final summer on campus learning from a leading scientist and lifelong musician: Provost Holden Thorp. Thorp has created a college-credit course that explores teamwork in science and music. Now in its third year, the College Prep Program is a multiyear, immersive program for talented, low-income high school students.