Federal Official Visited Laurel Woods Elementary School to See Model for Closing Education and Opportunity Gaps for All Students

May 31st, 2016

On Thursday, June 2, James Cole, Jr., General Counsel, Delegated the Duties of Deputy Secretary for the U.S. Department of Education, visited Laurel Woods Elementary School.

Cole visited the Howard County Public School System (HCPSS) to see how its new Elementary School Model is addressing achievement and opportunity gaps at the earliest grade levels. His visit highlighted the importance of preparing students from diverse and low-income backgrounds to be our nation’s next generation of innovators to compete in a global economy.

Cole learned about the strengths-based education program supported by Gallup and the unique HCPSS World Languages program, which builds a continuum of rigorous language instruction from primary to secondary grades and prepares students to graduate high school with an intermediate level of fluency. All Laurel Woods ES students receive Spanish instruction daily. The elementary school model at Laurel Woods ES also integrates education technology into instruction, and provides all-day prekindergarten for eligible students, which prepares children to be ready to learn as they progress through grades K–5.

More images from the visit are available in the HCPSS Flickr album of the event. Members of the media are free to use the images above and in the HCPSS Flickr album. Please provide the following photo credit: Anna Gable – Howard County Public School System.