Officials hope global-oriented school helps turn things around in poor, rural N.C. county

A rural school district in North Carolina is trying to cure years of low scores and decreasing enrollment by thinking globally. Edgecombe County, where most of students live in poverty and about 80 percent are African Americans, has three of the state's lowest-performing elementary schools and has lost about 700 students in the last three years, Reema Khrais reports for North Carolina Public Radio. (Khrais photo: Kindergarten students learning Spanish on the first day of school)

But prospects appear to be on the rise through the Martin Millennium Academy in Tarboro, "a unique K-8 school with international teachers and a curriculum focused on global education," Khrais writes. Instructors hail from Nairobi, Manila, Auckland, Kingston, Beijing, London, and Tarboro. Each grade focuses on a different area of the world and incorporates that area's culture, history, geography and economy into daily instruction.

"Along with its global theme, kindergarten students have the opportunity to receive all of their instruction—Science, Math, Social Studies—in Spanish," Khrais writes. "Teachers typically don't incorporate any English instruction until the students reach third grade. The school's program will expand each year until the current kindergarten class reaches eighth grade." Researchers have said that students "enrolled in dual language/immersion programs score significantly higher on state tests than their peers and are less likely to drop out." 

Officials say the global school "will help transform their rural district and its poor academic reputation,"  Khrais writes. John Farrelly, superintendent of Edgecombe County Public Schools, told Khrais, “A lot of our kids have not even left the city of Tarboro, so we want to bring the world to Tarboro. We feel like global education is part of our recipe for success.” (Read more)