The Lastinger Difference:
The mission of the Lastinger Center for Learning is to utilize the intellectual and research capabilities of the University of Florida to partner with educational, philanthropic and community-based institutions to promote high quality teaching, improve school performance, develop educational leaders, secure parental engagement and mobilize communities to meet the needs of children.
The work of the Lastinger Center for Learning is best described by those who are engaged in our efforts to enhance the educational and personal aspirations of children and the teachers and institutions that serve them.
"The Lastinger Center's work in Immokalee is one of the most positive, systemic changes I've experienced in 29 years of teaching. The work is job-embedded, so the benefits of teacher learning are immediately passed on to students. But, just as importantly, the professional development and learning creates such a positive atmosphere of growth and camaraderie within the schools."
Teacher, Village Oaks, Elementary Immokalee
"Working with the Lastinger Center has been invaluable to the growth of Maya Angelou Elementary School as we build the capacity of instructional staff. The job-embedded Graduate Degree Program and professional development efforts are just some of the tools that we feel have impacted the professional growth of the staff and ultimately improved student achievement."
Linda Whye, Principal, Maya Angelou Elementary School
“The work of the Lastinger Center is focused on supporting high poverty schools through a respectful and thoughtful listening process with districts and schools. There is no Ivory Tower paradigm here. Further, the work is characterized by understanding the context of schools, responding to teachers as partners in the process. The work is truly equity work in that it brings together various rap-around services (health, education, parent outreach) that all serve to meet the multiplicity of needs of children.”
Pete Bermudez, Curriculum Support Specialist, Miami-Dade Public Schools
“The Center has created professional learning communities with the express purpose of enhancing school improvement efforts and academic outcomes. Principals, teachers and other leaders engage in collaborative learning to enhance teacher practice and improve student learning. The Lastinger Center is one of the few entities actively engaged in research about the building of professional learning communities. By engaging in the above, the Center has been able to gather data on: (1) school culture and methods of creating a collaborative school culture, (2) developing strategies to enhance teacher practice and (3) methods for teachers and principals to collaboratively analyze their work.”
Professor Dorene Ross, College of Education, University of Florida
“The Lastinger Center is a teaching and learning institution and as such has a practical orientation toward achieving cultural change in schools. The fact that the Lastinger Center is a university-based initiative is of vital importance in that it gives its programs and services needed intellectual power and cache. The Center’s legitimacy is enhanced by its affiliation with the University of Florida’s College of Education which places a high priority on the value of applied research.”
Andrew Bundy, President, Community Matters
“As a member of the Lastinger Advisory Board, I see the organization as a “hands on solution” to bringing various communities together in a thoughtful and respectful way in support of child well-being. From the perspective of a representative of the Early Childhood Initiative Foundation, I see the Lastinger Center as filing a huge void by answering the call to link early childhood work and elementary schools. One of the ways in which this is achieved is by enhancing the transition from child care centers to schools through the creation of channels of communication between principals, teachers, parents and child care centers.”
Ana Sejeck, Chief Operating Officer, Early Childhood Initiative Foundation
