New Educational Model Starts with Teachers and Principals

Delores and Allen Lastinger

The Lastingers are no strangers to Norman Hall. Delores Lastinger majored in business education at UF. Allen Lastinger grew up in Gainesville and attended PK Yonge School in the building from kindergarten through high school. Allen’s mother and father were teachers. His sister and three members of the Lastinger family are educators. The commitment to education is an ingrained family value.

UF alumni Delores and Allen Lastinger gave the College of Education $2 million – the largest gift in the history of the college – to create the Lastinger Center for Learning, which works hand-in-hand with high-poverty schools to improve student performance, teacher practice, school performance, principal leadership and parental engagement.

For that reason, in 1998 the Lastinger Family Foundation gave the College of Education $2 million to create the Lastinger Center for Learning. Their gift is the largest ever made to the college. The Lastinger Center works hand-in-hand with high-poverty schools to implement a job-embedded, research-based professional development model that is aligned with curriculum and school district priorities to improve student performance.

In his 27 years with Florida’s Barnett Bank, Allen learned one important secret of success. If you want to know what you’re doing right or wrong, he said, you need to talk to the people who take care of your customers. The Lastingers maintained that philosophy when they founded the Center for Learning.

“In education, why not ask the teachers and principals what they need to be more effective and then try to develop that through a cooperative effort with the College of Education and the resources of the University of Florida?” Allen Lastinger said.

Since its inception, the Lastinger Center has created a still-growing network of 19 under-resourced schools working collaboratively with UF to improve student achievement. Approximately 300 teachers in three school districts are participating in the Florida Teacher Fellowship Program, a year-long teacher development program designed specifically for teachers in high-poverty schools. Through the Lastinger Center, UF offers an on-site Master’s degree program, with a focus on literacy, to teachers in under-resourced schools.

These are just a few of the many initiatives ongoing at the Lastinger Center. As the needs of schools change, the strategies at the center will also change – and thanks to the Lastingers’ gift, the center will have the resources to branch out into new directions when needed.