'Labor pains' forgotten at Midway PDS
Melissa C. Teutsch

"Labor pains."

That's how Priscilla Pullen described the first few months as principal at Midway Elementary Professional Development School.

"During one of our first faculty meetings, I told everyone we were having a baby and the rough times we were going through right then were the labor pains," Pullen recalled. "Then I told them that when it was all over we would have trouble recalling those pains."

Midway Elementary Professional Development School was first conceived after Gov. Mike Foster mandated through his Blue Ribbon Commission that every university with a teacher-training program establish a professional development school.

In spring 2001, Dr. Gary Rush, LSUS preK-16+ coordinator, met with the Caddo Parish School Board to discuss a location for one. Plans were made to house Midway Elementary in the former Midway Middle School, which closed in May 2001 because of low enrollment.

The first of its kind in the region, Midway PDS was opened in August 2001 as a collaboration between the School Board and LSUS.

Expecting only 500 students, school officials were shocked when 660 students from five different schools showed up to enroll.

"I had to hire more teachers in the first few weeks of school because of the huge turnout of students," Pullen, an LSUS alumna, said. "After checking records, it turned out a lot of the students were out of district."

One of the goals of the Midway-LSUS partnership is to develop a working relationship that provides positive results for students at both Midway and LSUS. College of Education students are on Midway's campus every day involved in everything from class observations and teaching to one-on-one interactions with the elementary students.

"Having the LSUS students coming in to the school has created an excitement among my teachers that makes them want to learn more," Pullen said.

Another goal of the partnership is to provide staff development for Midway teachers. LSUS does this by offering graduate level classes on Midway's campus each semester.

Organizations on the LSUS campus have also taken an interest in Midway. The Louisiana Association of Educators - Student Program adopted Midway as their service project for the 2001-02 academic year. Collecting children's books for the Literacy Program and participating in Read Across America as guest readers were among a list of projects LAE-SP was involved in at Midway. In addition, LAE-SP donated all the money raised from their Fall Fest and Spring Fling booths to Midway, and almost $500 they raised in the Walk for Education.

"LAE-SP has embraced Midway as 'their' school," Candi Bagley, LAE-SP advisor and assistant professor of education, said.

"The students who are involved with Midway are so enthusiastic," she added. "They feel there is so much potential and they believe they can make a difference."

"Although this was only our first year," Pullen said, "having this collaboration with LSUS has made a tremendous difference in our students."

One of the areas where the difference can be seen is in testing. Pullen said there was a remarkable increase in test scores from the in-house pre-test taken in the fall to the post-test in the spring.

"The teachers were so excited about their students' test scores," she added.

Currently, Midway and LSUS are working on certifying teachers at Midway as classroom supervisors for the LSUS student teacher program. Their goal is to put student teachers from LSUS in Midway classrooms this fall.

With the frenzy of activity and the outstanding student success at Midway Elementary PDS, the "labor pains," as Pullen predicted, are hard to recall.