TAFA Breaks Ground
TAFA Slots Still Available
TAFA still has 7th and 9th grade slots available for fall, 2008. Students outside of Federal Way are welcome to apply through choice enrollment.
Students in Federal Way Public Schools will be given priority until August 1, 2008.
After August 1, students outside of Federal Way going through choice enrollment will be also considered for any remaining slots. Visit the new TAF Academy website at http://schools.fwps.org/taf/.
FWPS Superintendent Tom Murphy, FWPS Board Vice-President Suzanne Smith, TAF Executive Director Trish Millines Dziko, and TAF Academy Principal Laura Davis Brown were among the dignitaries attending the June 12, 2008, groundbreaking ceremony at the future TAFA site.
TAF Academy will open on the Totem Middle School campus, 26630 - 40th Ave. S., Kent, on Sept. 2, 2008. The TAF Academy is funded through a unique public/private partnership between the Technology Access Foundation and the Federal Way Public Schools. The Technology Access Foundation has helped over 1,000 students develop the academic skills that are vital for success in a technology-driven global economy. TAF developed its educational model to help traditionally underserved kids develop the expertise, confidence and life skills they need by providing access to educational opportunities and technologically advanced learning tools.
The TAF Academy is based on a unique sixth through 12th grade public school model that prepares students for college and life by using project-based learning rooted in science, technology, engineering and math. Students at TAF Academy will use Microsoft Office applications on state of the art laptops for writing and presentations. Classrooms will be equipped with document cameras to quickly capture real-world images for display and insertion into lessons and activities, and SmartBoards to make every lesson interactive.
TAF Academy offers an academically rigorous college-ready curriculum designed to make students college eligible and academically prepared to enter the nation’s top four-year schools. Because it is a self-contained small school, all aspects of the curriculum and school culture work together in a personalized, supportive environment to meet students where they are, and to help them develop the content knowledge, skills, information about college and understanding of their own learning that the need to succeed in college.
TAF Academy in Federal Way Public Schools is the first of several academies that TAF is working to establish around the state in the coming years.