Newburgh Free Academy Selected to Attend Prestigious National Air Force Program

Newburgh Free Academy was selected to participate in the 2020 cohort of the JROTC-CS Demonstration Project. Out of 2200 schools in the United States, only 30 schools were accepted to be part of this national program. 

Three educators from Newburgh Free Academy Main Campus have been selected to attend on behalf of the district, Mrs. Elizabeth Thomas-Cappello, computer science teacher, Master Sergeant Christian Granda, AFJROTC Instructor, and Mr. John Etri, Director of Career and Technical Education. The three educators will attend a capacity building training in late February.

You can learn more about the JROTC-CS Demonstration Project on their website: https://www.csforall.org/projects_and_programs/jrotc/. 

A communication to the district from the Project Director, Tina Boyle Whyte, MHRM, MA, stated: “Your participation will help build a national model for increasing access to evidence-based computer science and cybersecurity education at JROTC partner schools across the US.”

To kick-off, the project, each of the 30 JROTC-CS Demonstration Project schools will participate in a dedicated workshop using the proven CSforALL SCRIPT Framework. The SCRIPT — the Strategic CSforALL Resource & Implementation Planning Tool — is a framework to guide teams of district administrators, school leaders, and educators through a series of collaborative visioning, self-assessment and goal-setting exercises to create or expand upon a computer science education implementation plan for their students.

School districts and other local education organizations are the unit of change toward creating rigorous, inclusive and sustainable K-12 computer science education. The SCRIPT supports systems-level change by addressing five key areas: (1) Leadership, (2) Teacher Capacity and Development, (3) Curriculum and Materials Selection and Refinement, (4) Partners, and (5) Community.

Approved Schools will participate and build a national model for increasing access to evidence-based computer Science and Cyber education across the US.  This initiative is called CSforall (Computer Science for All). The main goal of these efforts is to increase computer sciences for all students across the United States.  

ATTENTION: Are your scholars or colleagues doing something great? Please contact the district Communications Team at communications@necsd.net. We’d love to visit your class or event and/or post your pictures and recap to highlight the amazing accomplishments throughout our district!