Transportation Initiative

Over many years, faculty and staff in the Wake Forest Department of Education have found that one of the biggest barriers facing undergraduates who seek to participate in service opportunities, clinical experiences, and community engagement is the lack of free, accessible transportation to and from local schools and community centers. In response, department faculty and staff created a new initiative meant to alleviate the transportation barrier for undergraduate and graduate students enrolled in education courses and to provide additional layers of mentored support for those students, including pre-service teachers.

Retired school administrators, educators, and coaches work as clinical associates in the Department of Education to serve university students by transporting them in 12-passenger vans to local schools within ten miles of campus for clinical experiences, classroom observations, tutoring, mentoring, and other educational programming. Clinical associates not only provide transportation services but also serve as teacher assistants for faculty and informal mentors to students.

in 2023-2024, 24 sections of 12 different courses and programs had transportation support to local schools and community locations, not to mention additional financial support provided to assist individual students who faced transportation-related hardships.

Currently the Department of Education has four different models of clinical fieldwork and coursework supported by the transportation initiative. These models include:

  1. Clinical experience courses that visit a different school each week (e.g., EDU 102L: Exploring School Communities)
  2. Academic courses that meet almost exclusively in a school setting (e.g., EDU 205a/b: Developing Literacy and Communication Skills in Elementary Schools)
  3. Academic courses that meet once a week on campus and once a week in a local school (e.g., EDU 309L: Introduction to Secondary Education; EDU 395: Teaching Diverse Learners)
  4. Academic courses that include schedule routine clinical experiences to support instruction (e.g., EDU 312: Teaching Exceptional Children)

The Education Transportation Initiative is a collaboration among university partners. Leadership includes Alan Brown (Associate Professor and Chair of Education), Jeff Faullin (Visiting Clinical Professor of Education), Jason Campbell (Assistant Director of Transportation & Parking Services), Julie Groves (Director of Risk Management), and Dana Lopez (Senior Associate Director of Programs for Campus Recreation). The program is supported by a generous gift from the family of a former elementary education major and with support from the Offices of the Dean of the College and the Provost at Wake Forest.

Current clinical associates are listed on the department website as Clinical and Research Associates. To learn more about the history of this departmental initiative, we invite you to read “Eliminating the Transportation Barrier for Pre-service Teachers,” which was written by Dr. Alan Brown and published by EdNC.

For more information about the Education Transportation Initiative,
please contact Dr. Alan Brown, Chair of the Department of Education.