The School
A Beacon of Imagination and Creativity
Baldwin R. Brown
Principal, I.M. Terrell STEM & VPA Academy
Welcome to the I.M. Terrell Academy for STEM Visual & Performing Arts. The staff and I are grateful for the opportunity to help mold our child’s educational experiences here at Terrell Academy. I am honored to have this opportunity serve our children and the Fort Worth community as a whole. At Terrell, we offer a rigorous academic environment that will provide our children with classes focused on STEM, Visual and Performing Arts and the Humanities. All of these classes are offered at the honors and AP level. We are very excited for the productive partnerships with you, our stakeholders to ensure that our children are achieving at their highest potential.
We also recognize that in order for us to be a successful school, our children will need support from the home, school and the community at large. We know a strong partnership with you will make a great difference in our children’s education. As partners, we share the responsibility for our children’s success and want you to know that we will do our very best to carry out our responsibilities.
I.M. Terrell staff members are not just in the business of educating our children, but we are also here to develop and nurture their artistic talents, challenge, motivate, and inspire them to be creative thinkers and innovative problem solvers. Our apprentices will go on to transform their neighborhoods, communities, and city and eventually the global landscape for generations to come.
Our faculty and staff are some of the most dedicated, highly motivated group of educators that care about each child’s social, emotional, physical and mental well-being. We believe in ensuring that the whole child is being educated and nurtured.
At I.M. Terrell, we are investing in the future by constantly exposing and providing our apprentices with unique learning experiences and opportunities that will allow them to tap into their passions so they can become the global landscape changers for generations to come.
“Education is not the filling of a pail, but the lighting of a fire.”
In A Snapshot
As a Gold Seal School of Choice, the I.M. Terrell Academy for STEM & VPA provides excellence in education that is accessible to families across the Fort Worth region through Merit Base Enrollment and the Gold Seal Lottery process. Because of this, our campus is home to a diverse student body from many different neighborhoods of Fort Worth.
We are currently celebrating only our 3rd year of progressive enrollment—serving Freshman, Sophomores, and Juniors—with our Inaugural Cohort becoming our first Seniors next year.
School Data
The Students
STEM Student Apprentices must have already completed Geometry, prior to being accepted.
VPA Students Apprentices come in having completed Algebra 1 and must complete an audition.
VPA students undergo 2 jury (panel) assessments each year, which includes qualitative (video/speech/audio) valuations.
The inaugural class came from over 30 schools in FWISD.
The School
The VPA/STEM concept was approved by District voters during the 2013 Capital Improvement Program campaign and combines the historical I.M. Terrell School, located in the east side of downtown Fort Worth, with the new Visual and Performing Arts Academy (VPA) and the Science, Technology, Engineering and Math Academy (STEM).
While designated as a specialized school that focuses on talented STEM and VPA students, the school itself is still subject to Title 1 funding rules.
I.M. Terrell Academy holds Equity and Access as one of its core tenants. The school has been described as accepting of all students and holds all students accountable to their work and behavior using various institutional mechanisms such as semi-annual jury panel evaluations.
The school was designed specifically to foster an environment that allows the students to focus on their respective passions while still exposing them to new ideas and areas of study, such as the Cowan Curriculum which is taught to provide a broad based classical education in the Humanities.
The school motto: “Uniquely Designed, with Students in Mind”
Seating capacity in the Performance Hall is approximately 900 and the stage is comparable to that of the Bass Hall. As a fully functioning performance center, it includes a pit section, professional lighting equipment, and has staff dedicated solely to its operations.
The Performance Hall can be rented out to the public.
A-Ratings Across the Board
During their inaugural school year, the student apprentices earned an “A” rating and earned “Distinction Designations” in all five Texas Education Agency Accountability Ratings they were eligible for:
ELA/Reading
Mathematics
Comparative Academic Growth
Postsecondary Readiness
Comparative Closing the Gaps
Additional Highlights:
90% of the STAAR Testing Results were at Meets Grade Level or Above.
STEM: Science, Technology,
Engineering & Math
FACEBOOK’S ENGINEER FOR A WEEK: In May 2019, three student engineers of I.M. Terrell Academy joined a handful of teams from across the country as finalists in the Facebook Engineer for the Week (EFTW) Achievement Challenge. In partnership with the Fort Worth Museum of Science and History, the I.M. Terrell team was tasked with developing a game to tackle tough social issues in their community, and created The Texting and Driving Simulator. The team of ninth grade apprentices, Jihyeon Na, Gonzalo Soto, and Franklin "Max" Bellomy, were chosen to attend the EFTW Achievement Summit at Facebook Headquarters in Menlo Park, California, where they networked with other finalists and Facebook engineers. While there, they also took the opportunity to tour the Stanford University campus.
ROBOTICS COMPETITIONS: The Robotics teams attended three competitions including the FTC Competition at Ferris High School in January 2019, Flower Mound High School Competition in March 2019, and hosted their first competition at I. M. Terrell Academy in May 2019.
STEM FIELD EXPERIENCES: Students participated in activities with Fort Worth's BRIT, Trinity River Vision Authority, Burns & McDonnell, Allied Electronics, EarthX, Amazon, TPG, EverFi and the Fort Worth Museum of Science & History.
STEM DAY: Held monthly, these days are designed to promote STEM initiatives and give students opportunities to explore diverse STEM topics. As part of STEM Day, Leaders from their respective STEM fields are brought in to provide lectures, students can visit booths of interactive science presentations, and students can show off individual projects they have been working on.
Engineering & Robotics Club: Student established clubs that meet weekly in order to experiment with design, creation, testing, and debugging of robots.
Capstone Projects: As Upperclassman, the student apprentices will have the opportunity to pursue Capstone Projects that affect the community in some positive way. During their Freshman and Sophomore students learn about a diverse number of community issues that they can potentially affect and participate in design thinking through the TCU IdeaFactory, in order to refine their Capstone Project ideas.
Visual &
Performing Arts
UIL ONE ACT PLAY AWARDS:
Rashayla Anderson, All-Star Technician
Scooter Sachs, All-Star Cast
Ava McKay, All-Star Cast
THEATER FEATURED PERFORMANCES:
Fall Play “A Midsummer Night’s Dream”
Spring Musical Review
INSTRUMENTAL MUSIC FEATURED PERFORMANCES:
Performance with the United States Air Force Band and Singing Sergeants (I.M. Terrell)
FWISD Teacher of the Year Reception
Kimbell Art Museum Family Festival
Side-by-Side Rehearsal with Fort Worth Symphony (I.M. Terrell)
Performing Arts Fort Worth Luncheon
DANCE FEATURED PERFORMANCES:
FWISD Dance Showcase (I.M. Terrell)
TCC Dance Converge (Sundance Square Plaza)
Fort Worth Symphony- Young Persons Concert (Bass Performance Hall)
IM Terrell Instrumental Music Winter Concert (I.M. Terrell)
Ballet Frontier's, Directors Choice FWISD Dance Showcase (I.M. Terrell)
Sunrise McMillan Elementary
First Saint John Cathedral
Terrell Dance Ensemble Showcase (I.M. Terrell)
Fort Worth Youth Philharmonic (I.M. Terrell)
Performing Arts Fort Worth Luncheon
Fall Play “A Midsummer Night’s Dream” (I.M. Terrell)
Terrell Dance Spring Concert- Volume 1 (I.M. Terrell)
VOCAL MUSIC FEATURED PERFORMANCES:
Performance with the United States Air Force Band and Singing Sergeants (I.M. Terrell)
Lockheed Martin Armed Forces Bowl Performance with the Fort Worth Children’s Honor Choir Performance with the TCU Concert Chorale (TCU’s Amon G. Carter Stadium)
Kimbell Art Museum Family Festival
Spring Musical Review (I.M. Terrell)
FINE ART EXHIBITIONS
High School Student Art Show at Fort Worth Central Library
“Beauty is in the Eye of the Beholder" BRIT Gallery