This past year, Johns Hopkins opened the first new school built in East Baltimore in 25 years, operated by our School of Education in partnership with Morgan State University.

The cutting-edge $43 million institution is known formally as Elmer A. Henderson: A Johns Hopkins Partnership School. An anchor of the East Baltimore Development Initiative (EBDI), Henderson-Hopkins was funded by Johns Hopkins, Baltimore City, the state of Maryland, and a number of prominent foundations committed to the city’s future. The campus also houses the new $10 million Harry and Jeanette Weinberg Early Childhood Learning Center, operated by the School of Education in collaboration with the YMCA of Central Maryland, the Maryland Family Network, and other partners.

What the School of Education learns from a personalized approach to learning at the school will be brought back into university classrooms as best practices for the future of teaching and a model for other cities.

Henderson-Hopkins integrates the work of several university divisions. For example, the school uses Success for All, a curriculum based on a literacy and language program developed by School of Education professors. Faculty and students from the schools of Medicine and Nursing offer a range of services, including partnering with the city to operate an expanded health suite. Working with the planned Family Resource Center, the health suite will provide more expansive clinical services, mental health care, nutrition awareness, and housing/income support. And the Peabody Conservatory will supplement an expanded music program at the school.

What the School of Education learns from a personalized approach to learning at the school will be brought back into university classrooms as best practices for the future of teaching and a model for other cities. The university is helping to strengthen the community, and the community is helping to strengthen the university—the definition of a partnership school.