Giulia Bassani, an adviser for Liberty Education's College Advising Program (CAP), explains the support that CAP provides to students who are applying to universities in the U.S.

Big Things Going on in Brazil

By Leslie Cranford,Section Manager

From newly enrolled students to training for new and current teachers, TTU K-12 has been busy with its Brazilian partner Liberty Education. The partnership comprises more than 50 schools and has averaged between 450 to 550 full-time students, both high and middle school, for the past three years.

About 50 teachers and coordinators from more than 20 of the schools participated in the annual training held in São Paulo in mid-December.

Braxton Allison, TTU K-12 principal for instruction, said Liberty was excited about the training this year. He provided the Liberty team with all the information it would need to help its staff prepare and deliver a meaningful event for those attending.

“This annual event is crucial to the success of the program and provides an opportunity for the coordinators and tutors from the member schools to network and collaborate,” Allison said. “Similar to in-service professional development that is traditionally provided by school districts to their staff, this is a time to keep the team informed about important updates to the programs policies and procedures, as well as targeted training to enable the tutors to work comfortably with the courses that we offer.”

Gabriela Barros is the international education coordinator for Liberty Education. She works closely with the TTU K-12 administration to deliver the highest-quality experience for not only her staff and teachers but students as well.

“The training event fostered meaningful interactions among teachers and coordinators, providing a great opportunity to stay updated for the upcoming 2024 academic year,” Barros said.

Allison said there were several new schools represented at the training this year which, he added, is a testament to the recruitment efforts by Liberty’s team and the overall growth of the program. Leaders from both teams are enthused about bringing new schools and students into the program and are encouraged by the tremendous growth they’re projected to see from last year to this year.

“Brazil’s new school year officially launched around Feb. 1, and we will be working at a fast pace through November to support their students, at which time we plan to visit and attend the program training for the end of the 2024 school year,” Allison said.

A second exciting development for Liberty is its part-time program through what is known as TTU K-12 Academics. The students in that program are taking individual supplemental courses to enhance their education. Recently, Liberty Education partner schools enrolled an estimated 500 students in the TTU K-12 public speaking course alone. Allison is excited about the planned evolution of the supplemental program that will allow students to complete one course per year through TTU K-12 as they work through their high school program.

“This year all students take public speaking, but eventually it will move to a model where 9th grade students complete public speaking, 10th grade students complete creative writing and 11th grade students complete Money Matters,” Allison explained. “It'll be two more years before we see the full plan in motion, but we're excited to get this program underway and look forward to seeing how many additional students we bring in this year and the years to come."

Hundreds of international students around the globe take American high school curriculum to ensure better outcomes when applying to colleges and universities in the U.S. TTU K-12’s concurrent diploma program offers students an American high school diploma simultaneously with their studies in their local high schools.