For most of her career, Natosha Scott has worked with at-risk students and low-performing schools. Now she’s taken on the challenge of heading the Acceleration Academies of Ector County.
She has mostly been in the North Texas area, having grown up in Garland. She has been a classroom teacher, worked for the Region 10 Education Service Center providing professional development for various districts in the Dallas area.
Scott was also a program coordinator where she worked with low-performing schools where they looked at accountability to help with decreasing their dropout rate and increasing student retention.
Scott also was at University of North Texas as a diversity scholar, which she said basically meant she was an adjunct professor while working on her doctorate.
Acceleration Academies fit Scott because she loves working with a wide range of at-risk youth.
“A lot of times students just have a hard time conforming in a box. It’s not that they are less intelligent, or they are hard to get along with. A lot of times they’re just the type of person that they are. They have a hard time conforming and need a different experience and somebody to meet them where they are because it can be difficult trying to always conform,” Scott said.
With all the social media now, everybody’s life is on display and it’s a struggle for students.
“We have several students here who are extremely smart, but just have a difficult time sitting in a classroom, listening to a teacher lecture, sitting in rows. When I would do professional development, I would call this death row, especially at the high school level,” Scott said.
She doesn’t mind if the students are social, but she likes to see them getting work done. Scott said she was the same way as a student.
“I was a child (that) when the report card came home it said ‘excessive talking.’ My mother was an educator, she would go to meet the teacher or have parent conferences. And the teacher, let’s say, Oh, she’s very social. She talks all the time, but she gets her work done. So I’m like, you can talk and get your work done. I understand,” Scott said.
Sometimes it’s useful to listen to what the students are talking about. She came across one recently where one of the students said they had enough credits to be considered a senior and graduate with their cohort in May. Those are the kinds of conversations she wants to hear where they are encouraging each other, along with Acceleration Academies offering support.
She added that those kinds of talks sound different coming from a peer.
Scott has been with Acceleration Academies since July 17.
“We’re trying to create an environment for kids to be successful academically, to enable them to do the things that they need to do outside of the school setting because several of them have a lot of responsibilities that the traditional student you wouldn’t think would have,” she said.
Currently, Acceleration Academies has 155 students. They have opened enrollment and orientation and have about 157 in the pipeline, but not all of them will qualify.
“We are here for students who have dropped out and want to come back and complete their academics, or students who are in jeopardy of dropping out and the campus and district feel like they need a … smaller environment that is conducive to whatever their situation is. Maybe they have a child. Maybe they have had a drug or alcohol issue. And so something that’s a little bit more intimate. … We roam the floor all the time. If I’m not in a meeting, or working on something that requires like privacy then I am on the floor with the students, with the staff,” Scott said.
Acceleration Academies has 11 staff members and two openings — a career coach and a graduate candidate advocate.
The career coach is like a school counselor.
“We’re looking for someone who has experience working with transcripts, understanding credits and helping students create their plan for completion. We also have what we call our graduate candidate advocate. They’re like case managers and tutors. They support the students and their academics. They are motivators. They know intimately what’s going on with students. They’re here to encourage, check in on them. That responsibility, it’s great for someone who’s not judgmental, because you never know you may have a student who has a drug problem or had a drug problem or a student who is a self harmer or whatever the case may be; someone who can be compassionate and understanding but also have that motherly/fatherly loving kind of rapport with them so that you can move them along the way … because if you’re too nice and soft with them they’re going to run over you and they’re not going to get anything done. … You have to set those boundaries and those limits so that they can continue to move and progress,” Scott said.
She added that the students she encounters have universal issues.
“Parents are parents and kids are kids. Unfortunately, you have those who want to do other things besides parent. … When you have children, your life should change, but not necessarily. Some people don’t feel that way, but it should,” Scott said.
Margie Sharp, executive vice president and chief education officer of Acceleration Academies, is thrilled to have Scott on board.
“We are thrilled to have Natosha leading Acceleration Academies of Ector County,” Sharp said. “Natosha’s educational background and experience as a teacher, principal and district leader in Texas provide evidence of the expertise and passion she brings with her to successfully lead our academy in the Ector County Independent School District. In just the few weeks that Natosha has been leading the academy, engagement and academic progress are on the rise and our graduation candidates are making excellent progress.”
Scott and her husband, Brian, have two children.
