The Village - Educational Services

The Village School
A Place Where Young Lives Are Transformed

The Village School Values, Mission and Beliefs Statement

We, at The Village School, care about young people and have a desire to provide them with the opportunity to gain the knowledge and skills they will need to lead productive lives. Many of our students have experienced failure and disappointment in school and themselves. As a result of this, they have developed many different ineffective and self-defeating coping skills. Our goal is to reverse this pattern through the process of encouragement. To that end, we believe the following:

All students deserve to be treated with dignity and respect;
Consistent, reasonable limits and guidelines help students feel safe and secure;
Verbal and tangible rewards for appropriate behaviors to reinforce positive actions;
Individualized interventions and approaches encourage each student’s optimal performance;
Setting high standards for students helps to ensure that all students will be successful;
Confronting and setting logical and natural consequences for inappropriate behavior, while modeling and encouraging appropriate behavior, promotes a positive and safe learning environment;
Curriculum must be designed to meet the needs of each student, providing challenge and addressing a variety of learning styles;
Effective communication with parents or guardians is key in facilitating students’ academic success.

The purpose of the Village School is to prepare our students to successfully re-enter the community, specifically the school community. By keeping this goal foremost during the student’s stay with us, we can establish the goals and objectives for each student that will enable him or her to develop the academic knowledge, attitudes, and coping skills necessary to achieve this goal.

The overall mission of The Village School is to provide academic services that address individual needs in a highly structured therapeutic setting and to provide a successful learning experience which fosters a sense of accomplishment and positive self-regard while facilitating the student’s transition to future academic or vocational settings.

Educational Services

The Village School is a private school approved by the Tennessee State Department of Education and accredited by the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools (SACS).

The school staff is comprised of full-time credentialed teachers and fully-trained teaching assistants. Teachers hold state licenses in many different endorsement areas including English, mathematics, social studies, science and health/physical education. Additionally, teachers hold endorsements in special education and vocational education.

The Village School offers course work in most academic classes. Students also participate in vocational education, physical education and experiential learning as part of their therapy program and receive school credit for this participation.

Flexibility is key to providing an educational program that meets the needs of each student. The Village School includes special education experiences for those students whose emotional disturbances have created learning problems, remedial education for those who demonstrate deficits in their learning experience or ability, and opportunities for gifted students.

Teachers work with the student's previous school to achieve an optimal educational experience. Each student is evaluated and placed in an individualized program based on his/her level of achievement at admission.

As an accredited school, The Village School conducts commencement exercises in May for students who have completed all high school graduation requirements.

SACS Accreditation
The Village School is an accredited member of the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools (SACS). This accreditation gives final assurance that any credit students earn at the Village School will be accepted at any high school or college.

To maintain accreditation, the school must conduct a continuing program of educational improvements meeting standards of accreditation, improving student performance, submitting annual reports that certify implementation of the school's improvement plan, and being re-evaluated by external teams of professional educators at five-year intervals.

Founded in 1895, SACS is a voluntary, nongovernmental agency composed of more than 13,000 accredited colleges and universities, elementary, middle and secondary schools. It serves 11 Southern states as well as Mexico, Central and South America, islands of the Caribbean and other geographic areas.