The Center for Teaching and Learning in Edgecomb announced Monday, Aug. 12, that the school has been awarded “Best Private Elementary School” in Maine by Down East Magazine.

CTL serves students in pre-kindergarten through grade 8 from Harpswell, Bath, Brunswick, Georgetown, Arrowsic, Topsham and other surrounding towns. The school’s mission is to provide a joyful education for students and to teach using research-based best practices in education. CTL is a demonstration school where teachers from around the world come to learn. The school was founded by Nancie Atwell in 1990 and is accredited by the New England Association of Schools and Colleges.

The school equips students with skills to explore their ideas and emphasizes communication, so students learn how to share those ideas clearly with others. The Center for Teaching and Learning is a school where individual children are respected, accepted, and known for who they are and what they can do. Every decision made by any teacher is based on intimate knowledge of a student’s strengths and goals and the teacher’s best assessment of what a child needs in order to become a humane, productive grown-up, according to a prepared release.

CTL highly values accessibility for students and families of all socio-economic levels. Nearly 10 years ago, Atwell received the Global Teacher Prize from the Varkey Foundation and donated the full prize, $1 million, to fund tuition assistance from 2015–2025. Using funding provided by the Global Teacher Prize, CTL expanded outreach to low-income families. CTL almost tripled the number of low-income families the school supports. In the past nine years, between 10% and 30% of the student population was identified by the state as at or below the federal poverty level each year. On average each year, 30% of CTL’s students received tuition support provided by the Global Teacher Prize. Another 30% of the students’ tuitions are paid with public funding provided by their towns. Having a full range of area students allows CTL’s classrooms to look much like those of their public school counterparts, an important factor in the school’s mission as a demonstration school.

To learn more about the school, visit c-t-l.org or attend the Fall Open House from 3:30-5 p.m. on Oct. 27.