About FAMU-DRS

Florida Agricultural and Mechanical University
Developmental Research School

During the early years of the school's existence, it served only elementary students and was located in temporary quarters at 424 Osceola Street in Tallahassee, Florida. In the Fall of 1921, it was known as the Demonstration Elementary School. Due to increased enrollment, The Model School (as it was then called) moved its three intermediate grades to the junior high school building on South Boulevard. The new facility had been known as the Teacher’s Cottage.
The "laboratory school" nomenclature was functional until the Florida Legislature enacted the Sidney Martin Developmental Research School Act of 1991, which designated the K-12 laboratory School as a Developmental Research School. Further, the legislation mandated that FAMU DRS operate as a designated public school district, and stipulated that "the mission shall be the provision of a vehicle for the conduct of research, demonstration, and evaluation regarding management, teaching, and learning. Further, FAMU DRS shall emphasize mathematics, science, technology, and foreign languages."
