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Partnerships with Higher Education
Background
For the Partnerships with Higher Education category, we mean efforts in which any organization, individual, or group becomes partners with any educational institution beyond high school. For this document, we have narrowed the topics we introduce to those that are addressed by PEN's Civil Index Poll. This poll is based on a series of public forums and surveys conducted across the nation over the past five years. As a result of this effort, we have identified indicators or common qualities that encourage meaningful involvement in public education. As you read the information in this series of support tools, carefully consider the situations in your community.
How can you use the information and suggestions included in this material to help you build stronger civic involvement in education in your community?
PEN's Civic Index Indicators for Partnerships with Higher Education are:
Higher education institutions partner with school districts to resolve school improvement challenges, including bolstering the quality of teaching and learning, and supporting schools that need special assistance.
Institutions provide shared use of college facilities, college faculty, and courses.
College/university students provide support to local schools through volunteering, service-learning opportunities, and internships.
Using this Resource
As you explore the ideas presented in this material, you will find new ways to develop and bring these partnerships into efforts to improve education in your community. You will have an opportunity to:
Examine the benefits and challenges of partnerships between schools and higher education institutions
Explore strategies that will help your school-community involve higher education
Plan for ways to use this information in your school community
Remember that by working with this material, you have taken a first step toward beginning efforts to build Partnerships with Higher Education in supporting education. However, the most important thing in exploring new materials is deciding how you can use the materials. You can choose to study these materials as an individual or you can review them with others who are interested in this category.
Click here to download the Partnerships with Higher Education worksheet to help you work through your new knowledge. You can use this as a tool to take down your own thoughts or as a worksheet for group discussion.
Exploring and Organizing the Indicators
Though each of the indicators is distinct, each also connects to all of the others. This is true of all of the indicators. When a university supports staff efforts to organize a reading buddies program for a local elementary school, the institution is providing volunteers and resources as well as helping to improve the quality of teaching and learning in the school. Each indicator may stand alone, but they also are interrelated parts of the partnerships. Schools and community members can start these partnerships in different ways and for different purposes. However, for this category, we will explore each indicator one at time.
Supporting improvement
Colleges or universities often join with public schools to create and put school improvement programs into action. For higher education institutions, these projects fulfill research needs, while for public schools they might offer professional training that increases staff ability to meet student needs. By actively encouraging these partnerships, you can have a major effect on your Civic Index Score.
In order to increase higher education partnerships to support school improvement, these efforts should include strategies that establish common interests and encourage relationships with all possible partners. These partnerships can provide schools with additional support for their improvement efforts when these partnerships have clearly defined purposes and goals.
Sharing institutional resources
Institutions of higher education have a wealth of physical and staff resources that can support schools. Through the use of facilities and employing their wide knowledge and expertise in numerous fields, higher education can be a powerful player in supporting education at all levels. The key to raising your Civic Index score is in developing a creative approach to deciding what resources will provide the greatest support to school improvement efforts.
To decide which resources will best serve these partnerships, everyone involved needs to work cooperatively to determine which resources fit best and can support students. As each group learns more about the other, they will be more successful in using the best resources.
Coordinating higher education student efforts
Though you could consider college or university students as a resource, they are actually much more. They are the teachers and families of the next generation. For that reason alone, we should actively include them in educational efforts so they form a habit of being involved with public education. When college or university students are given appropriate preparation, they also can become an energetic and enthusiastic force in providing needed academic, physical, and emotional support to children. To raise your Civic Index Score in this category, include as many college and university students as possible as a strategy to assist with learning.
To insure that your efforts have the greatest degree of success, include higher education staff in planning activities so that their views can help decide when to include students as a strategy to support your program.
Overview of Research and Best Practices in this Field
Partnerships with higher education can take a variety of forms. These efforts involve school staff, students, and businesses. Many of these programs are nationwide, but others are local. As you explore the information in this section, read with the thought that you can get ideas for your efforts.
School Staff
Higher education and public schools share a common mission: preparing students for the future. However, beginning in the 1950s with the National Council for Accreditation of Teacher Education (NCATE), these partnerships began to take new forms. For example, NCATE has partnerships with public and student representatives and representatives from teacher education institutions, teachers, policy makers, administrators, and specialists as well as subject-specific, child-centered, and technology organizations to support effective pre-service and in-service education. Today, higher education-public school partnerships are most commonly focused in three areas: pre-service and in-service preparation for teachers, administrators, as well as those that have a direct impact on students.
For pre-service preparation (due to the growing national need for educators), the role higher education plays in recruiting prospective school staff and providing pre-service education has become very important. Partnerships where institutions of higher education share faculty, students, and facilities with schools to encourage strategies that support schools have proven to be a powerful approach. These efforts can result in keeping new teachers and school leaders in the profession by strengthening pre-service programs, providing additional training to current school staff and encouraging research in these areas.
In the 1980s, Professional Development Schools (PDS) were started to establish partnership programs between public schools and colleges and universities that would support school improvement. Today, these programs are focused on both national and regional needs and go far beyond partnerships between public schools and higher education. These efforts also include parts of programs that involve families, students, businesses, or other interested groups. Universities and colleges commonly house research or professional training centers that focus on sharing the latest information on how to address specific educational needs. They also provide on-site and off-site professional training that addresses "of the moment" needs. These partnerships are ideal to provide school staff with strategies that have been investigated and show promise in addressing community-wide, school-wide, classroom, or student needs.
These partnerships also focus directly on the needs of children and students, commonly referred to as the P-16 educational approach. "P-16" addresses the needs of the child from Pre-K through a two-year degree, certificate program or the 16th year of schooling (i.e. a four-year degree). The P-16 effort is a direct response to the future needs of our society - preparing the adults and workforce of the future. The 21st century is often called The Information Age, which will require a much more educated workforce. P-16 programs are based on two goals:
to raise the achievement levels of all learners, and
to close the difference in achievement levels among groups of learners.
To accomplish these goals, there are five areas of need for every child that higher education can help address:
Ready for school by age 6
Capable of reading by age 8
Capable of geometry and algebra by age 13
Completion of a demanding core curriculum by age 17
Expectation to complete the first two years of college by age 21
These programs include all learners in efforts to bring together all of the parts of education in supporting learners and identifying and addressing the barriers to each child's success in school.
Business
Business and higher education can draw upon a wide range of skills, knowledge, and experience to support public education. It is more and more common to see business in partnership with a variety of school support groups, including higher education. Business involvement adds a viewpoint that is often needed as individuals come together to plan for the needs of future generations. These partnerships may be in the form of grants or they may be partnerships where all involved work together to accomplish key goals. Common results of these types of partnerships include additional resources, access to new views, and knowledge and expertise in this area.
Keep in mind these key ideas as you reach out to individuals and groups to encourage partnerships with higher education:
Improved teaching and learning come from the commitment of resources to support professional training of pre-service and in-service teachers.
Resources available at universities include faculty, facilities, and students, as well as training and other materials.
Parents and community roles may range from participating in appropriate training to making a case for the presence of higher education in school improvement efforts.
Key Issues
The information in this section is designed to give an understanding of key issues related to efforts that help start Partnerships with Higher Education. As stated in the introductory section, we have limited the key issues to those related to the indicators. Though this approach did remove some issues from review, the ones remaining are key to the success and effectiveness of these partnerships.
As you read these explanations, pay close attention to the kinds of activities and the characteristics of involvement described. Use the ideas presented as you design or change efforts to actively involve parents in education and in your efforts to raise you Civic Index Score.
Key Issue 1: Higher Education-What Are the Points of Entry?
Higher education institutions have a more complicated structure than public schools. Though different institutions will vary, all have common parts or functions:
Their instructional programs are divided into colleges or schools of study. Each college or school will have subdivisions, usually called departments. Each one of these levels operates in a specific way. However, there is one overarching group who runs the institution - the president of the university and a board of trustees. While there are a number of schools, colleges, or departments that have programs that relate to public schools, higher education departments of education, social work, and psychology are most commonly associated with public education.
In addition to the instructional programs, institutions of higher education often have research or policy centers dedicated to specifically defined areas of work. For example, a center might exist only to explore student achievement. Many of these centers include outreach efforts. They are often told to use part of their funds to support local programs that share their goals.
Another way universities and colleges practice research-outreach is through lab schools. Lab schools can have many forms, but all have a specific approach that is encouraged and subject to research. It is common for these schools to have partners. It also is common for them to reach out to individuals or groups to share effective strategies.
Higher institutions have long helped start service organizations. These organizations have a wide number of goals, but one thing they hold in common is their performance of public service. Often, this service will focus on providing support to children or the families of children.
Each of these parts or functions is a way to begin efforts to support public schools. College faculty in one of their many academic departments can address nearly any issue schools face. To increase higher education partnerships to support school improvement, it is important that planners put strategies into action that explore and establish common interests and encourage relationships with all possible higher education partners. When these efforts have clearly stated purposes and goals, these partnerships can provide schools and communities with additional support for student learning.
Key Issue 2: Source of Innovative Thinking-How Does Higher Education Become a Partner in Efforts to Support a Culture of Learning?
As long as institutions of higher education have existed, they have taken a role of encouraging creative thinking. In fact, universities and colleges are often the places where many political and social changes start. However, we do not always think about the role higher education has played in changing education, although many of these political and social changes that started in universities have had major effects on schools.
Along with the growing size of education colleges or teacher preparation departments, many of these efforts include more work with with public schools than ever before. These changes have caused higher education institutions to form new types of partnerships: with public schools, business, community organizations, state education departments, and even the parents of their own students (something that was not done in the past). The following list provides a picture of large-scale efforts in which higher education serves as a partner. (Please note this list does not name every possible effort, but provides a look at the variety of partnerships possible):
After-school Alliance: The After-school Alliance is a nonprofit organization dedicated to raising awareness of the importance of after-school programs and advocating for quality, affordable programs for all children - with a vision of ensuring that all children have access to after-school programs by 2010.
American Alliance for Theatre and Education (AATE): The mission of the American Alliance for Theatre and Education is to encourage standards of excellence in theatre and theatre education. It achieves this mission by spreading quality activities in theatre and theatre education, connecting artists, educators, researchers, and scholars with each other, and by providing opportunities for its membership to learn, exchange, expand and diversify their work, the audience and their viewpoints.
The Dana Foundation: The Dana Foundation is a private charitable organization with particular interests in brain science, the study of diseases, and arts education. The foundation's arts education program supports programs that lead to improved teaching of the performing arts in public schools.
Education Trust: The Education Trust works for the high academic achievement of all students at all levels, kindergarten through college, and for closing the achievement gaps that separate low-income students and students of color from other youth.
The Holmes Partnership: The Holmes Partnership is a consortium of universities, public school districts, teacher associations and local as well as national organizations that promote high-quality teaching and teacher preparation.
National Arts & Learning Collaborative (NALC): NALC is a nonprofit organization that develops, puts into action, and evaluates model programs that incorporate the arts into the core curriculum of urban schools, and creates networks to support those activities among schools, arts/cultural organizations, businesses, and institutions of higher education.
Learn and Serve America: Learn and Serve America provides direct and indirect support to K-12 schools, community groups and higher education institutions to make it easier for service-learning projects to happen.
However, there also are many smaller scale efforts. The following is not a complete list but simply provides a picture of the possibilities:
Boston Higher Education Partnerships (BHEP): The BHEP is a cooperative effort on the part of the Boston Public Schools and the higher education community to encourage quality teaching and learning for Boston students.
Rural Community College Initiative (RCCI): The RCCI helps start community-based partnerships between community colleges and businesses that create educational opportunities to address poverty in rural areas.
Community Higher Education Opportunity Partnership (CHEOP): Created in 2002, CHEOP provides opportunities to encourage students to pursue higher education. In Pennsylvania, the program targets low-income families. In Texas, it encourages a training and coach model design to meet the needs of rural and underserved communities promoting social services, local history, teen leadership, and migrant education.
Jumpstart: Located in communities all across the nation, this project unites higher education partners in efforts to ensure that every child in a community is ready to start school.
To increase higher education partnerships that support school improvement, people who work to reform public education need to actively reach out to higher education and find the goals all groups have in common and encourage the creation of new projects that support public education.
Key Issue 3: Technology: How Does Technology Encourage or Hold Back These Partnerships?
Since the 1990s, technology businesses and groups have reached out to higher education to share and encourage the use of technology as a tool to offer to existing and new academic programs. For example, distance learning labs located on campuses around the nation offer school staff and students access to classes as well as training. However, technology is changing at such a fast pace that public schools and community support organizations are often unable to keep up with technology needs. This issue is made worse in rural or poor and underserved areas. As more and more of these partnerships form, and as more and more of them include technology as a central strategy in sharing information, there is a question as to what will happen to concerned groups, schools, families, businesses, or other groups who do not have easy access to the needed equipment or software. State departments of education, the U.S. Department of Education, and other business and charitable groups have tried to address this issue, but with the continuous changes in technology, it is an uphill climb.
As higher education partnerships form, people involved need to pay special attention to how they will effectively communicate information about their programs, what they learn from their efforts, and how they can support access to that information.
Key Issue 4: Partnerships or Agendas-How Do Financial Rewards or Ideology Impact Higher Education Partnerships?
Within this category, the most common partnerships link to three groups: schools, universities or colleges, and businesses. Advocacy groups, funding groups, interest groups, professional organizations, community-based groups, service groups, and any other group can also be a possible partner. As groups or individuals form partnerships, each group or institution will bring its goals and needs to the table. Sometimes, these goals and needs can create problems. For example:
Does the professional training offered by the university work well with the needs of the students in school?
Is the school's focus on achievement so tight that the recommended work will not fit their improvement structure?
Is the business partner more interested in selling a product or supporting an identified need?
Does one of the partners have an agenda (such as vouchers or other approach) to promote that will conflict with the needs of the other partners?
As higher education partnerships form, people involved need to explore the goals and needs of all participating groups to prevent a mismatch that will drain resources and possibly do more harm than good.
Once you've completed the Civic Index Poll in your community find out how you can improve your score in this category by visiting the Tips and Strategies section.
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