Building a Birth-to-College Model: Professional Learning Communities

The newest in a planned series of case studies on building a birth-to-college model of education released by the University of Chicago Urban Education Institute (UEI) and the Ounce of Prevention Fund this case study outlines how to create professional learning communities (PLCs) of teachers, administrators and family support staff spanning the early childhood to K-12 spectrum. The intent of the PLCs is to create environments where practitioners take the lead in collaboratively studying and piloting effective, developmentally informed practices that prepare children for college, beginning at birth.This teaching case study is intended to illustrate the evolutionary process of PLC development by UEI and the Ounce and inform the work of others interested in building similar birth-to-college systems to benefit children and families. It is based on interviews of 25 participants in the Birth-to-College Partnership, observations of PLC and other Birth to-College Partnership meetings over the six-month period between January 2012 and June 2012, and a review of Birth-to-College meeting notes and other documents dating back to June 2010

Working Together to Build a Birth-to-College Approach to Public Education

In 2009, the University of Chicago Urban Education Institute (UEI) and the Ounce of Prevention Fund (the Ounce) embarked on an effort to form a partnership whose vision is to "...build a model of public education for children and their families that begins at birth and creates success in school, and life." UEI designed and operates four public charter school campuses offering families a pathway to college for their children that begins with prekindergarten (preK) and continues through high school. The Ounce created and operates the Educare School, which prepares at risk children from birth to age five for success in school. The partnership will initially demonstrate what it means when children begin their education early with Educare, enter UEI's charter campuses for elementary, middle and high school, advance to college, and persist to graduation. Ultimately, the partnership plans to harness and share the academic expertise and real-world experience of members of both organizations. The goal is to collaboratively and continuously align and create instructional practices, and academic and social supports, to demonstrate a new model of public education that seamlessly and successfully prepares children for college, beginning at birth. In the United States, early childhood education (ECE) is not publicly mandated. All children in the U.S. receive public schooling that generally begins with kindergarten. As a result, many children do not have access to sufficient learning opportunities early in life, and may start kindergarten at a disadvantage. Given that K-12 attempts at closing the achievement gap are costly and generally ineffective, calls are being made to prevent the achievement gap from ever occurring. This requires intervention at a very young age, since differences in achievement based on income level can be seen as young as nine months and become larger by kindergarten. Even children who have been exposed to high quality ECE can experience a "fade" of those benefits upon entering K-12, depending on the quality of elementary school. For many children, the achievement gap begins to widen once again. In the city of Chicago, high school graduation rates hover around 50 percent. Of those students who graduate, only 35 percent go on to attend four-year colleges and universities. The numbers grow even smaller for children who are African American, Latino, or low-income. The achievement gap that opens in early childhood tends to widen throughout K-12, and many children who start with a disadvantage at kindergarten never graduate from high school. If they do, they are unlikely to attend and graduate from college. Higher education levels are related to higher incomes, lower levels of unemployment, and other positive outcomes. In order to be competitive in a world where a college degree is increasingly important, the United States must ensure that children graduate high school and are prepared to graduate from college. Preventing an achievement gap and ensuring that the fade of benefits from high-quality ECE does not occur in elementary school, while at the same time raising the bar to "college for all," requires collaboration between the worlds of ECE and K-12. In the United States, however, there exists a structural divide between the two fields. Despite the fact that they share similar goals for educating children, policies, standards, and funding streams contribute to a "disconnect." The partnership's goals are to effect change in public education by creating a demonstration model of birth-to-grade 12 education that prepares students for success in college and life. In order to accomplish this, the two organizations will work together to share expertise, and align and co-create practices, to ensure the best possible chance for success for students. The partnership first needed to be established, strengthened, and trusted by key players from each organization -- this was not a simple task. UEI and the Ounce began this effort by developing a roadmap that includes a shared vision and mission, core values, and goals and activities of the partnership. We focus here on the formation of the shared vision and mission, a document that represents the goals and aspirations of the partnership between the two organizations. In the service of creating this document, a working group comprised of educators, administrators, researchers, and teacher leaders from each organization was formed. The working group used an iterative process, where they revised, questioned, and adjusted the roadmap during a series of ten three-hour meetings that took place over the course of nine months and were facilitated by a specialist. Working group members' testimonies about their experiences participating in the group are referenced in this study. We will also review iterations of the shared vision and mission as they changed over time

The STCC Science Teaching Intern Project

The Springfield Technical Community College (STCC) Science Teaching Intern Project was implemented as a pilot study to give community college students an opportunity to experience science teaching. At the same time, it provided seventh graders in inner city middle schools opportunities to interact with college students and to take advantage of science resources not usually available to them. Interns attended weekly meetings and participated in an all-day science field trip at the college. Most participants also made observations in a middle school science classroom and presented a science activity in the classroom. Not only did the project provide a partnership between STCC and two Springfield public schools, but it also involved interaction with the University of Massachusetts School of Education, since a doctoral candidate provided expertise in education methodology and in evaluation of the project. The project was evaluated by the interns, the two K-12 teachers, the seventh graders, and by the doctoral candidate. There was clear enthusiasm for the project provided by all the sources. The conversion of this project into a one-credit course is currently under development

New Educational Partnership Sharing Responsibility, Resources to Improve K-12 Teaching and Learning

A new partnership forged on common goals to improve K-12 teaching and learning is off to a strong start this fall, with expanded representation and an ambitious agenda. The Penobscot River Educational Partnership: A Professional Development Network (PREP:PDN), unites the University of Maine College of Education and Human Development and seven area school systems in a collaborative effort that links all areas of teacher preparation and professional development. The network is based on sharing and strengthening resources and expertise

A University and Middle School Mentor-Scholar Partnership

The State University of New York at Oswego (SUNY Oswego) and the Oswego City School district have created a campus-community partnership through a college program that matches SUNY Oswego students as mentors with at-risk youth in grades 7 and 8 in a structured environment in the school district. The structure is academically based for college students to earn credit based on the tenets of mentoring, youth development, and relationship building. The middle school students, or “mentees” come from an at-risk background that is academic, socially, or behaviorally based. The school district recommends students for inclusion in the program. This innovative program includes a course that is rich with the pedagogy of service-learning, builds leadership characteristics and teamwork through course discussions, workshops, and the mentormentee relationship. The community benefits with increased support to at-risk students and building a pipeline between the college and K–12 community. The Mentor-Scholar Program tracks K–12 impact through state assessments, grades, social-school success outcomes, college mentors course evaluations and grades. The program tracks the impact on college students through grade assessment and reflection. The program was formed five years ago and has grown from thirty mentors with sixty mentees to 120 mentors with 300 mentees this past semester. Initial research shows an increase in attendance and GPA for K–12 students enrolled in the program and leadership skill development for college students

Leadership Education for College and Career Readiness: The CAMP Osprey Mentoring Program

This article describes a program that combines meaningful community-based experiential learning for collegiate students with leadership-based mentoring, delivered either face-to-face or virtually, that helps K–12 students see college as an option for their future. The CAMP (Collegiate Achievement Mentoring Program) model is a partnership between institutions of higher education and K–12 schools, in which collegiate student mentors are paired with children in high-poverty K–12 schools to improve leadership and career-readiness skills for collegiate mentors and leadership and college-readiness skills for mentees. The CAMP model has positively impacted the academic and social outcomes of more than 1,500 student mentors and mentees in four states. This article describes the genesis, development, process, and outcomes of the CAMP Osprey program at the University of North Florida as a model for other educational institutions to replicate and adapt to meet the needs of their students. The program is readily replicable and is notable among mentoring models because it is based on leadership development and can be delivered virtually

The College-wide Military-connected Learner Initiative in K-State’s College of Education

The Military-connected Learner Educational Initiative at Kansas State’s College of Education, initiated in 2012, provides a college-wide framework preparing in-service and pre-service personnel to serve military, veterans and their families in educational settings. This article describes the college-wide initiative which includes: (1) providing professional development for faculty and students; (2) implementing curricular and co-curricular modifications to address military/veteran-connected issues; (3) conducting research to contribute to the knowledge base about educational issues, strategies and adaptations for military personnel, veterans, and K-12 students in their families. The college is the recipient of the 2014 Taylor Higher Education Partnership of Excellence award from the Military Child Education Coalition

Champion of two worlds : a phenomenological investigation of North Carolina early college liaisons' leadership experiences

American high school reform has gone through many configurations during the past three decades. Dual enrollment, in which high school students access college courses for credit that can be applied toward high school and college transcripts simultaneously, is one of the more prevalent types of high school reform (Community College Research Center [CCRC], 2012). During the 2010-2011 academic year, there were slightly more than 2 million dual-credit enrollments in the United States, an astounding 67% increase nationwide in such enrollments since 2002-2003 (CCRC; Collins, 2012; Thomas, Marken, Gray, Lewis, & Ralph, 2013). One form of dual enrollment is early college, a secondary institution, typically located on a college campus, which allows dual-enrolled students the opportunity to earn a college degree while still in high school. In North Carolina, early colleges are initially funded by grants that are awarded by a private-public partnership called the North Carolina New Schools Project (NCNSP) (NCNSP, 2004a). Part of the grant funding pays for the salary of an early college liaison, a community college employee who, among other things, (a) assists in the development of programs of study; (b) coordinates high school and college schedules and calendars; (c) aids in the registration of students; and (d) develops college policies and procedures related to high school students (NCNSP, 2004b). Despite a significant amount of empirical research focused on the early college model, there is a paucity – indeed, a seeming nonexistence – of literature related to the early college liaison. This qualitative phenomenological study filled a gap in the early college and educational partnership literatures by investigating the leadership experiences of early college liaisons – “boundary-spanners” who are tasked with navigating the differing cultures and curricula of K-12 and community college systems. Fourteen early college liaisons provided written reflections and documents for this study, and engaged in recorded interviews that focused on the leadership skills, social traits, and relationships that are required for maintaining student advocacy in a political educational environment. Data showed that early college liaisons (a) form professional relationships and communicate extensively with a wide variety of stakeholders; (b) collaborate closely with faculty and executive leadership on both “sides” of the partnership; (c) engage in diplomacy in a highly political environment; (d) possess knowledge of K-12 and community college cultures and academic requirements; and (e) advocate for students in times of conflict. Because dual enrollment has grown at such a rapid rate in the past decade (CCRC; Collins; Thomas et al.), and the American Association of State Colleges and Universities has recommended an increase in the amount of personnel who can bridge K-12 and higher education (Eddy, 2010), it is imperative that future research be conducted that examines the professional relationships, leadership skills, and social traits that this study unearthed, to explore how they can be applied to forthcoming educational partnerships. Such partnerships are bound to increase as state funding declines and institutions of learning create new avenues for maintaining effectiveness while decreasing financial burdens (Azinger, 2000; Eddy). Such research would lend itself to the dearth of experiential studies focusing on how educational partnerships are planned, initiated, and developed (Miller & Hafner, 2008)

Berman, Weiler Study of Minnesota Student Performance: A Critical Review.

An assessment of performance by Minnesota students in grades K-12 was prepared for the Minnesota Business Partnership in 1984 by Berman, Weiler Associates of Berkeley, California. This report offers a summary and critique of their assessment.CURA/College of Education Project on the Future of K-12 Public Education in Minnesota

An Innovative Partnership between National and Regional Partnerships: STARS Meets McPIE

The Students & Technology in Academia, Research, and Service (STARS) Computing Corps is a nationally-connected system of regional partnerships among higher education, K-12 schools, industry and the community, with a mission to broaden the participation of women, under-represented minorities and persons with disabilities in computing (BPC). With support from National Science Foundation funding, the University of North Carolina at Charlotte founded the STARS Alliance (now the STARS Computing Corps) which includes 44 universities, each with its own “constellation” of local and regional partnerships. McClintock Partners in Education (McPIE) is a partnership between a middle school, a church, and their surrounding community. This paper describes how a STARS-McPIE “partnership between partnerships” has impacted both the middle school students and their college student mentors