Presidential Perspectives
 |
Preparation, Persistence and Graduation: The Importance of Public School-University Partnerships |
During his State of the Union address, President Obama identified an increase in graduation rates by the year 2020 as a national goal. He spoke of “reform that raises student achievement [and] inspires students to excel in math and science….” The Lumina Foundation’s “Big Goal” is to increase the nation’s college degree and credentials to 60% by the year 2025. The foundation highlights its first step as “Preparation,” an intermediate outcome being: “States and institutions create and implement transparent higher education readiness standards aligned across K-12.” In an American Association of State Colleges and Universities’ (AASCU) letter to the Chairman and Ranking Member of the Committee on Education and Labor, AASCU President Muriel Howard writes, “Meaningful partnerships between higher education and local and state education agencies can create conditions for strengthening both school districts and schools of education.” Increasing the number of Americans who hold college degrees will require innovative cooperative alliances between K-12 and higher education.
Under the visionary leadership of Chancellor Charles Reed, the California State University (CSU) system has successfully implemented the Early Assessment Program (EAP) as a means to measure student college preparedness while still in high school. The EAP tests students at the end of their junior year, assessing their college readiness and provides opportunities to improve their skills during their senior year. The success of the EAP program is a result of a strong partnership between the CSU, the State Board of Education (SBE), and the California Department of Education (CDE).
Currently, I am the President of the College of Staten Island of The City University of New York (CUNY) and serve as a member of the Panel for Educational Policy, which provides oversight for the New York City school system, which serves 1.1 million children. The CUNY system is an active partner with the largest public school system in the country. The success of this partnership is largely attributed to the extraordinary commitment of CUNY Chancellor Mathew Goldstein and the Chancellor of the public schools, Joel Klein. The challenge is great and CUNY is committed to providing access to college for all of New York’s high school graduates. This extraordinary higher education-public school partnership offers a number of innovative programs designed to prepare students to succeed as college students. The partnership serves the most well-prepared student as well as those with the most academic risk by providing pre-college interventions.
CUNY employs a multi-dimensional approach to increasing the opportunity for all students to attend college. There are several collaborative programs in which CUNY engages that provide outreach to students at varying levels:
- The CUNY Preparatory Transitional High School Initiative serves out-of-school, low- income youth and is designed to help this population re-enter high school or get a General Equivalency Diploma (GED). It focuses on equipping them with the skills to enable them to enter and succeed in college.
- The Middle Grades Initiative/Gear Up – is aimed at increasing students’ college awareness. This program supports students’ academic work beginning in the middle grades so that they will be prepared for high school and eventually, college.
- College NOW – is a program designed to support students through their high school years. It is a support, motivational, and career program that helps prepare students not only for graduation from high school, but also for success in college. This program encourages NYC public high schools to partner with the CUNY colleges and offers the students the opportunity to participate in academic courses for high school and/or college credit. It offers students the opportunity to become familiar with the college setting through classroom activities, campus tours, and cultural events. CUNY has compiled data that demonstrates how College NOW supports students’ persistence in college and how dual-enrollment programs improve rates of student success in college.
Each student who participates in programs such as those discussed above persists in and graduates from college, and has a unique story to tell, but there is a common theme – with collaboration between public schools and colleges and universities--the problems of academic under-preparedness can be mitigated in such a way that students not only survive, but thrive. The data that supports the positive impact of public school-university partnerships remind each of us of the power of education to change lives and the need for collaborative solutions for reform. It is an important investment of time and energy; it is the way to a better, more competitive future in our global community.
View archived Presidential Perspectives.