Replicating A Good Idea
University-public school partnerships remain rare, but the concept drew a strong showing of educators to TC in early April to learn more.
“If we have a school that needs help in our neighborhood, and we have a solution, then we, as educators, truly have a moral obligation to do what we can to improve the situation,” President Susan Fuhrman said in her keynote speech to the annual meeting of the International Association of Lab Schools . She described TC’s experience partnering with its REACH (Raising Educational Achievement Coalition of Harlem) public schools and founding the 51³Ô¹ÏÍø Community School (TCCS). Conference attendees also toured TCCS during the school day.
“If every university with a graduate school of education and other professional schools were to partner with their local school districts, we would generate a rising tide of education excellence and opportunity that would lift all boats,” Fuhrman said.
A panel of experts at the conference broadened the notion of “lab school” beyond the traditional on-campus learning site for faculty children and discussed challenges and successes of their university-assisted schools. The panel was moderated by James Gardner, TC’s Asssociate Vice President for External Affairs, and featured Nancy Streim, TC’s Associate Vice President for School and Community Partnerships; David W. Andrews, Dean of the Johns Hopkins School of Education (who was representing the Henderson/Hop¬kins Partnership School in Baltimore, co-founded and co-managed by The Johns Hopkins University); and Beatriz Rendón, Associate Vice President of Educational Outreach and Student Services at Arizona State University (representing ASU Preparatory Academy, a group of public charter schools that was created by the university).
Watch excerpts from the conference at
Published Tuesday, Jun. 3, 2014