Date sent: Wed, 5 Feb 1997 00:29:20 -0800
From: LindaP (Texas)
Subject: Alliance - Tucker 3

>Subject: Alliance - Tucker 3
>
>College officials offer such partnerships as evidence of their interest in
>making the schools
>better. But critics, while acknowledging the value of some partnerships, say
>they are
>tantamount to the early adopt-a-school involvement of the business community
>in
>education reform--more show than substance. Moreover, these marginal efforts
>mask the
>lack of systematic, universitywide involvement with the feeder system to
>their institutions.
>"As a person who works with elementary and secondary, I don't know how to
>influence
>higher education,'' Stanford's Kirst says. "We don't have connections with
>people who
>work in policy there. We can throw bricks from outside the house, but we
>can't get inside
>the house.''
>Partnerships and collaborations, he says, are simple "side issues [that]
>obscure'' the more
>dire need for substantive systemic reform in both K-12 and higher education.
>If enlightened self-interest is not enough to prompt colleges and
>universities to become
>engaged in school reform, state pressure may be.
>Because three out of four college-bound public school students attend
>taxpayer-supported colleges and universities, it would be reasonable to view
>the two
>systems as linked and to make the case that they have an obligation to do as
>much as they
>can for the public in the most economical and efficient way. That means
>working together
>to increase efficiency by sharing resources, insuring smooth articulation,
>and maintaining
>simple communications. It also means, some say, that public higher-education
>institutions
>have an obligation to the taxpayers to become active players in school
>reform.
>That is a valid argument, says Legg of Memphis State, because, after all, "we
>are using
>public money.''
>Governors and lawmakers, who have led the way in school reform for nearly a
>dozen years,
>are frustrated by the fact that public higher education is not helping and
>may be hindering
>the effort to improve K-12 education. In some states, they have begun to
>confront the
>issue.
>When the Kentucky legislature passed the Kentucky Education Reform Act in
>1990, it also
>passed a resolution that calls on public universities in the state to upgrade
>their teacher
>training and professional-development efforts.
>While the state resolution has no real teeth--the institutions are not
>threatened with the
>loss of financial support, for example, if they do not comply--it is having
>some impact, says
>Robert Sexton, the executive director of the Prichard Committee for Academic
>Excellence, a
>citizens'-advocacy group that is monitoring the implementation of KERA.
>A state task force is working on articulation issues, he says, and individual
>higher-education institutions are re-examining their missions.
>For example, the Prichard Committee is working with Georgetown College, a
>small
>liberal-arts institution, to revamp its curriculum so that it is more in line
>with K-12 curricular
>reforms, and the University of Kentucky in Lexington has established an
>Institute for
>Education Reform in its education school and has named an academic vice
>president for
>school reform.
>"It's been slow, but we've seen lots of action in the past couple of years,''
>Sexton says.
>"Here, because the reform program has been so dominant in the news, the
>message has
>gotten through.''
>What the institutions still need to do, he says, is pay more attention to the
>quality of
>instruction by professors across the campus, get more teacher education
>students into real
>classrooms, and add ongoing professional-development programs to education
>schools.
>Other states are considering ways of tying higher-education funding to
>evidence of
>assistance to K-12. The Denver-based Western Interstate Commission on Higher
>Education has already suggested as much for its member states, and Colorado
>appears to
>have listened. Gov. Roy Romer earlier this year signed a bill that requires
>all future
>spending increases on higher education above the fiscal 1994 level of $410
>million to go to
>five priorities; coordination with K-12 education is among them.
>The legislature is now considering a proposal that would provide $250,000 in
>fiscal 1995 to
>universities that, through a competitive grant process, demonstrate their
>ties to K-12.
>Another $600,000 is proposed for another priority--productivity--that
>involves more
>faculty contact with undergraduates through teaching and advising, and the
>reduction of
>administrative costs.
>"Lots of our constituents are starting to look at this K-16 link or this
>seamless system,''
>says Julie Bell, the education-program director with the National Conference
>of State
>Legislatures. (See related story, page 10.)
>Higher-education leaders worry, however, about these developments. Not only
>will these
>mandatory links to school reform impair the autonomy of the academy, they
>say, but they
>could saddle universities with tasks outside their mission, just as
>legislative mandates
>have done with public schools.
>Nonetheless, with limited amounts of money available, states have been
>shifting resources
>into elementary and secondary education and making higher education fight for
>every
>penny.
>According to the National Center for Education Statistics, between 1980 and
>1990, the
>national index for elementary and secondary education--which reflects monies
>raised to
>educate the average student relative to the taxpayer's ability to pay--rose
>from 21.5 to 25.0.
>During the same period, that index for higher education fell from 26.5 to
>23.4.
>The N.C.S.L. has reported that, between fiscal years 1991 and 1992, state
>spending on
>public schools increased by 8.9 percent, while spending on higher education
>rose by 2.2
>percent. Between fiscal 1992 and 1993, public school spending increased by
>4.3 percent,
>while higher-education spending decreased by 0.2 percent. Only between fiscal
>1993 and
>1994 has that trend abated, with higher education actually receiving a
>slightly bigger
>increase--2.8 percent--than the schools--1.6 percent.
>In the meantime, many state legislatures, responding to concerns over the
>balance
>between the time spent on faculty research and teaching, are contemplating
>bills that
>would regulate weekly teaching loads for professors at public institutions.
>Meanwhile, corporate support, while by no means shrinking for higher
>education, has
>been increasing for schools. A recent survey of 230 corporate foundations by
>the Council
>for Aid to Education, for example, found the effectiveness of K-12 education
>reform was
>the topic of greatest interest. The efficiency and effectiveness of higher
>education ranked
>eighth. The philanthropic community's increased giving to school-reform
>efforts,
>observers say, reflects a real societal need as well as a recognition that
>K-12 reformers are
>addressing that need. Higher-education officials are not.
>Clearly, a strong message is being sent, but it's not yet clear that it's
>being received.
>While reformers and the states are pressuring higher education to play a more
>active role
>in school reform, it is also under increasing pressure to re-examine itself.
>Last December, more than 10 years after A Nation at Risk set in motion the
>most intense
>wave of school-reform activity in this century, higher education received its
>own wake-up
>call with a pithy little report titled "An American Imperative: Higher
>Expectations for
>Higher Education.''
>"An American Imperative,'' the product of a 16-member panel chaired by former
>U.S.
>Secretary of Labor William E. Brock, calls on higher-education executives and
>faculty
>members to re-examine what is being taught on that level and how; the mission
>of colleges
>and universities, collectively and individually; and the higher-education
>system's role
>vis-Áa-vis elementary and secondary schools.
>The 167-page document is much less caustic than its K-12 counterpart, and it
>is too early
>to tell what kind of influence, if any, it might have. In fact, some
>observers say it is too soft
>to generate any substantive discussion of the reform issues facing higher
>education.
>As "An American Imperative'' suggests, however, higher education is facing
>the kind of
>public demand for change and accountability that swept through the elementary
>and
>secondary schools after the release of A Nation at Risk.
>Rising tuitions have prompted parents and students to take a closer look at
>exactly what
>they are getting for their money. It has also led to concern over access. A
>1993 report
>issued by the California Higher Education Policy Center notes that 67 percent
>of
>Californians, and 55 percent of those across the nation surveyed, believe a
>college
>education is harder to get now than it was 10 years ago. And 73 percent of
>Californians,
>and 66 percent of the nation, believe a college education will be harder to
>get 10 years from
>now.
>Moreover, scandals related to athletic programs and research projects have
>tarnished the
>ivory-tower image at a time when higher-education officials are striving to
>convince the
>public of academe's special place in, and unique value to, the larger
>society.
>In recent speeches, U.S. Secretary of Education Richard W. Riley has been
>warning college
>and university leaders that the public will demand more accountability and
>higher
>academic and performance standards. He implored higher education to pay
>attention to the
>K-12 reform movement in his first "state of education'' speech in February,
>and noted that
>"we are at the threshold of a new and important public dialogue, one only now
>beginning
>to emerge on the meaning of accountability and standards in higher
>education.''
>College officials know that they must reform the academy and, specifically,
>that academic
>reform is the issue, says Robert Zemsky, the director of the Institute for
>Research on
>Higher Education at the University of Pennsylvania. They just don't know how
>to get the
>discussion going about faculty roles, the nature and structure of the
>curriculum, and how
>to do more things with less money, adds Zemsky, who also serves as the
>chairman of the
>Pew Higher Education Roundtable.
>Last November, the Pew forum held a meeting in St. Louis to discuss the
>future of higher
>education. Meeting planners expected 125 officials to attend; more than 650
>expressed
>interest in attending, but only 400 could be accommodated. Clearly, there is
>interest. The
>question is, Will there be action?
>The St. Louis meeting focused on restructuring the campus and the issues of
>cost, access,
>and quality, and the difference between radical and significant change.
>Participants
>acknowledged feeling pressure from parents and students, state legislatures,
>and the
>public. Several institutions reported on their efforts to make their
>institutions more
>efficient, more responsive to parents and students, and more accountable for
>the use of tax
>dollars.
>Zemsky assured the participants that the only thing they've done wrong is
>fail to
>anticipate how external pressures might affect them. He urged them to pay
>attention to
>three outside factors: the job market, public attitudes, and the policymaking
>arena.
>He later explained why he did not include school reform in that list: "It's
>not clear to us that
>those who are in charge of K-12 reform exactly have that game under control.
>We're just
>not sure they know what they're doing yet, [and] the last thing you want to
>get involved in
>is someone else's nightmare.''
>Appleberry of AASCU agrees. "Some people have started asking, 'Well, where's
>higher
>education?' That's scapegoating. They don't want to be in the same situation
>as the
>elementary and secondary people were: expected to solve all of these social
>problems
>without the authority, responsibility, or funding to do it.''
>Moreover, Zemsky maintains, many higher-education officials do not see
>themselves in
>the same business as public schools. This is most clearly reflected in the
>teacher education
>schools, he says.
>"People in higher education don't know what's happened in K-12--good, bad, or
>indifferent,'' Mr. Zemsky says. "We sort of sit there like catchers and wish
>that the pitcher
>would throw a better pitch.''
>Other higher-education leaders are wary of becoming involved in school reform
>because
>they fear it will compromise quality on the campus. They point to the demand
>for greater
>access in the 1960's, a demand that prompted colleges to water down their
>admissions
>standards and enroll students who were not adequately prepared, which in turn
>gave rise
>to the need for remedial courses.
>"Protecting standards given diminishing resources and pressure to admit more
>people is a
>very important issue right now,'' says Linda Ray Pratt, a University of
>Nebraska professor
>of poetry and the president of the American Association of University
>Professors. "On the
>one hand, the public wants teachers to uphold standards, and, on the other
>hand, they
>want to brow-beat teachers to pass Johnny and Jill when Johnny and Jill don't
>know
>anything.''
>In the final analysis, Zemsky believes, the most formidable barrier
>preventing colleges and
>universities from coming to the reform table may well be their own financial
>self-interest,
>which, he says, requires them to pay more attention to the needs of American
>employers
>than to the nation's schools.
>"They don't have to reject the schools, they just have to pay attention to
>the adult
>learner,'' he says. "I don't think that's right, but that's where we are.
>There's just no doubt
>in my mind that the labor market is driving higher education exclusively and
>to the
>exclusion of everything else.''
>Despite the generally negative picture, there are some bright spots. A number
>of
>higher-education institutions are working one on one with K-12 educators,
>schools, and
>districts to mutual benefit. Perhaps most encouraging is the increasing level
>of
>engagement among urban universities and community colleges with the needs of
>K-12
>students and schools.
>By 1991-92, for example, three-fourths of community colleges reported to the
>federal
>government that they had begun to develop technical-preparation programs for
>students.
>Such programs typically merge the last two years of high school with the
>first two years of
>postsecondary education into a coherent program of study that leads to an
>associate's
>degree or a certificate in a career field.
>"When you are thin, and you have no reserves, you have to adapt to the
>circumstances
>around you in order to survive,'' says Judith Ramaley, the president of
>Portland State
>University. Three years ago, Portland State clarified its mission and
>distinguished itself
>from other campuses in the Oregon system, declaring itself dedicated to the
>urban
>community and environment it resides in.
>That required the university to redefine its curriculum, faculty roles and
>teaching, and its
>mission in the city. Moreover, it put Portland State in a better position for
>when state
>budget cuts were made in the following years as a result of a debilitating
>property-tax-limitation measure approved in 1990.
>"We designed our way ahead of the ax,'' Ms. Ramaley says, noting that
>Portland State in
>recent years has pared 75 faculty positions and 13 percent of its support
>staff.
>By paying attention to the schools, the university has kept classes
>student-centered,
>embarked on some collaborative and integrated learning, and based its
>curriculum on
>students' interests.
>There are also examples of states and higher-education institutions working
>with
>secondary schools to develop alternative admissions standards, or at least to
>engage in
>discussions of how the two systems can work together. Despite the
>uncertainties
>surrounding portfolios and performance-based assessments, these discussions
>suggest
>that some higher-education officials are open to the new ideas sweeping
>through
>elementary and secondary schools.
>"I think people are really responsive when you put it in front of them,''
>says Sharon Lloyd
>Clark, the director of Brown University's Institute on Secondary Education
>and the director
>of the admissions project for the Coalition of Essential Schools, a K-12
>reform project.
>She acknowledges that some people resist the changes, but adds, "Most of the
>folks I've
>heard from say, 'show me,' and that's all we can do.'' She believes that
>higher education will
>become involved if its officials are "comfortable with the rigor of the
>standards.''
>A handful of states are working on making college-admissions standards
>compatible with
>the standards-and-assessment movement now under way in precollegiate
>education. And,
>because they are on the cutting edge, they are doing so without models.
>Officials of the University of Wisconsin system are working with eight high
>schools that
>are restructuring their curriculum. The schools are defining what their
>students should
>know in certain subjects and then determining how to assess the students'
>knowledge of
>those subjects.
>Higher-education officials are developing a pilot project with the schools
>that will
>guarantee college admission to students who demonstrate competencies in such
>subjects
>as English, science, mathematics, a foreign language, and social science.
>Measures of
>achievement in the five areas will be combined into one standard that will
>simplify the
>admissions process for higher-education institutions, a move that some
>officials have
>noted is essential to keeping costs down.
>"The K-12 representatives on our task forces convinced us they can do this,''
>says Nancy
>Kaufman, a special assistant to the system's senior vice president. "The most
>convincing
>thing to me was one person said, 'You trust us to give you grades now, why
>wouldn't you
>trust us in certifying competencies.' It made sense.''
>Ms. Kaufman says she is surprised by how well university faculty who
>participate on the
>task forces are buying into the proposal. The trickier part, she says, is to
>persuade the
>same faculty members to use their experiences to re-examine what they do in
>their own
>classrooms and departments.
>Meanwhile, in Oregon, higher-education leaders are doing the same thing, only
>on a more
>widespread basis. Their proficiencies would be applicable for students from a
>range of
>high schools throughout the state.
>"The K-12 system has really been goading higher education to change, and
>goading is the
>right word,'' says David T. Conley, the director of the proficiency-based
>admissions-standards project with the Oregon state system of higher
>education. "And we
>recognize the need to do this.''
>The K-12 goaders received a boost when the Oregon legislature insisted that
>the state's
>higher-education system involve itself in the reform movement in that state.
>And the University of Houston and the Houston Independent School District are
>jointly
>planning the creation of a new school scheduled to be opened in the fall.
>Drawing on the
>latest ideas in the education-reform movement, the school will include an
>interdisciplinary,
>hands-on curriculum; cooperative-learning projects; shared-decisionmaking
>management;
>and an administrative hierarchy based on an instructional leader and lead
>teachers.
>Prominent school reformers, such as Howard Gardner, Michelle Fine, Asa
>Hilliard, and
>Magdalene Lampert, are among the education specialists who have consulted
>with the
>planners.
>"For all of us, it's a little like going through the shadow of death so that
>we can come out
>alive,'' recalls Diane Mancus, a clinical professor working on the project.
>Noting that
>participants have been "a little touchy,'' she adds, "But on the other hand,
>you know
>you're doing something right and innovative when everybody gets a little
>nervous.''
>Despite the bumps along the road, the school is still expected to open on
>schedule.
>There is also some evidence of progress in teacher education. A recent
>A.A.C.T.E. annual
>report notes that nearly one-half of the 84 member institutions surveyed have
>established
>partner schools. In those schools, students are able to hone their skills,
>faculty members
>and schoolteachers work jointly in conducting research-and-development
>projects, and
>professors are assigned to teach.
>A majority of member institutions have also placed public school teachers in
>positions in
>their education schools, often because of contracts or agreements they have
>made with
>local districts.
>And at the University of Southern California, Guilbert Hentschke, the dean of
>the
>education school, has embarked on a course of completely revamping the
>school.
>While it continues its traditional program of working with the predominantly
>white,
>predominantly suburban young people who've entered college right out of high
>school,
>the program over the past few years has recruited teachers' aides working in
>the Los
>Angeles Unified School District and surrounding systems.
>By taking in aides at U.S.C. or getting them enrolled at partner institutions
>in the area,
>Hentschke says the program is retaining more education students than the
>traditional
>program, training students who already know the school population, and
>focusing on what
>schools need most.
>"We're more tied to practice because that's where we think the interesting
>research
>questions are,'' he remarks.
>Asked whether the part of the education school that works with the teachers'
>aides is more
>important than the traditional school, Hentschke says, "Vastly so. ... It
>doesn't make the
>other program unimportant, but it kind of does.''
>About 150 mostly Latino teachers' aides are currently enrolled in the U.S.C.
>graduate
>school, while about 180 are in the traditional program. Hentschke expects the
>numbers to
>gradually shift in the direction of the former.
>"For a place like U.S.C., there's no reason for teacher education to exist,''
>he says, noting
>that the program doesn't produce large numbers of teachers. "So, if you have
>it, there must
>be a reason. ... We can set an example.''
>The efforts of some colleges and universities notwithstanding, it is clear
>that most
>members of the academy do not see a need to reform and restructure higher
>education and
>that fewer still see the need to become involved in school reform. It is not
>even clear that
>the majority of presidents, deans, or faculty members recognize higher
>education's
>historical and symbiotic relationship with K-12, or their own self-interest
>in improving the
>academic preparation of elementary and secondary school students.
>That does not bode well for school reform. Indeed, many believe it is
>unlikely that the
>systemic overhaul of precollegiate education can succeed unless higher
>education
>seriously addresses those crucial areas where the interests of both parts of
>the system
>intersect, especially teacher preparation and standards and assessments.
>Marc Tucker is more determined that the school-reform effort will succeed. A
>"new
>system will be developed,'' he says, "in bits and pieces--with the
>encouragement and
>participation of higher education, with neutrality on the part of higher
>education, or with
>the active opposition of higher education.''