Work in Progress at the University of Wisconsin:
How Can Higher Education Support K-12 Reform?

by Christine Maidl Pribbenow

Connecting Schools to the Workplace and Community
Joining Forces for Better Education
Internships for Teachers
Competency-Based Admissions
The NCRVE Project on Changing College Admissions

As educators in the K-12 system reform their institutions to meet the current and future needs of students, higher education can choose to be their greatest adversary or their strongest advocate. Current NCRVE research suggests that higher education is now redesigning itself to support a K-16 system that is aligned and accessible to both students and teachers.

By training teachers in the best ways to use new school-to-work practices in their classrooms, and by updating admission requirements to reflect the new forms of student achievement, higher education institutions support K-12 reforms. In so doing, they ensure that they are not, as a Phi Delta Kappan article once termed them, "the albatross around the neck of our public schools."

Connecting Schools to the Workplace and Community

Community leaders, educators, parents, and others are calling for greater connections between workplaces, communities, and schools. The range of reforms referred to as school-to-work is an excellent example of how current education practice seeks to enable students to move easily into a workplace or some form of postsecondary education.

In order for teachers to implement school-to-work as defined, they must be knowledgeable about delivering integrated curricula and using community resources. Current research at the NCRVE site at the University of Wisconsin-Madison (Center on Education and Work) has identified ways in which higher education institutions, by preparing teachers for their new roles and responsibilities in school-to-work programs, have played an integral role in supporting these educational reforms.

NCRVE's Teacher Education Initiative began by identifying a number of innovative professional development programs and practices that help preservice and inservice teachers understand and apply school-to-work practices in their schools and classrooms. Of the 80 nominated sites, five were chosen for site visits and for subsequent case studies. Several of these programs were conducted jointly with and in higher education institutions across the country.

Joining Forces for Better Education

The Professional Development School is a collaboration between Montpelier High School (MHS) and the University of Vermont (UVM). It illustrates what is possible when the resources of K-12 and postsecondary institutions are combined.

Preservice teachers from the university's teacher education program complete a year-long internship at MHS, a high school that has integrated school-to-work concepts into the life of the school. At MHS, educators are developing Personal Learning Plans (PLP) for all students. These plans help students identify their strengths, needs, and interests. Students also have the opportunity to connect their academic endeavors with community projects through the Community Based Learning Program.

Preservice teachers are provided with opportunities to immerse themselves in the school, where they can learn how to implement these innovative student learning experiences. This would not be possible without the support of the faculty from UVM, who teach courses at the high school and hold consultations with preservice teachers. The faculty use these opportunities to connect theory with the "real world" experiences of the preservice teachers.

Internships for Teachers

In many communities, educators are expected to implement school-to-work practices, as they do at Montpelier High School. How can teachers best be prepared for the new duties and responsibilities expected of them in school-to-work programs?

Counselors and administrators as well as teachers are finding that internships are an excellent way to spend time in workplaces or community organizations. In these internships, educators complete a series of activities, and, after a period of reflection, create a project that can be used to improve their teaching and practice. Increasingly throughout the United States, higher education institutions help connect internship experiences and classroom practice by providing graduate courses or seminars which facilitate this integration.

What are the most effective internship experiences? NCRVE research at the University of Wisconsin has found that the best internships are those with a structured course and participating university faculty who work with educators in connecting their work-based experiences to improve instruction in their classroom. With this component, teachers are able to identify applications for use in their classrooms, develop new ways to integrate curricula, and make connections to resources in the community.

Competency-Based Admissions

As high schools focus on developing integrated curricula and improving students' learning experiences, they are able to document student knowledge and competence with new forms of performance and portfolio assessment. In response to these secondary school reforms, universities in at least two states--Wisconsin and Oregon--are experimenting and developing new admissions procedures at the postsecondary level.

As NCRVE's report on School-to-Work for the College Bound (MDS-799) noted, school-to-work's contextualized lessons, student-centered teaching, and connections across subject lines are widely accepted in current theory and practice as the best approach in education. Although school-to-work is a strong college-prep path, many states and school districts are reluctant to pursue reforms more aggressively until they are sure that higher education admission policies will accommodate their students. To support the move away from Carnegie-unit based courses and the "stand and deliver" teaching that has been the dominant mode in many secondary schools, universities are considering competency- or proficiency-based admissions procedures. Such initiatives appear to address the dilemma that parents and educators have raised about the impact of the reforms on students' futures.

The NCRVE Project on Changing College Admissions

The NCRVE sites at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and the University of California, Berkeley are collaborating on the project Changing Admissions Procedures in Four-Year Colleges to Support K-14 Reform. This project will review existing research on performance-based assessments in education and discuss their use in college admissions.

The aim is to provide a broader understanding of the ways in which school-to-work and other K-12 reforms are being accommodated in higher education admissions policies and processes. In the initial stages, researchers have found examples of postsecondary institutions and state systems that are responding to these reforms by employing competency- or proficiency-based admissions methods.

From the standpoint of the school-to-work movement, postsecondary involvement is a key area of development. In a recent speech, Irene Lynn, the director of the National School-to-Work Office, outlined several ways colleges can support school-to-work. Over the next few years, Lynn stated, the NSTW Office aims to increase the role of postsecondary institutions in keeping school-to-work an integral part of education reform. These NCRVE projects illustrate how schools and universities can encourage each other in building an education system that better serves all learners.

For more information about either of these projects, please refer to: http://www.cew.wisc.edu/ncrve/