How do you build strong collaboration around education? How do you bring business leaders to the table? What kinds of partnerships get results?
Those were some of the issues discussed by more than 50 national education, city and community leaders who came to Louisville for a meeting of cities involved with Communities Learning in Partnership (CLIP).
CLIP is an initiative of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation in partnership with the National League of Cities Institute of Youth, Education and Families that aims to increase the number of low-income young people who earn college degrees.
Eleven cities are involved – and gathered in Louisville Oct. 27-28. Four have grants to implement programs: New York; San Francisco; Mesa, Ariz.; Riverside, California. Three others received planning grants: Dayton, Jacksonville and Phoenix. Louisville – along with the cities of Boston, Portland and Philadelphia – recently became affiliate cities.
“Louisville has a tremendous history of collaboration,” Jeanne Contardo from the Business Higher Education Forum told the CLIP gathering.
In discussing Louisville’s 55,000 Degrees initiative and the Mayor’s Education Roundtable, the group was impressed by the level of business engagement in Louisville.
They appreciated the creation of an organization that would survive and prosper after Mayor Jerry Abramson leaves office in January 2011.
And they recognized the value in a common goal – 55,000 Degrees – even as individual educational institutions set their own objectives.
“We have an opportunity, a once-in-a-generation opportunity, to combine forces, to develop collaborative efforts and sustain them over time to make a difference, to move the numbers in a dramatic way,” said Tony Newberry, president of the Louisville-based Jefferson Community and Technical College.
He said his six-campus system has set its own 2020 goal -- to double the number of associate degrees awarded annually and to dramatically increase transfers to four-year universities.
While access to college is important, his emphasis is increasingly on completion – critical when fewer than 1 in 5 freshmen at two-year institutions in our region finish their associate’s degrees in three years.
One group took a field trip to understand a unique Louisville public-private partnership -- Metropolitan College. When UPS needed a stable night shift workforce for its package-handling hub in Louisville, Metropolitan College was created so students could work those shifts and get a free college education at the University of Louisville or JCTC during the day. Twelve years later, over 11,000 students have participated in the program.
Participants on the tour also heard about the CREW Career Center; the EES, a joint program of JCTC and JCPS Adult and Continuing Education; and the University of Louisville ULtra program, all of which are geared toward helping people plan an educational path from the minute they decide to go to college.
Jefferson County Public Schools superintendent Sheldon Berman discussed the steps the Louisville school system is taking to better prepare its students to graduate, and to succeed after high school. JCPS has restructured its curriculum, providing better support systems for students, and has moved to a trimester schedule. JCPS has created schools of study to provide students with a more personalized environment focusing on students’ individual interests.
“Kids have to be cared about,” Berman said. He noted that JCPS works to ensure that every student succeeds, and that no student is ever expelled from the school system.
Dan Ash, the executive director of Louisville’s Metroversity, told a group the education stakeholders in Louisville are very honest with each other, and that helps.
“The challenge is not avoiding conflict. It’s avoiding disengagement,” he said.
Another highlight of the meeting was hearing from Eduardo Ochoa, assistant secretary for postsecondary education at the U.S. Department of Education. He spoke about President Obama’s commitment to higher education, to creating a college-going culture in the nation.
“Quality education, more than ever before, is the cornerstone for a strong economy in the 21st century,” said Ochoa.
No comments:
Post a Comment