University-Assisted Schools: From Laboratory Schools to Engaged Scholarship A University of California Policy Brief July 2007 Founded in the 1860s as a land grant institution, the University of California has more than 150 years of experience serving the state s public. Through its active involvement in public school partnerships, the university has strengthened the expertise of teachers and the academic achievement of students in communities throughout California. Lab schools such as UCLA s University Elementary School, founded in 1882, have served as important sites of research, teaching, and service. Now, more than a century later, the University of California and research universities across the nation are creating a new generation of K-12 schools. Seeking to redefine their commitment to public service, these campuses are developing novel ways of engaging with schools. These new university-assisted schools are no longer simply a training ground for new teachers and educational methods. Instead, they are characterized by a focus on engaged scholarship, which combines an emphasis on research with a broader commitment to using universities resources for the improvement of public education, particularly for students who have historically been underserved. Below we list the key characteristics of these new university-assisted schools. What is a university-assisted school? A school that models engaged scholarship advancing in one site the university s core mission of teaching, research, and public service A school where the university helps lead the design process, start-up, and ongoing instructional program A school that has sufficient resources donated by the university itself and/or secured by the university s social capital to ensure its ongoing success
UC-Assisted Schools: Four Examples UC San Diego opened the Preuss School on its La Jolla campus in 1999 to serve low-income first-generation college-going students from urban San Diego. Preuss is a charter school that serves nearly 800 students in grades 6-12. The school seeks to provide intensive college preparation for underrepresented low-income students through personalized instruction, internships, a climate of high expectations, a strong academic culture, and the use of UCSD resources to enhance teaching and learning. Preuss School UCSD was designed to demonstrate a successful high-achieving model for urban education. Originally founded under the auspices of Thurgood Marshall College at UCSD, Preuss is chartered by UCSD through the San Diego Unified School District, and it has a governing board that includes UCSD faculty and community members. In addition to ADA and an active fundraising campaign, California directly supports the Preuss School in its mission to serve as a model for new collaborations between public higher education and K-12. There is active faculty research taking place to examine and disseminate the success of the School. Preuss School UCSD has consistently been ranked as one of the top public high schools in San Diego County. For three consecutive years, 100% of Preuss graduates have gone on to attend college (with most attending four-year universities). For more information, visit: http://preuss.ucsd.edu UC Berkeley, in partnership with Aspire Public Schools, founded the California College Preparatory Academy (CAL Prep), an early college secondary school chartered through the Oakland Unified School District, in 2005 with 85 6th and 7th graders. Entering its third year with 200 6th-9th graders, CAL Prep will grow one grade a year and be fully enrolled with 420 students in grades 6-12 by 2010. CAL Prep s mission is to assist underserved students and their families who face barriers to college-going to become fully prepared for pursuing and achieving success in higher education. Its cohesive, inquirybased curriculum blends middle, high school, and college courses to ensure students college preparation and readiness. Presently, students in 7th and 8th grade can complete up to two years of college Spanish through Berkeley City College, rising 9th graders have the opportunity to earn college credit through UCB s summer sessions, and college courses are integrated into the core curriculum. Led by a multidisciplinary faculty committee, UCB is actively involved in coconstructing the school as it develops. A climate conducive to research, guided by the school community, fosters continuous improvement and informs educational policy and practice. More than ten UCB departments provide expertise and resources, including many UCB students who participate on site. UCB has raised close to $900,000 to enhance instruction. For more information, visit: http://gse.berkeley.edu/admin/publications/connected/connected.pdf
UC Davis School of Education, Washington Unified School District (WUSD), and Sacramento City College are planning to establish an early college middle-senior high school: West Sacramento Early College Preparatory (WSECP). The partners envision a school that contributes, in significant ways, to addressing many of the serious challenges facing K-12 schools in the region, including low academic performance, high drop-out rates, and language barriers. WUSD, Sacramento City College, UC Davis, and the teachers, students, families, and community of the school will marshal their resources and expertise to address these challenges together. The school will serve up to 630 students in grades 6 through 12, enrolling 120 students in grades 6 and 7 in the first year and adding one grade per year. Members of the school community will jointly examine community-centered problems as they engage in being real practitioners of science, history, social science, and mathematics, for example. At the same time, students will have opportunities to earn college credits and interact with faculty and students from Sacramento City College and UC Davis. The partners will design evaluations to determine the effectiveness of the program and to understand how to keep students engaged in school and support their successful transitions from high school through college to completion of a baccalaureate degree. For more information, visit: www.wusd.k12.ca.us/news/stories/ecp/ecp.html UCLA, the Los Angeles Unified School District, United Teachers Los Angeles, and the Belmont Education Collaborative a coalition of communitybased organizations are exploring the possibility of establishing Los Ositos/Bruin Community School as a K-12 university-assisted school in Central Los Angeles. Located within the predominantly Latino neighborhood of Pico-Union, Los Ositos would be one of ten autonomous pilot small schools to open within the Belmont Zone of Choice, a neighborhood controlled choice plan. Extending the legacy of UCLA s on-campus and independent University Elementary School, Los Ositos would be an offcampus site for teaching, service, and research on a range of social, political, economic, and educational issues related to the renewal of urban communities. Although the school would have charter school-like autonomy over governance, staffing, budget, curriculum, and assessment, it would remain fully engaged in the Los Angeles Unified School District, driven by the nation s long legacy of common schooling. UCLA faculty, staff, and students would participate at Los Ositos in a variety of roles, including as mentors, instructors, tutors, and researchers. By challenging the typical A-G course scope and sequence, Los Ositos would also aim to build on the cultural resources of families, the community, UCLA, and the city of Los Angeles by creating innovative interdisciplinary courses and internship-based learning experiences that have proven effective at engaging young people in rigorous learning.
A National Trend These four UC-assisted schools are part of a larger national trend. Building on the legacy of its historic Laboratory School founded by John Dewey in 1896 the University of Chicago recently created a set of three charter schools to serve low-income students of color on Chicago s south side. The University of Pennsylvania s Penn Alexander K-8 public school is another example of a major research university s significant and long-term commitment to public school improvement through engaged scholarship. Stanford University has also established a charter school, East Palo Alto Academy, in an underserved community near its campus, and Arizona State University is in the process of creating a University Public School Network. The national Early College High School Initiative has provided support to many of these universityassisted schools. Engaging a broad spectrum of universities and colleges, this initiative has partnered with local districts in 23 states to create 125 small high schools to date that engage all students in rigorous college-prep coursework.
In 2001, the University of Pennsylvania opened the Sadie Tanner Mossell Alexander University of Pennsylvania Partnership School, known as the Penn Alexander School, a PreK-8 neighborhood public school in Philadelphia. Penn Alexander is devoted to maximizing the academic and personal competence of all its 500 students through a challenging, researchbased instructional program and an innovative community-focused curriculum. The university leases the land on which the school is located to the School District of Philadelphia for $1 per year and is providing up to $700,000 in annual operating support for a 10-year renewable term, based on an allocation of $1,000 per student. This allows the school to have smaller classes and implement various curricular and instructional innovations. In addition, university faculty, staff, and students from various schools, departments, and programs engage with Penn Alexander in multiple ways, providing a wide array of resources and services that enrich students educational experiences. In fact, each grade level at Penn Alexander has its own unique partnership with a different school, department, or program at the university. For more information, visit: http://webgui.phila.k12.pa.us/schools/p/penn-alexander In 2006, the University of Chicago opened its Woodlawn Charter High School campus on the south side of Chicago. Currently serving 160 students in grades 6 and 9, Woodlawn plans to accommodate 590 students in grades 6-12 by 2009. Woodlawn s inquirybased instruction and rigorous college-prep curriculum support the school s mission of preparing all of its students for success in college, serving as a site for professional development, and developing new knowledge about Chicago s communities through student research. The school is overseen by the University of Chicago Charter School Corporation s Corporate Board and Governing Board, which include faculty, parent, and community representatives. In addition to providing between $160,000 and $180,000 per year in financial support, the University provided $1.25 million for the renovation of the under-utilized building that houses the school. Richard Saller, Provost of the University, notes, The school is an essential part of the University s broader Urban Education Initiative, designed to bring the research capacity of the university to bear on the challenges of primary and secondary education. For more information, visit: http://ucchs.usi-schools.org
The UC-Network of University-Assisted Schools In February 2006, UCSD convened the first system-wide meeting of campus leaders who had established or were in the process of establishing university-assisted schools. This meeting generated enormous interest at four campuses Berkeley, UCLA, Davis, and UCSD and within the philanthropic community. As a result, the Woodrow Wilson National Fellowship Foundation hosted a second meeting in May 2007, formally establishing the UC-Network of University- Assisted Schools. UCLA hosted the third meeting in July 2007 in order to craft this policy brief, develop a strategy for continued collaboration, and articulate the following goals: Serve students who have traditionally been underrepresented in the University of California Establish a program of research that seeks to better understand the conditions that lead to college-going and success among this student population Examine the A-G requirements and approved A-G alternatives in order to better articulate what counts as college readiness Engage UC faculty in developing undergraduate curricula and instruction that build on the innovative models established within K-12 schools Build support within each campus and across the UC system for university-assisted schools Inform state and national policy on a range of educational issues, including college access and readiness, school finance, and school development. For more information on the UC-Network of University-Assisted Schools, please contact the following campus-based representatives: Hugh Mehan, bmehan@ucsd.edu, (858) 822-2271 Frank C. Worrell, frankc@berkeley.edu, (510) 643-4891 Paul E. Heckman, peheckman@ucdavis.edu, (530) 754-6266 Karen Hunter Quartz, quartz@ucla.edu, (310) 206-5241