If a primary goal of school reform is to get students ready for college success, you would think university leaders and K-12 school reformers would be bosom buddies. Actually, the converse is true. Postsecondary institutions struggle to find a role in this latest wave of school reform.
In particular, burgeoning national alternative teacher certification programs juxtapose themselves against traditional college of education preparation models. Cohesion is still wanting between statewide accountability examinations and higher education industry standards of ACT and SAT. In addition, most states have not created effective mechanisms for universities to directly manage charter schools.
The charter school lobby has certainly played reform politics better than universities. Universities now have to compete for federal and state grants for teacher training, which were once dedicated to colleges of education. Organizations like the New Teacher Project and Teach for America have shown great abilities to recruit and train top-flight talent to their organizations and place teachers in schools where many colleges of education graduates choose not to work. New charter school providers increasingly are hiring from these alternative groups. Moreover, many within the school reform world see colleges of education as supportive of reform as school boards and unions.
Conversely, many new teachers lack basic understandings of the theoretical and philosophical underpinnings of education. Understanding the basics of how students learn, for instance, is as helpful in education as understanding basic economics is for the entrepreneur. Moreover, universities still are supremely qualified to develop, analyze and advance curriculum.
Instructing people how to teach does not necessarily demand academic settings. What to teach requires deeper analytics, theory and research -- which is universities' bailiwick. As a practical matter, universities still produce 90 percent of the nation's teachers. This number rises in rural areas and small cities, where universities must be partners in reform.
Colleges and universities have downsized their education programs in spite of the need. As the person charged to find postsecondary institutions' new niche for Loyola University, I first have to find some common ground.
The ultimate goal of school reform is not to increase outcomes on standardized tests or even merely to increase high school graduation.
College completion remains an essential purpose. Therefore, primary, secondary and postsecondary educators should see themselves as a reform community. Policy should conceptualize the education problem as a pre-kindergarten through graduate school issue. The K-12 crowd has made changes. Urban universities must admit that our tremendous presence and prosperity in communities is not trickling down to public schools. What universities do well is not necessarily translating to citywide educational success. Colleges and universities must change.
Postsecondary institutions can create an army of teachers nationwide by supplementing the core curriculums of disciplines like math, English, physics, business, music and biology with a limited number of education courses. Institutionalized service learning in educational institutions can provide day care centers, schools and teachers with support and undergraduates with experience. Faculty members' research skills should be a support for schools and districts. State departments of education should provide a consortium of postsecondary institutions with schooling data.
Colleges of education should manage at least one school for research and training purposes.
The proverbial "ivory tower" is tall and strong enough to withstand the waves of trendy education reforms. However, universities are the students they enroll. Because postsecondary institutions are at the end of the education pipeline, they can't afford to be elitist, impractical or aloof.
Colleges and universities have to be humble enough to learn from the leaders from where our students come. Likewise, K-12 leaders can't wear blinders and not see what's ahead.
The pre-K-16-plus lobby still must advocate for accessible, affordable postsecondary options. College tuition continues to outpace cost of living increases. We must incentivize collegians to become teachers. Loan forgiveness and tax breaks for teachers should be at the top of our agenda. Of course, colleges and schools must find ways to improve teacher quality. If both groups are smart, we can all get along.
Andre Perry is associate director of education initiatives at Loyola University.