Building Bridges for School Improvement A Model for Sustainable University-School Partnerships

Abstract

Public education in the 21C presents high needs schools with significant challenges and often unequal access to digital technologies. To address these concerns and build bridges across this digital divide, our research team conducted a one-year pilot project to develop a sustainable university-school partnership between our faculty of education and two local high needs elementary schools. The project is examined through several lenses, including the importance of university-school partnerships, advantages and challenges of the project, sustainability, leadership in high needs schools, school improvement factors, the role of community involvement and the effect of comprehensive school health on student achievement. In this article, we describe the initial formation of a partnership between the university and two schools identified as high needs by Educational Quality and Accountability Office scores, as well as low SES and demographics indicating low levels of educational aspiration and achievement. University professors, administrators, classroom teachers, students and preservice teacher candidates, worked collaboratively to lay the groundwork for a research-based and sustainable partnership by bringing the resources, strengths, skills and expertise of the schools and the faculty of education directly to bear on the “digital divide” experienced in these schools and to provide collaborative support to improve student achievement.