March 3, 1997

In a recent speech, Chancellor Greenwood addressed public perceptions of education

By Jennifer McNulty

Chancellor Greenwood was a keynote speaker at a recent conference of educators who gathered at the Seascape Resort in Aptos to discuss school-university partnerships.

Hosted by the Santa Cruz New Teacher Project, the three-day meeting attracted about 80 representatives of school-university partnerships from the greater San Francisco Bay Area, as well as a number of key policy makers and financial supporters of such collaborations.

The goal of the School-University Partnership Institute, which was funded by the Walter S. Johnson Foundation, was to give participants an opportunity to discuss how to form meaningful collaborations between higher education, K-12 schools, and school districts to prepare the most qualified teachers and sustain the highest standards of classroom instruction.

Greenwood's address was the first of two keynote speeches on the subject of "School-University Partnerships from Two Perspectives." Her remarks were followed by comments from Deputy Superintendent of California Public Schools Sonia Hernandez.

Greenwood focused on public perceptions about education and the mutual benefits of school-university collaborations.

"We need to work across the segments of education to provide quality, seamless education--preschool to grad school--for an increasingly diverse population of students," said Greenwood, who noted the public's demand for more academically rigorous programs. Additionally, she called for greater assistance to teachers who are working with students from diverse cultural and linguistic backgrounds and for increased opportunities for students traditionally left out of the system of higher education.

Hernandez compared California's educational resources to those in Texas, which has the same number of schools but about half the student population. Acknowledging that school funding in California doesn't match that of other states, Hernandez called on conference participants to do more with the resources they have.

Ellen Moir, director of the Santa Cruz New Teacher Project, pronounced the meeting a great success, noting that opportunities to convene a broad spectrum of educators, funders, and policy makers are rare.

"It's so valuable to compare notes about how we're doing our jobs and to brainstorm about how our organizations and institutions can support each other," said Moir.

Other featured speakers included Karl Pister, chancellor emeritus of UCSC; Ann Lieberman, professor at Teachers College, Columbia University; Andy Hargreaves, professor at the University of Toronto; Jeannie Oakes, professor at UCLA.

Representatives from the following organizations also attended the meeting: The Center for the Future of Teaching and Learning; the Institute for Educational Reform; the California Department of Education; the Commission on Teacher Credentialing; the California Federation of Teachers; the California Teachers Association; the California School Boards Association; and the Association of California School Administrators. Several corporate and foundation representatives also attended.

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