Dive Brief:
- The Wallace Foundation will fund seven colleges and universities to redevelop secondary education programs in support of local schools systems in underserved areas throughout the United States.
- The University Principal Preparation Initiative will distribute $47 million to institutions to build new models in principal preparation and to analyze best practices that can be delivered to legislative and financial stakeholders in helping to improve secondary education.
- Research and training for the new education programs will be designed around accreditation standards, on-the-job training and the function of university-district partnerships.
Dive Insight:
For participating colleges and universities, this program underscores the opportunities for universities and school districts to depend upon each other for growth and productivity. Much in the way that local school districts depend on colleges to produce the qualified teaching workforce, colleges can depend on districts to provide the experiential data to research and measure the efficacy of best practices in teaching and secondary administration.
More importantly, these kind of private partnerships which include a diverse set of institutions, accentuates the need and highlights the disparities faced by underserved communities and the anchor institutions which serve them. Colleges and universities should all be working to find the ways in which private funding interests can match the civic and industrial needs of the surrounding community, which enhances opportunities for giving and support.