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North Carolina Governor James B. Hunt, Jr., chairman of the Center
Board of Directors, visits an El Paso elementary school. |
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THE BOARD OF DIRECTORS of The National Center for Public Policy and Higher Education
met last fall in El Paso, Texas, site of one of the nation's most successful partnerships
between public schools and higher education -- the El Paso Collaborative for Academic
Excellence.
Board members heard Diana S. Natalicio, president of the University of Texas-El
Paso, describe the work of the Collaborative, which includes UTEP, the local community
college, the three largest school districts in the area and local business and civic
leaders. Natalicio said that introducing reform at all levels simultaneously, from
kindergarten through college, has enabled the Collaborative to help the area's predominantly
Mexican-American students increase their reading and math test scores dramatically.
Board members also heard from Susanna Navarro, executive director of the Collaborative,
and from Arturo Pacheco, dean of the UTEP School of Education, and they visited one
of the elementary schools involved in the reform effort.
The Center continues to develop a 50-state higher education "report card"
that will be the Center's major continuing project. States will be evaluated in six
areas, three dealing with postsecondary educational opportunity and three with educational
attainment and achievement.
The Center's hope is that the report card will help to stimulate a discussion
among educational, political and business and civic leaders in each state, with a
goal of expanding college opportunity and achievement.
The Center expects to publish its first report card next fall.
A national advisory panel met in Durham, North Carolina, recently, to review the
project and to offer suggestions and criticisms. The panel is chaired by David W.
Breneman, Professor and Dean of the Curry School of Education at the University of
Virginia.
Other members are Robert Atwell, president emeritus, American Council on Education;
Julie Davis Bell, program director, National Conference of State Legislatures; Anthony
P. Carnevale, vice president for public leadership, Educational Testing Service;
Ronald R. Cowell, president, The Education and Policy Leadership Center; and Alfredo
G. de los Santos, Jr., former vice chancellor for educational development, Maricopa
Community Colleges.
Also, Virginia B. Edwards, editor and publisher, Education Week; Emerson
Elliott, former commissioner, the National Center for Education Statistics; Milton
Goldberg, executive vice president, National Alliance of Business; Elaine H. Hairston,
chancellor emerita, Ohio Board of Regents; and Mario Martinez, assistant professor
of education management and development, New Mexico State University.
Also, Margaret Miller, president, American Association for Higher Education; Michael
Nettles, professor of education and public policy, The University of Michigan School
of Education; Alan Wagner, principal administrator, Organization for Economic Cooperation
and Development; Richard D. Wagner, former executive director, Illinois Board of
Higher Education; and Joan Wills, director, Center for Workforce Development, Institute
for Educational Leadership.
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Virginia B. Smith |
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Virginia B. Smith, president emerita of Vassar College and a member of the Center's
Board of Directors, is herself the recipient of the first Virginia B. Smith Innovative
Leadership Award, given jointly by the Center and the Council for Adult and Experiential
Learning (CAEL).
The award was established a year ago to honor creative and innovative achievements
in higher education. The organizations decided that no one better represented these
accomplishments than the person for whom the award has been named.
Nominations for this year's award should be sent to CAEL, care of Innovative Leadership
Award, 55 East Monroe, Suite 1930, Chicago, IL, 60603.
Higher Education and the Schools, a report by J. Michael Timpane, has been
published jointly by the Institute for Educational Leadership, the State Higher education
Executive Officers and theNational Center for Public Policy and Higher Education.
In the report, Timpane, senior advisor for education policy at RAND, summarizes
the key elements of contemporary school reform, identifies the reform issues with
the most significant policy implications for higher education, and proposes that
state-sponsored leadership forums be created to promote regular discussion of reform
issues between higher education and K-12 systems.
Higher Education and the Schools is part of a series, "Perspectives in Public Policy: Connecting Higher Education and the Public
Schools." Other reports published in this series include:
- All One System: A Second Look, by Harold L. Hodgkinson, and
- Doing Comparatively Well: Why the Public Loves Higher Education and Criticizes
K-12, by John Immerwahr.
Reports in this series are available for $15 per copy; quantity discounts are
available for orders of more than nine copies. Send requests for information and
orders via e-mail (iel@iel.org) or by fax to the
Institute for Educational Leadership, (202)872-4050.
