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Caledonia considers helping students get a ‘leg up’ for two and four-year higher education
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Paul DeMorett, principal at Caledonia Middle/High School told me recently via email that having core academic teachers meet with college faculty is “definitely something that would benefit our teachers.” He’s right. Principals in schools where this has happened report many benefits.
• Forest Lake principal Steve Massey told me that meetings between the school’s teachers and college faculty “helped us modify course requirements and improve the advice we give students with respect to course selection and performance.”
• Principal Mitch Clausen explained that Cambridge/Isanti high school faculty meet with college faculty who help the high school offer “College in the Schools courses,” for which high school students earn both high school and college credit. Clausen thinks, “it is a great idea” for high school and college faculty to discuss mutual expectations.
• John Wollersheim of Rosemount High School described meetings that had been held between Inver Hills Community College and Dakota County principals and district officials. “The divide seemed large,” he recalls. He calls the discussion between teachers at high school and colleges “critical and lacking.”
• Troy Anderson, Milaca principal told that the school has had some of these meetings and that there are benefits both for teacher and students. Students in high schools whose teachers have talked with college faculty “have a better understanding of what to expect when they actually get to campus.”
• Mike Farley, Anoka High School principal explained that their business teachers have met with college faculty. At the end of each quarter high school teachers submit the names of the students from their classes that meet the expectations and students are sent a Tech Prep certificate approving college credit. Students are instructed to bring the certificates along to their college registration at which time the credits are added to their transcript.”
Clearly there can be huge benefits. As several principals explained to me, current state standards are not necessarily precisely what colleges are looking for in their first year students. The more direct communication there is between high school and college faculty, the more likely students are to be well prepared for higher education.
Moreover, high school faculties have important insights to share with college and university teachers. I participated in two discussions where high school teachers were helping college faculty learn some new approaches to teaching math and science. Both high school and college teachers have good ideas – and can learn from each other.
Having high school and college faculty meeting and sharing ideas is an idea whose time has come. As DeMorett notes, finding the time to do it “is tricky.” But reports from high schools that have done it show everyone involved benefits - adults and the students.
Joe Nathan, a former public school teacher and administrator, directs the Center for School Change, Humphrey Institute, University of Minnesota
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