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Dr. Ira Harkavy
Associate Vice President
Director, Center for Community Partnerships (CCP)
University of Pennsylvania
Project Director
Joann Weeks
Associate Director, Center for Community Partnerships (CCP)
University of Pennsylvania
133 South 36th Street, Suite 519
Philadelphia, PA 19104-3246
Phone: 215-898-0240
Fax: 215-573-2799
Project Summary
In collaboration with the National Center for Community Education
(NCCE) in Flint, Michigan, the University of Pennsylvania Training and Technical
Assistance Program for University-Assisted Community Schools
(TTAP): (1)
assists at least eight higher education/K-12/community partnerships
each year to develop community school programs (particularly ones supported
by the 21st
Century Community Learning Center initiative), with a special
focus on the integration of the after-school and school-day activities,
(2) assists these
partnerships to develop the resources to sustain their work
long term, and (3) disseminates the “best practices” that these partnerships
develop.
Need for Training and Technical Assistance on University-Assisted
Community School Model
Colleges and universities need to play a more active
role if the quality of life
in American society is going to be significantly improved.
They represent an underutilized resource in helping to improve
the quality of life in our
schools, cities, states, and nation. The past decade has
seen an explosion in such interest by higher education
institutions in becoming “engaged
campuses,”
but their work is often poorly focused, lacking an approach
that will lead to real community change. The university-assisted
community school model has
provided a rich vehicle for engaging Penn resources, particularly
its faculty and staff, in academically based community service,
service intrinsically tied
to teaching and research. Through democratic, collaborative
partnerships with local schools and community organizations,
the wide range of university
resources are being used to assist these schools—opening them up for extended
hours to the entire community, providing after-school programs
that extend the learning of the school-day, and developing
community-focused, hands-on
curricula that engage young people in understanding and addressing
the needs of their own neighborhoods. The university serves
as the institutional anchor in
the community school. The TTAP project works to help university/K-12/community
partnerships understand how to engage each other’s resources more effectively
and for the mutual benefit of each partner.
Summary of the
Work to Date
1.
Annual Special Topic Workshop: “Community Schools-Higher Education
Partnerships,” co-sponsored with NCCE and hosted at Penn. The workshop has
been offered annually since 2000. It includes three days
of discussion, presentations
by Penn faculty, students and community partners, and visits
to Penn’s school
and community partner sites. The next workshop is April 11-13,
2005. Workshops have included representatives from a wide
cross-section of
community school-higher education partnerships. The following
notes just a few of the higher eds that have been part of
these teams: Cornell University,
University of Chicago, Johns Hopkins University, University
of California at Berkeley, University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee,
University of Chicago, West
Virginia University, Binghamton University, Massachusetts
College of Liberal Arts, University of South Florida, University
of Nevada-Reno, University of New
Mexico-Albuquerque, and University of Michigan-Flint. Teams
from the National Teachers Academy and the Chicago Public
Schools have also attended. (See 2003
agenda)
2.
Technical Assistance. The TTAP coordinator provides follow-up,
onsite technical assistance to each team.
3. Dissemination.
The project staff is disseminating information through the web site, articles,
and will publish a special
issue of CCP’s
journal, Universities and Community Schools, on this work
in 2005.
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