EI 98.5 THE ROLE OF COLLEGES AND UNIVERSITIES IN EDUCATION REFORM

WHEREAS, raising standards and academic achievement at all levels of education is essential to America's future and is a major AFT priority as reflected, among other ways, in AFT's Lessons for Life campaign; and

WHEREAS, for school reform to be successful, higher education must become a full partner; and

WHEREAS, achieving higher standards in the schools directly benefit higher education by reducing the number of under-prepared students entering college, lowering attrition rates and diminishing the need for extensive remedial programs; and

WHEREAS, the AFT executive council has approved a report entitled Closing the Circle: Making Higher Education a Full Partner in Systemic Reform, prepared by the executive council's College-School Task Force on Student Achievement, which lays out a blueprint for college and university involvement in education reform:

RESOLVED, that AFT endorse the Closing the Circle report and urge AFT higher education affiliates to call upon college administrators, K-12 leaders and public officials to include the following elements in their school reform effort:

• Higher education participation in all public and private bodies planning education reform and setting standards; and

• Collaborative review of high school graduation standards by higher education faculty to ensure that standards reflect what students need to succeed in college; and

• A program to bring together groups of K-12 and higher education faculty, discipline by discipline, to establish high school course requirements and assessments that meet world class academic standards; and

• A coordinated effort to raise college admission standards in each state while preserving avenues of access to all students who can benefit significantly from higher education, so that they facilitate the push for higher standards and create real incentives for students to take challenging coursework in high school; and

RESOLVED, that the effort to raise college admission standards should be undertaken in the manner outlined in Closing the Circle, as follows:

• Institutions within each state should meet together to develop new admission standards in coordination with each other, taking into account the varying missions of different institutions, particularly the role of community colleges as access institutions, the role of public four-year colleges in providing access to a broad spectrum of students in their communities, and the need for multi-cultural, multi-ethnic and multi-economic class communities at all levels of higher education; and

• Higher standards should be phased in to ensure that students from all educational, financial and ethnic backgrounds are treated fairly and to allow schools to do the restructuring and staff development necessary to enrich the academic program; and

• An expansive program should be undertaken to provide extra help to students during the transition period to ensure that they are able to meet the new standards; and

• Opportunities should be continued for adults to re-enter the educational system; and

RESOLVED, that AFT higher education affiliates push to strengthen teacher education programs, as called for in Closing the Circle, by:

• Fully integrating teacher education programs in the college community; and

• Establishing continual and intimate communication with local school systems to ensure that teacher education programs prepare students to meet the practical realities of classroom teaching; and

• Ensuring that teacher education programs emphasize high entry standards, a strong component of classroom experience, a firm grounding in academic subject matter, a broad repertoire of pedagogical approaches and theories in learning and a clear understanding of the role of schools in American society; and

RESOLVED, that colleges and universities work to strengthen the quality of undergraduate teaching on their own campuses by:

• Providing pedagogical training to teaching assistants and new faculty; and

• Offering opportunities for continued pedagogical growth to veteran faculty; and 

• Allowing faculty a greater opportunity to seek advancement on the basis of their teaching and service as well as published research; and

RESOLVED, that AFT promote legislation at the federal level that advances the positions taken in Closing the Circle and in this resolution; and

RESOLVED, that the AFT seek funding to ensure that every student who needs extra help to meet the new standards gets it; and

RESOLVED, that the AFT make this effort a top priority as the new standards are phased in over a transition period. (Executive Council 1996)