Innovator Vol. 35 No. 3 - Spring 05: Learning Partnerships
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Student achievement, educational inequity, curriculum,
the quality of teaching, and the financing of education – these are but a handful of the issues in the public eye. Employers express concerns about workers’
perceived lack of skills in mathematics and writing or their inability to work as a team. Others remark that graduates
of our K-12 system seem unprepared for participation in a diverse democratic society.
We at the University of Michigan are leading the way in confronting these issues. The research we do in our School of Education is both widely known and broadly used. Our faculty seeks to understand and develop solutions for the most vexing contemporary problems of educational practice and policy.
Let me illustrate with a few examples of our current work. Some faculty study the factors that help minority students succeed in college. Others design new science curriculum and study its use in urban middle schools, while some build technologies that support teachers’ professional learning across sites. Still other faculty study ways to teach mathematics more effectively and work with mathematics teachers to improve students’ learning. We have projects focused on how preschoolers learn to read and write, and others focused on adolescents’ literacy. We work on state-level higher education policy and we conducted essential research in support of the landmark Supreme Court affirmative action cases. We have faculty who are developing ways to strengthen and improve urban education. We are a partner in the University’s new Detroit Center, located in downtown Detroit to house urban-focused programs and projects.
These are but a few of the ways in which we are working to build the knowledge necessary to improve education. One highlight is our recognition of the need for stronger links between all levels of education, from pre-K – 12 schooling, across the transition to and through postsecondary education. The goal of access to higher education depends not only on admissions policies and supportive undergraduate programs, but also on effective elementary and secondary school education. Another important feature of our work is our awareness that students’ success depends on connecting their experiences in and out of school. The skills they develop in community activities, religious institutions, and informal relationships can contribute to their academic success if educators know how to make effective use of these skills and knowledge. Recognizing this, we are investigating effective ways to develop these connections.
As one of the world’s leading public research universities, the University of Michigan is committed to high quality education and to insuring access to such education -- this is our legacy. As President James Angell declared over 125 years ago, this University was dedicated to providing “an uncommon education for the common man.” The strengths of the School of Education are rooted in this democratic orientation. The research we do and the ways in which we prepare education professionals can make a difference to our collective capacity to live up to these commitments.
This university has been a leader in the quest to provide high quality public education for all students in a diverse society. Others look to the University of Michiganfor the stand that we took on the educational value of diversity. Much of our work in the School of Education deals directly with the challenges of diversity and what it would take to make education both more fair and more eff ective. While some of our faculty study features of campuses and programs that support stu- dents of color, others study ways to help young people develop necessary skills and habits of mind –– in math- ematics, science, language arts, English, and history.
Our projects in K-12 and higher education examine what it takes to fulfill the promise of diversity and the commitment to educate young people to participate in a diverse democratic society.
The University is also committed to excellence in re- search in the disciplines. Scholars on this campus are engaged in remarkable work –– in the life sciences and the arts, in literature and the social sciences, and in dozens of other fi elds. This fi rst-rate scholarship in the disciplines is vital to our work in education as we seek to improve students’ learning. To do so, we regularly collaborate with expert faculty across campus. Science education faculty work with faculty in chemistry and physics, for example. Our work in mathematics education is distinguished by its close connections with mathematicians, and our joint programs –– in English and education, and in psychology and education –– are built on fundamental interdisciplinary connections. These collaborations enable our work to refl ect the in- tegrity of knowledge and practice in the disciplines: What does it mean for students to do mathematics or science in ways that are authentic? How can students learn to interpret literature, or to do creative work?
Michigan has an equally fundamental commitment to the professions. The number and strength of the pro- fessional schools on this campus is unparalleled by any other public research university. Not only do we study and train professionals in medicine, law, business, and engineering, but also in social work, nursing, public policy, and public health, and in nine other professions. In each of these, faculty study core problems of their fi eld and use that research to train the next generation of professionals who will lead their fi elds. The School of Education shares this commitment to research and practice in the professions as we conduct research on practice and policy and prepare professionals who can use that knowledge eff ectively.
This issue of Innovator will off er you some glimpses of our current work and its relationships to the commitments of this University and the broader public interest in education. In addition, we provide an update of the progress we are making in the Michigan Diff erence campaign. Your contributions strengthen our eff orts to be leaders in the improvement of education in this country and around the world. Thank you for your generous support of our programs and our students.
I began my note by telling you that this is a moment of opportunity for this School of Education. Although our current work is aimed at core problems of education, rooted in the commitments of this University, and even widely used, we are still not satisfi ed. We are embarking on ambitious plans to redesign our teacher education program, to develop a new resource center for the study of practice, and to explore better connections across levels of schooling from pre-kindergarten through college. We are making plans to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the Center for the Study of Higher and Postsecondary Education and to consider the directions that our work in higher education –– as the top-ranked program in this country –– should head in the next decade. It is an exciting time here. We hope you will be in touch with us about our directions, with ideas, suggestions, and support.
