What Happens to School-University Partnerships

Best intentions sometimes go awry, or perhaps just yield inadequate results. We have long been advocates of private, independent day schools partnering with higher education institutions to offer high school students opportunities to take courses, engage in original research, and do internships in labs and clinics. It is with considerable dismay that we find few such experiments are underway and, aside from the usual university credit via AP courses, little is happening to give high school graduates actual experience doing college-level coursework. This report from the National Co-ordinating Centre for Public Engagement in the United Kingdom sheds light on the reasons why this is the case, and offers cautionary suggestions on how to stay on track.