School-College Links Seen as Fundamental To Education Reform

By Mark Pitsch

An idea still in its infancy only a decade ago, partnerships between the nation's schools and its institutions of higher learning are just now coming of age, and will likely mature into an indispensable element of school reform during the 1990's, educators say.

Partnerships "are the vehicles that will drive more profound and fundamental change in American education," said Manuel Gomez, associate vice chancellor of the office of academic affairs at the University of California at Irvine. "It is an idea whose time has come."

Added Leo Lambert, a Syracuse University professor and dean and a leading researcher on school-college collaborations: "Some of the most pervasive problems that are confronting the American education system--K through graduate school--are problems that the individual sectors elementary, junior high, high school, college, and graduate school cannot tackle alone. We're starting to see these cross-sector conversations that are crossing the glass ceiling that once...