By bolstering California’s teachers with more support, continuing education and subject proficiency, UC Davis can play a major role in revitalizing the state’s public schools, according to education leaders gathered for the first of this spring’s Chancellor’s Forums on K-12 education.
Of the numerous suggestions offered by noted education reformers in the state and nation, assistance to teachers emerged as the most favored way that top-tier research universities can improve the delivery of elementary and secondary education.
"The quality of the teaching force affects the quality of the students our institutions receive," said Michael Baer, senior vice president of the American Council on Education. "You can have a major impact on how K-12 students are prepared."
The link between higher education and the K-12 school system is taking on increasing importance in the California Legislature, where the Master Plan of the late 1950s is now being revised to include the entire span of education from kindergarten through the university systems.
"In 1958 and 1959 when the Master Plan for Higher Education was created, K-12 was not a problem. Then, California schools were in the top five in the nation. Today, it’s a different world. They are more likely to be in the bottom five," said Chancellor Larry Vanderhoef, in explaining his choice of K-12 as a focus for campus attention. "So much has changed. We have to think differently."
Baer urged universities to increase their involvement in teacher mentoring, particularly to improve the retention rate of new teachers. He also called upon university presidents and chancellors to provide leadership and help shape public opinion for teacher support.
Gary Hart, former education secretary to Gov. Gray Davis, echoed those sentiments and urged the University of California "to find ways to make sure that teacher education issues are integrated into the entire life of the university."
Education minors applauded
Hart applauded undergraduate minors in education as a way for UC to introduce more students to the teaching profession. He also encouraged more programs that involve undergraduates in tutoring work in public schools as a way to help them explore teaching as a career.
Hart noted UC Davis’ participation in the California Subject Matter Projects, which provide public school teachers additional training and continuing education in the areas of writing, math, science, history and art. Through workshops and special summer institutes, the Division of Education reaches 8,700 teachers each year.
Hart said that the governor’s budget proposes doubling the funding for subject matter projects, and urged expansion of the programs within UC.
As California moves to a standards-based public education system, research universities will also be needed to study the volumes of data now being gathered from new testing and evaluation programs, panelists said at the Monday forum.
"What UC Davis can tell us, what research can do, is to help us understand how some schools in certain socioeconomic categories might be doing better than expected," Hart said.
Research needed on social promotion and retention
In addition, speakers addressed the need for research into social promotion and retention issues, remedial education and the integration of new technologies into the classroom.
"I want high-octane fuel," said Carl Mack, superintendent of the Del Paso Heights School District in north Sacramento, who is working to turn around some of the state’s lowest test scores. "I want more research. I’ve got to think about education in a wider context. I’ve got to think about families and how to reduce the barriers that they impose on their children’s education."
State Sen. Deidre Alpert, D-San Diego, who heads the Senate Education Committee, expressed optimism that the concerns can be addressed in a new, comprehensive Master Plan for Education.
"The reason we need a plan is that the Legislature has lurched from one reform to another," Alpert said, adding that term limits have exacerbated the problem by leaving few lawmakers well-versed on education issues. "There has been very little thought about what comprehensively we want to do."
Alpert predicted that teacher preparation and quality would be a key component of the revised Master Plan.
Jon Sandoval, who heads the campus’s Division of Education, noted that UC Davis is already at work on many of the suggestions made at Monday’s forum. "The problem for us is a problem of scale," Sandoval said. "As expectations increase, we need to build the capacity of the division to help us implement all of the ideas presented to us today."
The Chancellor’s Forum series began four years ago, after the UC Regents passed SP 1 and SP 2, and California voters passed Proposition 209 -- all measures curtailing race-based admissions.
"We knew we had to be more involved in K-12. It has been viewed as the single worst problem in the state," Vanderhoef said. "But also on campus, there was a separate feeling that the campus and UC needed to grow programs and be more active participants in the national issue."
Future chancellor’s forums exploring "The Role of the Research I Universities in the Future of K-12" will be held at 4:10 p.m. at the University Club on these dates:
• Tuesday, May 30: Jeannie Oakes, associate dean of the Graduate School of Education and Information Studies at UCLA, and
• Monday, Oct. 23: Lee Shulman, president of the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching.