School-College Collaboration: A Way of Redesigning the Educational Pipeline. The Freshman Year Experience[R] Monograph Series Number 16

The term "educational pipeline" refers to the lifetime of educational experiences incurred by students in the American education system. It is thought that students' experiences at any point in the pipeline can affect future outcomes. For colleges and universities, access and retention are critical issues affected by "leaks" in earlier segments of the pipeline. Recent efforts by the federal government to improve institutional accountability have looked to student retention rates as important markers. Successful retention programs consider the early educational needs of diverse populations. School-college partnerships identify and engage multiple stakeholders across the educational spectrum in an effort to redesign and bolster the pipeline and to help ensure success for students once they reach college. School-college partnership isn't new; collaboration has existed for much of the 20th century. In the 1980's, the movement for increased partnership gained momentum. Today, technology plays an important role in helping to develop these partnerships. Differences in configuration include varying sizes and scopes of partnerships. Both benefits and impediments exist within partnerships. Overall, school-college partnerships are important to the success of students, regardless of cultural or gender differences and learning needs. Contributors to this volume discuss specific examples of working programs in existence today. (HB)