A r c h i v e d  I n f o r m a t i o n

Educational Programs That Work - 1995

Public and Private School Collaboration

Public and Private School Collaboration. A program for students in grades 10 and 11; the Connecticut Scholars Program. A collaboration for the purpose of providing an opportunity for advanced residential study for academically promising urban school students.

Description Public Private School Collaboration makes connections and makes connections work. Where public and private schools have not traditionally joined forces, they do so within a collaborative framework. This allows them to apply their finest resources to meet significant needs. It also allows them to gain the support of leading corporations and foundations as well as research institutions and museums as they seek to respond to those needs.

The developer demonstrator has engaged in this work for over ten years. In Connecticut, Choate Rosemary Hall (a private boarding school) and the Connecticut Association of Urban Superintendents sponsor a five-week program of advanced residential study for students from Connecticut's 13 urban school districts. They have been joined by distinguished corporations (from AT&T to Xerox) and noted research institutions (from Brown University to the federal Star Schools Program). Students study topics ranging from Advanced Astronomy to Vectors and Matrices. They return to their schools encouraged by their accomplishments. Many other collaborative activities have flowed from this initiative and include programs for students and teachers alike.

Importantly, a collaboration does not have to involve a boarding school, urban schools, or huge foundation grants. It does require the full participation of public and private school partners, definition of genuine need, and the commitment to work together to find and apply resources to meet that need. After three and a half years, adoptions are now under way from Maine to California. They can be found in boarding schools, urban public high schools, day schools, elementary schools, and more. Winston Churchill once said that opportunity seeks not a "seat but a springboard." That is just what this program supplies.

Contact
Howard Hand, Director, Summer Programs, Office of Public Private Collaboration, Choate Rosemary Hall, Box 788, 333 Christian Street, Wallingford, CT 06492. (203) 284-5365.

Developmental Funding: Private sources.
JDRP No. 86-25 (9/10/86)
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