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More university involvement in K-12

We recently reported that high schools may start to resemble universities before long.  More evidence of this can be found here:

Now that Wildcat Secondary School has a building and a staff, it’s ready for the most important part: students.

Enrollment has begun for the only charter school in Arizona sponsored by a state university, in this case the University of Arizona. Richard Reyes, the charter school’s director, said they’re looking for 160 sixth- and seventh-grade students in the first year.

"We wanted smaller class sizes," he said. "We didn’t want it to be too big. It’s more personalized instruction."

The Wildcat School, one of four charters opening in Tucson this fall and one of 92 in the city, will be primarily a math and science academy. And though it is open to any Tucson resident and is free, the school’s application says a student’s parents must not be a graduate of a four-year university.

(snip) 

Arizona State University also is getting into the charter school act. Officials there are setting up plans for four charter campuses to begin operations in 2007 and phase in through 2009. The schools’ goals haven’t been fully formed yet, but each campus will correspond to one of ASU’s four campuses, said Maggie Mangini, ASU’s director of university-school partnerships.

Starting next month, the staff will begin looking for models to follow, including the Wildcat School and a charter school at the Minneapolis Zoo, she said.

And this is pretty neat:

Val Griffin, a mother of three, had the future of her children — and her country — in mind when she signed her son and daughter up for what few people would consider a lighthearted summer activity.

"I wish they’d go to school all year," Griffin said as she picked the kids up from PREP, the Prefreshman Engineering Program at the University of Texas at San Antonio. "So many countries are so far ahead of us with technology."

The eight-week summer program helps middle school students get a leg up on math, science and engineering, and it’s just the kind of activity that New York teacher William White would have applauded.

In 1906, White tested his students’ math skills before and after summer vacation. He found they’d lost speed and accuracy after the long break and, with that, discovery launched the fear of so-called "summer learning loss" or "summer slide."

That’s the term educators use for the brain drain students can suffer after a summer spent vegetating in front of the television or hanging out at the pool. 

More on the program here.  It seems there’s a clear trend of connecting secondary schools with the university system, which overall is a very good thing.