Are you a current ASA member?
Forgot your password?

Register

If you haven’t already, register to start contributing news and events, and to search the Member Directory. Registration is free, but only open to current members of the American Studies Association.

Click here to get information on joining the ASA.

Group Members

The following people are members of this group:

The following people are administrators of this group:

Member Tools

We're sorry. You are not yet a member of the K-16 Collaboration Committee.

MAIN | Resources | Reports | Contact

K-16 Collaboration Committee

Secondary Education Committee 2004

ANNUAL REPORT OF THE SECONDARY EDUCATION COMMITTEE
As outlined in our midyear report, the Secondary Education Committee will be undertaking several new directions at this year’s annual meeting. Concerned that teacher attendance remained low at last year’s Hartford Convention, we decided to abandon the traditional Saturday Focus on Teaching Day. Committee members at attendance in Hartford voiced support for encouraging teachers to attend the entire ASA convention, and the ASA Executive Committee expedited this course of action by allowing teachers to attend the entire conference at the graduate student rate. Although obtaining substitutes is sometimes a problem for teachers attending sessions during the week, we wanted to encourage teachers to attend the entire ASA program and not simply have to take their own time Saturday to attend. And we think that many teachers would benefit from the excellent academic and informative sessions provided by the conference, for teachers often express interest in sessions beyond those with a pedagogical focus. Accordingly, we have scheduled the Secondary Education Committee Business meeting for Friday as well as our luncheon. We are honored to have George Lipsitz as our luncheon speaker and anticipate an excellent response to the talk. We also appreciate the efforts of former Secondary Education chair Sarah Robbins in fostering interest among local Atlanta teachers.

One of the committee’s major goals has been to foster partnerships between the schools and universities. In pursuit of this goal, the Secondary Education Committee will sponsor a session at the Atlanta meeting entitled “Educational Crossroads: Collaborations between Universities and Secondary Schools in an ‘Age of Accountability,“ featuring Secondary Education Committee member Kathleen Eldredge, Westborough High School, and former Secondary Education Committee chair Deb Schmalholz, Elgin High School. The roundtable will explore the challenges and opportunities of high school/university collaborations. One scholar and two high school teachers will engage the audience in an extended conversation about these issues, using their own expertise in high school and college collaborations.

In conjunction with the Secondary Education Committee, Deb Schmalholz has developed a “partnership planning tool” to support the collaboration of secondary schools and universities that may also be helpful for the across-the-organization work of internal committees, task forces, and members as well as internal and external partnerships. Significant amounts of federal funds via the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA)—commonly referred to as the No Child Left Behind Act—are earmarked for programs designed to improve teacher quality (defined in the legislation as content experts with full state certification), to provide quality professional development programs for new and experienced teachers to align curriculum with national standards and programs.

The Educational Partnership Planning Tool (which was also featured in the September 2004 ASA Newsletter in an excellent piece coauthored by Deb Schmalholz, Kathleen Eldredge, and Lois Rudnick) will be available online via the ASA website and discussed at the “Educational Crossroads” session. The Secondary Education Committee is interested in dialoguing and sharing experiences regarding educational partnerships through this session and the Educational Partnership Planning Tool. Committee member Pearl A. McHaney will also be chairing a session entitled “Listening Critically to New Voices in Georgia’s Literature,“ which will also feature three teachers from the schools in a model of academic collaboration.

It has been a difficult year for the co-chairs to coordinate activities of the committee as Jamie Harker has accepted a new academic post and Ron Briley was absent part of the year with a teaching assignment in Azerbaijan. However, the Educational Partnership Planning Tool is an exciting innovation, and we look forward to implementing our new plans for teacher involvement at the national meeting.

Respectfully submitted
Ron Briley, Co-chair
Secondary Education Committee