Consociate
Schools
Eastern
Michigan University is a member of the Renaissance
Group, a consortium of 24 institutions noted for their
teacher education programs, which has developed a "Consociate
School" model for school-university partnerships. Consociate
Schools and universities work together to share resources
and opportunities for students and instructors at both agencies.
In
1991, EMU joined with Farmington
High School (FHS) to form the first consociate school
in the United States. The mutually beneficial nature of
the consociate school relationship is evident as EMU students
relate real-life situations to theories learned in their
university classes. Teachers also benefit from specialized
staff development experiences and more support for their
students. These partnership activities take the form of:
Donna
Wissbrun serves as the university facilitator for FHS.
In
1995, Estabrook
Elementary School in Ypsilanti became the second Consociate
School in partnership with Eastern Michigan University.
At Estabrook Elementary, there are general education students
in grades one through five, as well as students who are
Physically or Otherwise Health Impaired (POHI) across the
same age levels. EMU facilitator Joann Caniglia (Math Department)
assists EMU instructors in collaborating with Estabrook
teachers and administrators to provide a wide variety of
learning opportunities at the school for pre student teachers
and student teachers. Students from not only the Special
Education department, but the Teacher Education department,
and the Health, Physical education, Recreation, and Dance
department spend time at Estabrook observing, assisting,
teaching, and learning.
Over
100 EMU pre student teachers during a given year may spend
one or more hours per week working in group or individual
settings with students. Every semester seven to nine student
teachers can be viewed teaching across general and special
education classrooms.
In
December 2002, East
Middle School in Ypsilanti, MI was formally recognized
consociate school. The agreement was the culmination of
six years of collaboration between EMU's College of Education
and the students and teachers at East.
Dr.
Pat Williams-Boyd has been working with East from the start,
and remains extremely enthusiastic about the partnership
that started with a Kellogg grant to move East from a Junior
High (7th and 8th grades) to the Principal, Janice Studivant,
and faculty at East make the relationship work. "Janice
is dynamic, hungry to learn about best practices, and anxious
to do whatever it takes for her students and faculty, she
knows what it means to be a facilitator." Williams-Boyd
also reports that "East's staff have been wonderful,
open to trying new things they feel makes sense for their
students."
The
most recent new thing Williams-Boyd and Studivant are working
together to implement at East is a move to a portfolio system
of grading. As with all the programs, teachers will decide
how this will work best at East.
Williams-Boyd
finds her visits to East not only benefit the staff there,
but are vital to her own work as an educator. Boyd explains,
"the most dynamic reason to work with schools is to
stay in touch with what the field is like. It is what a
teaching institution should do. Universities tend to be
isolated, by partnering with East I get to work directly
with kids I'm teaching my undergraduates about."
