School education is the key stage of learning in academic life that requires cooperation from all the members of the society. To stay in compliance with the ever changing world and achieve academic excellence there is a need to adopt innovations for some special class of students which in the present context is K-12 learners. It was reported that secondary schools are charged with preparing America’s youth for the challenge of work, further education, citizenship and leadership.
For this purpose, Georgia Department of Education has taken initiatives for supporting secondary improvement efforts through pyramid of interventions organized in four tiers. As such, there is a need to consider practices that would influence K12 schools. Previously, it was reported that parternerships would enable to maintain institutional identity that benefits K-12 students, teachers and administrators (Hamos, 2006).
The Health Professions Partnership Initiative (HPPI) has promoted the establishment of partnerships between academic health centers and K-12 school systems. This initiative could help in achieving outcomes impacting each partner mutually. This could be further strengthened by another report that described that partnership with a local university’s undergraduate, health professions schools, and with various community entities might require the support, assistance, and funding from the outside sources (Zuhlke, 2006).
This report also emphasizes the involvement of key leaders and policymakers in the formation of these partnerships, especially those who are able to be effective in a shared-leadership environment. Therefore, it may indicate that while implementing the parternership program K-12 schools should focus on assistance from all departments. These partnership strategies may appear in agreement with the Georgia education department’s pyramid intervention tiers 1- 4 that emphasize learning through evidence based, social development domain, tailored interventions corresponding with their needs and adapted methodology.
Hence, intervention programs concerned with partnership may benefit K-12 schools. Next, it may be essential for K-12 schools concentrate on different racial and ethnic minorities if they wish student achievement as per the designed pyramid intervention tiers. Earlier workers described methods of community-based participatory research (CBPR) with the objective of improving the social and academic functioning of children from racial and ethnic minority populations in a public school district (Mulvaney-Day et al., 2006).
This study has indicated the need of clarity about the policy limitations to effective collaboration, and increased awareness regarding the academic needs of minority children in schools. It also suggested that CBPR approach has the potential to expand the scope of mental-health services research, particularly related to services for racial and ethnic minorities (Mulvaney-Day et al., 2006).
This study has supported another earlier description that emphasized on higher education program for minority students (Slater & Iler, 1991).Its proposed objective was to increase the number of minority students who will be prepared to enter training for high-level professional careers, especially in medicine and science. They have found that graduates have demonstrated significant achievement compared with their peers when measured by standardized tests and the graduates’ participation in research mentorships and college acceptances. Hence, such education programs if implemented could benefit K-12 schools.
This methodology is strongly in agreement with tier 4 of pyramid intervention program that has underscored the participation of targeted students in specially designed learning programs. At this particular juncture, it is also reasonable to highlight that gender discrimination might interfere with the enrollment of African-American females in academic pathways that lead to science based careers (Taylor et al., 2001).This could be alleviated by adopting practices that correlate with achievement and success like challenging curricula, a nurturing learning environment, high expectations, community service, research experiences, and mentoring relationships. (Taylor et al., 2001).
Therefore, it can be concluded that keeping in view of the above beneficial information, K-12 schools should implement the innovation programs thinking from broad perspectives while adhering to the standard protocols of education.
Reference
Hamos, J.E. (2006). Framing K-12 partnerships in order to make a difference. Acad Med, 81, (6 Suppl), S11-4.
Zuhlke, D.J. (2006). The HOPE partnership: a public school district superintendent’s policy and leadership perspective. Acad Med, 81, S51-4.
Mulvaney-Day, N.E., Rappaport, N., Alegría, M., Codianne, L.M (2006). Developing systems interventions in a school setting: an application of community-based participatory research for mental health. Ethn Dis, 16, S107-17.
Slater, M and Iler, E. (1991). A program to prepare minority students for careers in medicine, science, and other high-level professions. Acad Med, 66, 220-5.
Taylor, V.S., Erwin, K.W., Ghose, M., Perry-Thornton, E. (2001). Models to increase enrollment of minority females in science-based careers. J Natl Med Assoc 93, 74-7.
Building capacity to support school improvement (n.d). Web.