How Do We Talk About Higher Education's Relationship to the Schools?

Abstract

Higher education has inescapable responsibilities to the nation s schools. They must become active partners in making children "ready for school, " and focus on the problems of primary education and on the needs of its teachers as much as on the educational challenges at the secondary level. They also should help improve the accountability of our school systems, and think more carefully about how to evaluate the outcome of collegiate education. Colleges and schools must join in asking what children should learn and be able to do after sixteen years of formal education, and, above all, they must work together to create a better world for children.