New Directions For Student Outreach: The University Of California's School-University Partnerships

In academic year 1998-99 the University of California launched an unprecedented campaign to enhance its outreach to the state’s K-12 public education system. While the University has long been involved in outreach programs that provide tutors, mentors and campus visits to middle and high school students, the current campaign added a new dimension to its educational outreach portfolio: partnerships between the University and educationally low performing high schools. The program aimed to improve the overall academic performance of targeted high schools and their feeder middle and elementary schools. Creation of these partnerships marked a significant expansion of the University’s mission, which had, at least throughout the course of the twentieth century, eschewed direct involvement in K-12 educational reform. What could account for what is generally regarded as fundamental change in the University’s role in the state’s public education system?