Syracuse University Chancellor Nancy Cantor, Syracuse City School Department Superintendent Daniel G. Lowengard and Syracuse Mayor Matthew Driscoll were in attendance at Henninger High School Wednesday to announce SU’s ‘Partnership for Better Education’ will be undergoing a vast expansion in the coming year.

The program, which began three years ago at Nottingham High School, will now include Corcoran, Henninger, Fowler and Central Technical high schools as well as the elementary and middle schools that feed into them.

‘It is the Chancellor’s desire to have an impact on community development,’ said Horace Smith, assistant vice president of Academic Affairs at SU and ‘Partnership’ coordinator. ‘We are using the university’s resources to improve the education of the students of Syracuse.’

In addition to expanding the program to include the entire SCSD, they announced SU would now be joined by four other area universities, including Le Moyne College, Upstate Medical University, State University of New York College of Environmental Science and Forestry and Onondaga Community College.

‘These four other institutions will work with SU by providing similar resources and giving the district a broader set of tools,’ Smith said.

The program’s primary goal is to implement five areas of commitment set forth by Cantor, Smith said.

The first is to expand the involvement of the university across the school district with newly designed learning communities within the city schools, Smith said. The second is to enable Syracuse area students the opportunity to participate in a high school to college experience.

The third is to develop a variety of pipeline experiences in the feeder schools and to prepare students to be better involved in the high school programs, Smith said. The fourth area is to provide students in SU’s School of Education with experience in an urban teaching environment.

The final commitment is to institute a district-wide assessment to make sure we are evaluating properly the projects we are putting into place, Smith said.

The deans of SU’s Martin J. Whitman School of Management, the College of Visual and Performing Arts, the School of Education and the L.C. Smith School of Engineering and Computer Science work with Cantor and Lowengard to implement themes into the curriculum that relate to the college’s various areas of expertise, Smith said. These themes include entrepreneurship, the arts and sciences, technology, engineering and math.

‘These schools really need help,’ said Breanna McLaughlin, a sophomore education and mathematics major. ‘I think it will be a positive influence on the kids to interact with college students. This program can provide them with aspirations they may have never known existed. Many of these kids don’t have parents who went to college.’

The chancellor is very invested in active learning experiences, ways in which SU students can broaden their education, Smith said.

‘Students will be emerged in such a way that their learning experiences will be enhanced, Smith said.

SU students will be very involved in tutoring, Smith said.

‘I think it’s really important for kids these days to have people they can look up to,’ said Shannon Casey, a sophomore education and mathematics major. ‘With the positive influence of college students, hopefully Syracuse area high school students will be inspired to go to college as well.’

Published on October 7, 2006 at 12:00 pm