Universities are sometimes seen as ivory towers. But at East Carolina University, a vibrant partnership with Wayne School of Engineering in Goldsboro is helping change that image.

“Working with Wayne School of Engineering is a very concrete way to break down that perceived barrier that the university operates in isolation,” says Dr. Joy Phillips, associate professor of education leadership at ECU. “It’s a really good way to keep faculty fresh on what it’s like in the daily life of a school, especially a school that’s trying so hard to do something really non-traditional.” Beginning in the fall of 2010, ECU and Wayne School of Engineering (WSE), an North Carolina New Schools-partner school, have collaborated on two projects to foster powerful teaching and learning at the school. Project HEART, funded through the AmeriCorps, connected WSE seniors as tutors to students needing assistance. And a focus on customized professional development for teachers through a project called the Learning Community has helped bring best practices into the classroom. “Both sides have benefitted. It’s a win-win relationship,” WSE Principal Gary Hales says. “We’re giving them a different way of looking at a very complicated model of high school and how they develop new teachers to meet the needs of today’s students. Our teachers are benefitting from the content knowledge and professional development. And our students benefit from the improved instruction and the opportunities to develop leadership roles and earn scholarships.”

Project HEART

For 13 years, ECU has been working with Project HEART, a civic engagement program funded through AmeriCorps to get high school seniors involved in community service. The partnership with WSE has trained 25 high school seniors during the last two years to serve as tutors to elementary, middle and high school students — and, unique to the WSE program, even some community college students — who are struggling in their courses. The student volunteers also receive CPR, first aid and leadership training through the AmeriCorps project. AmeriCorps is a network of three programs that each year support the engagement of nearly 75,000 Americans in service to meet critical needs in education, the environment, public safety, homeland security, and other areas. “Our kids are able to have growth opportunities as education tutors across the county,” says Lou Rose, instructional liaison for WSE. “They’re able to give back to the community and serve in leadership roles as they get ready for college.” The project costs $150 per student, but yields a $1,174 college scholarship for each student who completes the community service work. Based on the success of the program at WSE, all eight Wayne County high schools will offer Project HEART in the 2012-13 school year for a total of 80 student tutors. Dr. Betty Beacham, director of Project HEART for ECU, praises the partnership. “It’s a win for ECU and our mission to serve eastern North Carolina. It’s a win for the students who participate in terms of their personal growth and leadership development and in helping their families afford postsecondary education,” Beacham says. The program also creates a pipeline to bring motivated students to ECU and opens students’ eyes to a possible career path. Several students who had never considered a teaching career discover an interest in the profession as a result of the program, including one student who started out with a “chip on her shoulder,” says Beacham. “We saw her as a diamond in the rough when she was assigned to work with students with special needs. That work completely changed her life - now she wants to become a special education teacher and she’ll begin classes at ECU this fall.” James Crowe, a 2011 graduate of WSE, participated in Project HEART when he was a senior and saw the impact he could have on students at all levels across the county. “Based on this experience, I served as the first student director and head tutor for the North Carolina Virtual Public School’s Peer Tutoring Center and was immediately able to connect with local AmeriCorps members in my first year of college,” says Crowe, now a rising sophomore at Emory University. “Next year, I’ll be able to apply what I’ve learned as I assist in directing the Oxford Writing and Language Support Center and as a supplemental instructor of sociology.” In total, 260 volunteers were recruited, providing 14,794 hours of tutoring and 13 completed community service projects from 2010-2012. Forty-one members from WSE completed the entire program, earning a total of $34, 075 in education awards.

Learning Community

In addition to partnering with WSE students through Project HEART, ECU professors and doctoral students have also been working with teachers to improve their classroom instruction. Dr. Joy Phillips leads the data collection and assessment of the research component of this partnership, titled Learning to Be a Learning Community: An Implementation Case Study of an Innovative High School. Phillips and her team of ECU doctoral students worked with administrators and teachers at WSE to identify areas of need by observing meeting time and classroom instruction. Together they agreed to focus on differentiation - that is, matching instruction to each student’s specific needs within the classroom - and professional development for math teachers. “Once we began to understand what a sophisticated model they have at the school, we realized that what they’re trying to accomplish would be challenging for even the most experienced teachers to implement,” says Phillips, adding that most of the faculty at WSE are in the early stages of their teaching careers. “Because they’re differentiating with every student, every class, every minute of the day, it’s an enormous challenge for them. We can talk at the university about innovation and all the buzz words in high school reform, but putting them into practice is very hard.” East Carolina began professional development sessions with teachers in January 2012, offering training in how to use instructional technology to develop more meaningful and relevant application for students. The university also provided 25 iPads as well as other computers, software and camera equipment to start a production room for WSE staff and students. During these sessions, WSE teachers began developing a model for creating unit lesson plans designed to go beyond standardized tests in assessing student learning. The school will use this approach, which is linked directly to the NC New Schools Design Principles, to structure course planning for the future. “We’ve accomplished a lot in a short period of time, with them coming to the school and us going to the university,” says Rose, WSE’s instructional liaison. “They’ve been part of parent meetings, school board meetings, classroom instruction - they’ve shown they’re truly supportive of our school. They’ve learned as much from us as we’ve learned from them.” Phillips agrees, noting that the project benefits scholarship at the university. “Our education leadership doctoral students have an opportunity to actually engage in meaningful research during their coursework,” she says. The grant-funded program officially ended in June, but Phillips is searching for ways to provide on-going support to implement the model. “We don’t want the partnership to end. This work is a true collaboration between the university and the school. We’re not just going in to present information and then walking away,” Phillips says. “ECU is committed to engaged scholarship, working directly with people in schools to effect change and doing it collaboratively.”