@Sarah: Good question. I wonder, for starters, if we could think about the physical placement of schools. It’s not unheard of, but far less common than it ought to be, to have public school buildings right on the campus of a university. My alma mater, Nazareth College, is talking about beginning a school of this type.

Slightly less grandiose would be simple outreach to education professors and universities BY districts, not the inverse. There are multiple rich opportunities in such a thing, even (perhaps especially) for more rural districts.

My own district has quite a strong Teachers’ Center, for example, but despite the presence of near half a dozen universities and colleges within commutable distance, including the prestigious University of Rochester, I am not aware of any kind of ongoing research project or consultation with those universities that has been pursued *institutionally*. (I might be wrong, but I don’t think so. The former superintendent of the Rochester CSD has made a point of the isolation of the RSCD from such community resources as well.)

So what gives, you know?

I’m aware that this sounds a lot like just piling one other thing schools don’t do well onto the plate, but honestly, the more I think about it, I’d rather have schools pursue research-based pedagogical excellence before allowing themselves to be turned into the largest unrecognized social service system in the country, for one example.

http://www.theonion.com/content/news_briefs/commas_turning_up