UNIVERSITY AND MCCLUER HIGH FORM EDUCATION PARTNERSHIP

Officials of Southeast Missouri State University and representatives of McCluer High School in Florissant signed a "memorandum of understanding" Nov. 1, in which they agreed to form a partnership to further the restructuring and improvement of education.

The partnership is designed to bring faculty together to work cooperatively in the building of an essential school at McCluer High School in the Ferguson-Florissant School

District. The acronym "B.E.S.T.," -- Building Essential Schools Together -- has been adopted to illustrate this purpose.

"I see this as a long-range partnership," said Lenore Bierbaum, dean of Southeast's College of Education. "I think this agreement has tremendous potential. For us to have the opportunity to work on restructuring at the secondary level in the St. Louis area is great."

Through the partnership, faculty and students in Southeast's College of Education will be involved on the cutting edge of a major restructuring at McCluer High School by combining the efforts, expertise and resources of both McCluer and Southeast, the opportunities for the advancement of secondary and teacher education will be enhanced, Southeast officials say. Through this collaborative effort, McCluer High School also will benefit from the presence of involved and concerned Southeast critics, who also will provide support in a number of areas.

Activities are expected to be wide-ranging and may include curriculum development activities, professional development activities, and activities to increase high school graduation and college attendance rates with particular attention to recruitment of minority students into teacher education. Activities also may include development of research methodology and evaluation strategies, development of grant applications, faculty exchanges and University student placements at McCluer.

"This agreement has good possibilities for broadening the training experiences for our students and will help the University in making contacts in the St. Louis area for both recruitment of students and in identifying education field experience sites," said Robert Herring, associate director of field experiences at Southeast.

McCluer High School sought the assistance of Southeast Missouri State University in the implementation of two "Re:Learning" grants because of the University's strong teacher education program and because of alumni ties to the University. Re:Learning grants are incentive grants from the Missouri Department of Elementary and Secondary Education, which encourage collaboration of universities and public schools in utilizing grant funds.

Under the agreement, Southeast's College of Education will be asked to design research strategies to determine if programs and techniques implemented through the grant are effective, Herring said.

In the future, some Southeast students may be assigned to conduct their student teaching at McCluer High School, and some "block three" teacher education students may have the opportunity to make field trips to McCluer High School, Herring said.