University of Maine at Presque Isle - Transitions: A Partnership for College Success

Home

Transitions

Information For

Information About

UMPI Now

- - - - - - -

Transitions: A Partnership for College Success


UMPI bound CHS Students with President at University Day.	CHS students at University Day luncheon.

PCS Partnership: The University of Maine at Presque Isle and Caribou High School
The University of Maine at Presque Isle (UMPI) and Caribou High School have long collaborated on teacher education, curriculum development, performance assessment, and a range of other projects. Based on these existing strengths, the UMPI-Caribou partnership is developing the Transitions Project to help Caribou students prepare more fully for college success.

The Partners
The University of Maine at Presque Isle, with 1,400 students, offers 30 bachelor’s and associate’s degree programs in the liberal arts and the professions. The only four-year institution of higher education within a 50-mile area, UMPI serves many low-income and first-generation college students, and is an important cultural and educational resource for the entire community.

The Caribou School Department serves a rural population with an enrollment of nearly 1,600 students, 600 of whom attend Caribou High School. Caribou, with a low dropout rate and attendance above the state average, has received state and national recognition for academic excellence. Fifty-five percent of Caribou’s graduates go on to pursue a four-year college degree. Caribou’s goal is to increase this percentage and prepare all students to be college ready and experience college success.

Program Activities
The UMPI-Caribou Transitions Project aims to raise Caribou students’ educational aspirations and prepare every student for post-secondary study. The program focuses on faculty/professor development and involvement, improved data collection and management processes to increase student achievement, and a seamless curriculum in grades 9-16 in selected core subjects. Three focus groups—in English, math, and science—have been formed to look closely at disconnects between high school and college skills, and to develop better means of assessing readiness for college-level achievement. The UMPI-Caribou partners anticipate using their findings to design a curriculum that will help all students understand, early on, the skills they will need for both college admission and college success. Ultimately, the partners anticipate improvements in Caribou’s college enrollment and persistence rates.

Students may receive academic support through the new Caribou High School Transitions Center.

UMPI-CHS Partnership Represented at International Conference
March 2007

The University of Maine at Presque Isle and the Caribou School System Partnership for College Success will present at an international conference on partnerships at the University of Massachusetts-Lowell on April 24-25, 2007. The UMPI-CHS Partnership, represented by coordinator, Mike McCormack, will join three other panelists, representing Dorchester Education Complex and University of Massachusetts-Boston; Lowell High and University of Massachusetts-Lowell; University Park Campus School and Clark University. Panelists have contributed to a paper, Partnerships for School Success: Achieving the Promise, which will serve as the foundation for their individual presentations. International participants and speakers representing twenty-five colleges and universities from throughout the United States will participate in the annual UML conference.

During the past two years, five school-university partnerships have come together under funding from the Nellie Mae Education Foundation and with the guidance and technical support of the Woodrow Wilson Foundation. These partnerships aim at bringing universities and high schools together so that students for whom college may not yet be a family tradition will acquire the skills that they need to succeed at higher education. Traditionally, high schools and institutions of higher learning often have not worked closely together in ways to benefit underserved students.

Panelists will describe the innovative strategies that are being used by these four very different partnerships to overcome differences and meet the needs of students.

They will consider benefits of the cohort model used by the Nellie Mae Education Foundation in fostering cross-partnership learning. They will also consider whether cohort approaches might also be effective in other areas of community-university partnership building. The presentation will conclude with consideration of how such partnerships can be sustained and disseminated to the many communities in which universities and schools are struggling to find ways to work together and overcome their differences. The presentation paper, "Achieving the Promise," will be published at the conclusion of the conference.

Partnership News

January 2008 - “Home for the Holidays” - Caribou Alum Share College Experience
December 2007 - UMPI Engages High School Students in GIS Technology
November 2007 - UMPI Admissions Holds Early Decision Day at Caribou
August 2007 - University students energized after visit to National Institutes of Health
January 2007 - Mentor/Leadership Training for Caribou Students
March 2006 - CHS & UMPI Faculties Work Together
March 2006 - New Zealander Brings Aspiration Message
January 2006 - UMPI Delivers Courses at Local High Schools
April 2005 - Early College Placement Testing for CHS
February 2005 - Nellie Mae Education Foundation-Instructional Seminar
December 2004 - UMPI-CHS Receive Major Grant to Help prepare Students

People
Mike McCormack (207-768-9746), Project Coordinator, is the primary contact person for the UMPI/Caribou High partnership.

[ Back ]

University of Maine at Presque Isle
181 Main Street
Presque Isle, ME 04769
207.768.9400