Local university rescues Baltimore school.

What was once a struggling Baltimore school is now riding high after the district turned to a local university for help. Rosemont Elementary/Middle School in the Baltimore City Public School System was on the state's "take-over" list in 1998 when Coppin State University took over the school's management and administrative supervision. Rosemont now is off the list and has about 80 percent of its students performing at or above grade level.

Under its contract with the BCPSS, the university manages most of the school's money, including that from private sources and federal Title III, which it uses for program materials, computers, and salaries for a few employees, such as a librarian. The district handles the bulk of the school's salaries.

In 1989, Boston University was the first college to take over a public school system, in this case Chelsea, Mass., although with poor reviews.

Coppin hires the principal and has input when hiring teachers, says Frank Kober, a Coppin professor who coordinates the Rosemont partnership. "We were confident that we could help these children and this particular school ... if we gave them the right pedagogy and the right curriculum, and the teachers were trained in that pedagogy," Kober says.

Coppin's pedagogy emphasizes developing critical thinking skills. It focuses on having children demonstrate concepts through group work and other activities, he adds.

To help teachers implement the pedagogy, Coppin faculty conduct staff development at the school, which is currently pre-K through seventh grade but is adding grade 8 in 2007, Kober says. Coppin also has its honors college students work with children in classrooms.

The school-university partnership has been successful in large part because of the training Coppin faculty provide teachers, says David Stone, director of charter, new and community schools at BCPSS.

School districts wishing to explore university partnerships should:

* Take time to craft a governance structure;

* Find an excellent principal with strong leadership abilities, and a committed university president;

* Use the partnership to harness university resources such as college student volunteers. The district could also benefit from the university's public relations department, which can promote in the media the school's accomplishments.