Achieving College Dreams How a University-Charter District Partnership Created an Early College High School

Achieving College Dreams: How a University-Charter District Partnership Created an Early College High School tells the story of a remarkable 10-year collaboration between the University of California, Berkeley and Aspire Public Schools to develop and nurture the California College Preparatory Academy. Bridging the two cultures--artfully described as "Pac-Man (the charter district) meets chess (the university)"--the school serves as an exemplar in providing low-income and first-generation college youth with an excellent and equitable education. Framed by a longitudinal lens, findings from community-engaged scholarship, and a diversity of voices from students to superintendents, this book charts the journey from the initial decision to open a school to the high school graduation of its first two classes. The book captures struggle, improvement, and success as it takes readers inside the workings of the partnership, the development of the school, and the spillover of effects across district and university. Confronting the challenge of interweaving rigor and support, its authors explore such critical ingredients as teacher-student advisories; school transition; the home-school divide; building a supportive college-preparatory culture; teaching with depth, relational power, and equity; the forging of an academic identity; and scaling up. At a time of sharply unequal schools, glaring disparities in college readiness, and heightened expectations, Achieving College Dreams uniquely extends the knowledge base about how to better prepare underserved students for college eligibility and success. The book also calls for universities to step up to the plate as partners with districts to ensure both excellence and equity in secondary education for all children.

Rhona S. Weinstein is Professor Emerita of Psychology at the University of California, Berkeley. Dr. Weinstein's research focuses on the multilayered dynamics of expectations, self-fulfilling prophecies, educational equity, and school reform. Author of the book Reaching Higher: The Power of Expectations in Schooling (2002), she is the recipient of numerous awards for contributions to science, teaching, and educational reform. Frank C. Worrell is Professor of Education at the University of California, Berkeley, where he directs the School Psychology Program. He also serves as Faculty Director of the Academic Talent Development Program and the California College Preparatory Academy. Dr. Worrell is the Editor of the Review of Educational Research (through 2016), and studies psychosocial and sociocultural factors related to educational and psychological functioning and the translation of research findings into school-based practice.