The themes of this book resonate closely with the values of ACE: leadership, change, community partnership, and the importance of teacher education and learning. The book features examples of university leaders who took a personal interest in and led their institutions’ efforts to improve the quality of teacher preparation, and who developed partnerships with school systems to ensure that more future teachers were recruited, prepared, and provided with an excellent transition into their teaching roles.

The themes of this book resonate closely with the values of ACE: leadership, change, community partnership, and the importance of teacher education and learning. With higher education facing increasing financial constraints, and public education under continued strain, education leaders must dedicate their efforts to strengthening the partnership of higher education with K-12 education, and with the community, to ensure success. This book features examples of university leaders who took a personal interest in and led their institutions’ efforts to improve the quality of teacher preparation, and to develop partnerships with school systems to ensure that more future teachers were recruited, prepared, and provided with an excellent transition into their teaching roles. The leaders used their power to mommunicate with campus communities and partner beyond their institutions, into the communities in which they are located.

University Leadership in Urban School Renewal describes the role of the public urban university president and chancellor in providing leadership in P-16 education through activities undertaken in partnership with local urban school districts to improve the quality of teaching and learning. Leaders from urban institutions of higher education who are members of the 14 Great Cities’ Universities–universities that collectively serve more than 340,000 students and prepare one-fifth of the nation’s teachers–reflect upon their efforts to respond to the needs of education reform, particularly within the country’s most challenging metropolitan environments. The authors describe strategies that make education reform the responsibility of all, from teacher education as a university-wide effort to university-community partnerships. They explicate the link from higher education to school districts, other educational institutions, local business, government, and the community at large. The authors asked 14 presidents of urban universities to make as explicit as possible their leadership actions and change strategies within the context of how they have worked to improve the quality of education for urban youth. The first-person accounts of these leaders reflect the important role of urban, state universities in addressing the pervasive problems in urban education as they illustrate the leadership practices of presidents and chancellors.