New education partnerships working as the “7-14 Associations” are drawing on the ideas and knowledge of their members to increase the success of students from middle school through community college.

The educators recently met with representatives of the Eastern Arizona College and Freeport-McMoRan Copper & Gold Inc. to form two education organizations — the Eastern Arizona Science Initiative and the Eastern Arizona Career and Technical Education Association, said Mike Crockett, a dean of instruction at EAC.

A yet-to-be-named mathematics collaboration is in the the process of choosing leaders and selecting a name. Crockett said the goal of these collaborations is to increase student success by initiating the following:

• Aligning curricula and evaluations.

• Sharing best practices.

• Enhancing instructor qualifications.

• Cultivating college dual-enrollment opportunities.

The latter is expected to allow more students to graduate concurrently from high school and from EAC, depending on their choice of classes.

“This could turn into a pretty good deal for students,” Crockett said in a recent phone interview.

The collaboration includes benefits for instructors, too. Crockett said the college is willing to compensate high school instructors to become certified as college instructors.

“It’s really going to be faculty driven,” Crockett said.

According to a written report by Crockett, the associations are considering several projects, including the following:

• Establishing statistical correlations between AIMS results and EAC math-placement scores.

• Partnering with Northern Arizona University to provide upper-division and graduate courses in content areas.

• Providing a forum for faculty to present, discuss and debate instructional challenges and emerging issues within their content areas.

“This is an historic opportunity to establish a model region of interscholastic cooperation,” Crockett said.