K–12 / higher education partnerships are perhaps the most pervasive form of community partnerships in higher education. In the early 1900s, for example, educational philosopher John Dewey created laboratory schools at the University of Chicago as a place for pre-service teachers to learn teaching by actually doing it.

For many years, universities have placed pre-service teachers in classrooms across the United States. A call for increased university involvement grew out of the concerns raised by the A Nation at Risk report (National Commission on Excellence in Education, 1983) and the subsequent Holmes Group Report (1986), which specifically called attention to the need for improved teacher preparation. Since then, K–12 partnerships with higher education have expanded to many different areas.

One of a wide range of knowledge hubs developed by Campus Compact, Building K–12/Higher Education Partnerships offers resources, models, and information from across the country.