Many universities exist apart from their community's public schools. A New Orleans area public university took measures to facilitate collaborative partnerships with four public schools. Those schools were taken over and converted to charter schools by state officials for poor performance. The partnerships created simultaneous opportunities…

Ample research demonstrates the power of comprehensive induction to develop and retain new teachers. Education scholars generally agree on what powerful systems of induction include, yet few tools exist for guiding schools in creating such systems. Drawing on theory and practice, we have created such a tool. This article introduces the "Continuum…

This article describes efforts to develop educators, in both formal and informal settings, who possess theories of teaching and learning that not only encompass but, perhaps, depend on bridging institutional and contextual boundaries. It describes the experiences of The Exploratorium, a museum in San Francisco, King's College London, and the…

This paper describes the Science in the City seminar, an innovative approach to in-service and preservice science teacher development that bridges formal and informal science learning contexts. Drawing upon the tenets of design and evaluation research, the study focuses on the teachers' presentations of evidence of student learning from trips they…

This work explores the institutional impacts at Lehman College, City University of New York, of the Teacher Renewal for Urban Science Teaching (TRUST) Project, a partnership between the American Museum of Natural History and Brooklyn and Lehman Colleges funded by the National Science Foundation. We examine the impact that TRUST had and continues…

This reflective study explores the history and outcomes of a teacher education collaboration between the American Museum of Natural History (AMNH) and Lehman College of The City University of New York (CUNY), in the Bronx, NY, USA. AMNH developed and teaches a Lehman course, Museum Resources for Teaching Science, for Master's degree candidates in…

This article describes the evolution of a partnership between Brooklyn College (BC) of the City University of New York (CUNY) and the American Museum of Natural History (AMNH) that ultimately resulted in the formal incorporation of the museum's online Seminars on Science (SoS) courses into master's degree programs at Brooklyn College for teachers…

Communicating Ocean Sciences to Informal Audiences (COSIA) is a college course that creates and develops partnerships between science educators in informal science education institutions, such as museums, science centers and aquariums, and ocean scientists in colleges and universities. For the course, a scientist and educator team-teach…

The purpose of this paper is to describe and present results from the fourth year of a five-year collaborative research project between an interactive science center and a local college. The purpose of the project is not only to recruit and train approximately 50 highly qualified science teachers who will teach in New York City public schools, but…

The hybrid educator is an essential contributor to the development of new public school teachers. A hybrid educator is a college adjunct professor employed full time by a public school system. The role of the hybrid educator involves the navigation of two separate systems in developing new teachers: the university and the public school. This…

This article describes a number of internal organizational initiatives within an urban teacher education program designed to foster inclusive, responsive practices by newly licensed general and special education teacher candidates. After implementing a merged preparation program for both special and general educators, we captured faculty and…

Preparing pre-service education candidates to be successful in today's classroom is a complex task. There must be a bridge between theory and practice that requires a collaborative effort between universities and public schools. This article presents: (1) teacher educators with a field-based clinical model for preparing pre-service teacher…

Teacher retention is a critical problem in public education (Ingersoll, 2002), demanding collaboration between universities and local public school systems. Using veteran teacher mentors employed in a public school system to facilitate ongoing monthly support groups, communities of beginning teachers were formed, embedded within the public schools…

Every child deserves a quality education. Providing competent, caring, qualified teachers in schools organized for success is the way to get there, but the devil is in the details. By tinkering on the edges, adopting piecemeal approaches to attracting, supporting, and retaining highly qualified teachers for the students who need them most, the…

This paper summarizes lessons learned from studies of preservice education and inservice programs of family and community involvement. The research and interventions suggest that a chain of professional development events is needed to prepare educators to conduct and sustain effective programs of school, family, and community partnerships. This…