Great work can be accomplished with little budgets and big dreams and desires for increased student achievement. The focus of the Queens University of Charlotte and Myers Park Traditional School (MPTS) partnership was excellent teacher development that centered on learning as a community of teachers (both pre-service and in-service). What they…

Despite the significant number of universities that participate in Professional Development School (PDS) collaborations, very little empirical research has been published on the role of the PDS principal. If the PDS is to be the school of the future, it is important to have leaders prepared, either within educational leadership programs or…

In this article, the authors present a definition for co-teaching. They argue that co-teaching has the potential to be an effective arrangement for attending to student learning, preparing a teacher candidate to enter the profession, and eliminating some of the snags and pitfalls associated with traditional student teaching. In addition, they…

The authors' conception of a Professional Development School has been in the making for six years; they have nurtured their high school/university partnership over that period of time with little involvement from other university personnel. Through a self-study approach, they investigated the intricacies of how professional relationships, both in…

Differentiated instruction should be evident in every classroom; however, it is particularly critical in Professional Development Schools (PDS) that have the dual focus of instruction for both Pre-K-12 students and university students completing their final internship experience. In this article, the author illustrates a university and school…

Small universities deal with two primary issues when beginning to use the Professional Development School model: Adequate Funding and Faculty Support. Possible solutions are discussed, including ways to provide adequate funding through grants, enrichment/tutoring programs, reallocation of existing funds, and university priority money, as well as…

This article examines the mutuality of interests between partners in a professional development school (PDS), with an emphasis on promoting inclusive classrooms and integrating special education students into the general education continuum. It highlights how delivery models that hinder inclusive practices stunt the growth of PDS partnerships. It…

The purpose of this study was to develop a model for evaluating a professional development school program to enact an evidence-based model for a continuous cycle of program improvement. Guided by the logic model for program evaluation, we developed three survey instruments based on the professional development school standards of the National…

Universities systematically use assessments to evaluate programs of teacher education. The Professional Development Schools Partnership was a well-established collaboration with more than 11 years of work with area schools. However, two questions became the center of a discussion for evaluating, monitoring, and identifying the accomplishments of…

In this article, I outline three structured protocols that professional development school steering committees and other collaborative groups could use to support an intentional reflective process aimed at growth and improvement. Using these protocols provides all participants with a voice in identifying current strengths and areas for growth,…

In this article, we provide a description of a unique model of teaching and learning, developed at an urban professional development school. We focus on an intensive collaboration between members of a high school mathematics department and one university faculty member, who collaborated to raise student test scores and build solidarity as a team.…

The purpose of this article is to review a partnership between a teacher education department and a dropout prevention program. The partnership developed from a variety of communities' needs, no less of which was that of reconnecting marginalized youth at a local dropout prevention school with their community through cultural and civic…

This article describes the significance of academic enrichment and English as a second language in a community-based professional development middle school. As an example of a university-school partnership that is responding to the needs of its students, parents, and community, the Baylor University School of Education has partnered with the Cesar…

Six primary classrooms in an elementary professional development school were involved in this research, each characterized by high mobility and a diverse student population from economically disadvantaged families. Questions included the following: First, what approaches are found in a professional development school with diverse learners? Second,…

The majority of the teacher candidates in my methods classes come from a background that is different from the primarily African American students at my professional development school. Because these teacher candidates continue to be predominantly White middle-class females, the gap between their cultural comfort zone and their students' cultural…