A Professional Development School (PDS) serves as a quality-teaching model. It is a vehicle that generates professional understanding through conversations among university professors, teachers, and teacher candidates. The author illustrates a pilot PDS program that exemplifies the many benefits of transforming the teaching model into a successful…

If a university-school partnership is to be viewed as a mutualistic relationship, benefits should be provided not only to the preservice teachers, but to the members of the school environment as well. As a means of exemplifying how to connect the learning of students, in-service and preservice teachers, and teacher educators, this article…

Laboratory schools for preservice teacher education are challenged by operational and philosophical dilemmas such as equity and increasing public school placements. Professional Development Schools face similar challenges in becoming institutionalized. They need strong connections among schools, colleges, and communities; a balance of innovation…

The National Education Association's Teacher Education Initiative restructures teacher preparation around principles of partnership, coherent knowledge base, systemic internal change, systematic external change, equity and diversity, and teacher leadership. (SK)

Uses National Council for the Accreditation of Teacher Education standards for professional development schools to assess the School-University Partnership for Excellence on five dimensions: learning community; collaboration; accountability and quality assurance; organization, roles, and structure; and equity. (SK)

In a partnership with a technology magnet junior high, preservice teachers mentored public school students through an electronic learning community, an e-Professional Development School. The approach blends critical thinking, problem solving, and the Internet to help preservice teachers articulate their vision of teaching in a technology-driven…

Interviews with participants in a professional development school identified expectations of the partnership (student focus, better trained teachers), positive outcomes (real-world experience for student teachers, extra attention for students, professional growth for participating teachers), and problems (communication between school and…

Of 78 student teachers, 35 took a course on special education/mainstreaming, 20 participated in 1-semester professional development (PD) institutes, and 23 took a 2-semester professional development school practicum. The field-based PD programs increased student teacher contact with special needs students, improving attitudes toward inclusion and…