In this article, Jennifer, a PDS Liaison from the University of South Carolina, and Ashley, an art teacher at a PDS school, discuss a recent project that highlighted the exceptional instruction occurring at Pontiac Elementary School.

This paper outlines the logistics and discusses the benefits of the Professional Development School (PDS) partnership between Sandhills Middle School (SMS) in Lexington School District Four and the University of South Carolina (USC). Through this partnership as well as the University of South Carolina's Center for Excellence, teachers at Sandhills…

Background: Early Colleges (ECs) are a type of rapidly growing dual enrollment program proven to be successful in helping underrepresented students get a jumpstart on their postsecondary education. To date, the most rigorous evidence on the impact of ECs has come from two lottery-based natural experiments conducted by the SERVE Center (Edmunds et…

This case study examines how two Professional Development School partners, J.D. Lever Elementary School and the University of South Carolina Aiken, identify and ultimately select mentor teachers to work with teacher candidates. This article traces the evolution of this process, starting with selections premised mainly on established personal…

This article represents the 28 year history of Professional Development Schools at the University of South Carolina and explains how the network continues to grow and thrive, in part, by the application of a collaborative leadership model. Our goal in this article is to recognize and understand how our continued efforts, as professional…

What's in Our Waters Jr. (WOW Jr.) is an environmental outreach program designed to teach fourth grade elementary students about watershed protection. This program is unique because of the partnership that brings together students, teachers, scientists, and water resource professionals to promote science education and environmental stewardship in…

Rural school districts throughout the country face increasing challenges with recruiting and retaining beginning teachers due to job demands that include a lack of mentoring, lower salaries than their urban and suburban counterparts, geographic isolation, requirements to take on additional nonteaching duties, and teaching assignments that include…

University-school partnerships can be a powerful mechanism for educator professional learning, but they have varying degrees of success. In South Carolina's School District 5 of Lexington and Richland Counties, superintendent Christina Melton wanted to make sure her district's partnership with the University of South Carolina would strategically…

In fall 2020, the U.S. Department of Education awarded the National Institute for Excellence in Teaching (NIET) a $2.5 million grant, in partnership with the University of South Carolina (UofSC) and the Branch Alliance for Educator Diversity (BranchED). The aim of the three-year Supporting Effective Educator Development (SEED) grant is to build…

The concept of a Professional Development School (PDS) is not recent phenomenon. A more recent outgrowth of the Professional Development School movement has been an annual national conference dedicated to sharing and showcasing the work of various schools and universities engaged in PDS work. The University of South Carolina in Columbia originated…

The state of education in the United States faces many challenges in preparing students for the workforce and postsecondary education. These challenges are heightened at the postsecondary level for schools of nursing. The current shortage of nurses will continue to rise if recruitment and retention strategies are not employed. The purpose of this…

Art can provide a vehicle for animating learning. Teachers bring ideas to life through curriculum, while artists realize their ideas through images, often translating between forms, media and spaces. This paper describes the context, content and format of a residential Summer Arts Academy for gifted and talented middle and high school students,…

"Imparting Wisdom: HBCU Lessons for K-12 Education" details historically black colleges and universities' (HBCUs) longstanding efforts to provide quality educational experiences for their students and how their success may be translated in K-12 schools. This brief uplifts research-based HBCU best practices, practical recommendations and…

Dating back to 1990, the PDS relationship between the University of South Carolina and Dreher High School in Columbia, South Carolina, has had a persistent dedication to a partnership that not only benefits pre-service teacher candidates but also empowers early career teachers to actively engage in their school. This article describes how this…

In this article, the author describes how a partnership was established to bring science and education majors together with elementary school children in an after-school STEM program. This partnership allowed preservice teachers and science majors to have fun with science and to learn science informally, in a nonclassroom, low-stress…