Purpose: This article presents a professional development partnership which has grown together through collaboration resulting in increased capacity to engage mentor teachers (MTs), nurture teacher candidates (TCs), partner in university coursework and professional development, innovate teacher preparation practices and place new teachers with a…

Purpose: Annually, the National Association of School-University Partnerships (NASUP) awards individuals with the Exemplary PK-20 Boundary Spanner Award. The award goes to a university-based or a PK-12 school or school district-based individual who "innovates the systems or practices to enhance the learning of all of those involved in the…

The job of the school principal has become much more complex and demanding over the past several decades. Many university-based principal preparation programs--which prepare the majority of school principals--have struggled with how to make the fundamental changes needed to prepare principals for today's schools. To test a path forward, The…

Students with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) often display serious problem behavior that hinders educational and social progress. Educators in public schools are often untrained in the use of intensive evidence-based positive behavior technologies. This study describes the preliminary investigation of a coaching and consulting model for increasing…

School counselors across the United States are implementing comprehensive school counseling programs, such as those following the American School Counselor Association (ASCA) National Model. ASCA awards a designation honoring exemplary school counseling programs: Recognized ASCA Model Program (RAMP). Although a growing number of studies have…

Even though most of the students in United States public schools are students of color, the demographics of the teacher workforce do not mirror that of students. In the Northern Virginia region, there seems to be a greater deficit of Black teachers than in other areas of the US, even though this area is known for its diversity, resources, and high…

This article describes the PDS partnership between George Mason University and Daniels Run Elementary School, which are located in Fairfax, Virginia. In the spring of 2020, during their fifth year together, the partnership was awarded the National Association of Professional Development Schools Exemplary PDS Award. The Mason PDS program structure…

This study is based on collaboration between a school and a university on professional development training of 4th and 5th grade elementary school teachers in a southeastern state in the USA. The study was three-pronged and focused on teacher knowledge, pedagogy, and student achievement. We examined how the building of teacher capacity affected…

Many school districts struggle to retain early career teachers, but the challenge is particularly pronounced in small and rural districts (Frahm & Cianca, 2021). The School-University Resource Network, a university center at William & Mary School of Education in Virginia, discovered this firsthand through a community of practice they…

Building upon the prior development of a model of turnaround principal competencies, we investigated the extent to which the identified principal competencies correlate with student achievement. Participants met rigorous selection criteria for having effectively turned around their schools during their first 2 years as principal. We conducted…

Developing and sustaining comprehensive school mental health systems should be a shared endeavor between schools and community partners; the task should not rest solely on the shoulders of the K-12 education sector. Community partners, including health and behavioral health providers, can augment the continuum of services available to students and…

This report investigates communication and data sharing between K-12 and community colleges to identify best practices. This wide-ranging topic encompassed many efforts that impact student recruitment, retention and success in their postsecondary education. To prioritize the most pressing issues, this report focuses on recent system-wide findings…

The purpose of this research study is to understand teacher experiences throughout their second year of engagement in the Virginia Tech Partnering with Educators and Engineers in Rural Schools partnership. This partnership is an assets-based community partnership in a rural environment between middle school teachers, regional industry, and…

Geospatial technologies, such as geographic information systems (GIS), remote sensing, and GPS have been used in a variety of educational settings to help improve student learning. A sample of 53 high school seniors was recruited from the Geospatial Semester (GSS), a course that emphasizes the use of GIS for problem-solving and students in AP…

The author, as a school administrator, wrote this article to describe an effective collaboration with several universities on research projects that benefit both institutions. The outcomes described here focus on the process involved in such collaborations and the benefits to the school district these collaborations can create. Directed toward…