Since professional development schools (PDSs) emerged in the mid-1980s as a promising approach to improving teacher education and P-12 schooling, information about these institutions has become more abundant and more accessible. Four primary sources of PDS information are discussed in this digest: the ERIC database, electronic resources, fugitive…

This paper describes the status and development of a school/university partnership from the point of view of the participants. Descriptions of the paths collaboration has taken, anecdotal recall, and reflections about working toward a collaborative relationship support comparisons of this relationship with the Professional Development School (PDS)…

Recent literature on Professional Development Schools (PDSs) emphasizes outcomes, accountability, and sustainability. This paper addresses themes that influence PDS sustainability, describing the University of South Florida's (USF) examination of three PDS sites, which led to questioning of the impact of leadership transitions on PDS…

The Puget Sound Professional Development Center (PSPDC) was established in 1989 as a partnership between the University of Washington and four middle schools. PSPDC has created collaborative and substantial teacher leadership roles. In performing the role of teacher leader coordinator (TLC), teachers: (1) were fully participating members of the…

This paper attempts to examine, in broad outline and from a reflective standpoint, the major attributes of professional development schools (PDS). The concept of reflection employed consists of five integrated components: biography, context, and end(s)-in-view, all bound together by the power of human transcendence and by the human capacity to…

This paper describes data from focus groups conducted with elementary teacher mentors at two Professional Development School (PDS) sites. The focus group sessions emphasized four themes: teachers' decisions to get involved in a PDS, teachers' perceived barriers to PDS success, how teachers benefit from PDSs, and recommendations for improvement.…

These studies explore two mentor teachers' practice of supervision in a Professional Development School (PDS) setting and the meaning that these two mentors attach to their own work as mentors of prospective teachers. Through prolonged participant observation and in-depth interviewing of both interns and mentors, this study captures the unfolding…

In contrast to noncollaborative relationships, collaborative partnerships have low role certainty, high work intensity, and personal and institutional interdependence. The Dayton Science Project (a university/school/community partnership to redesign and test K-12 science curriculum at 6 professional development schools) is discussed. Collaborative…

When school and college faculty are jointly responsible for new teacher induction, issues of control and status that may jeopardize collaboration can be more easily resolved. Well-designed internships last at least one year and feature interns clustered as a group and assigned to a school rather than to one teacher. (IAH)

Discusses ways in which computers can be used to help school reform by shifting the emphasis from information transmission to information processing. Highlights include creating learning communities that extend beyond the classroom; educationally oriented computer networks; Professional Development Schools for curriculum development; and new…

This paper describes a professional development partnership between Columbia University Teacher College and two New York City schools which adopted a cooperative teaching approach to combat teacher isolation and to enhance the joint preparation of special and regular education students in preservice programs. (Author/DB)

A brief historical perspective on the function of campus child care is followed by a discussion of the agenda of the Holmes Group, a teacher education reform group. The potential of campus child care centers to become professional development schools for universities is considered. A case study of Kent State University Child Development Center…

The "window-wall" in the San Diego State University/Cajon Valley Union School District Model Education Center provides a mechanism for linking theory to practice for preservice teachers at this professional development school. Several observation activities are described, and the value of the window-wall to school and university faculty…

Educational change is often accompanied by a blurring of traditional boundaries among various institutions and chief participants. At all levels, historical lines of authority and presumed centers of expertise are disappearing, thanks to redefined roles, redistributed decision-making responsibility, and new technologies. Transformative examples…

In attempting to define professional development schools (PDSs), this paper describes the origins of PDSs, which grew out of recognition by research universities that prospective teachers needed professional sites where they could be introduced to models of excellence in all facets of public education. The paper examines what good PDSs should…