Recently developed Professional Development School standards underscore the importance of professional learning community, inquiry, shared decision-making and a focus on student learning. These standards closely mirror the goals of "Critical Friends Groups," a significant movement in education to improve student achievement through…

To better prepare preservice teachers for meeting the challenges of student diversity, many universities have strengthened their partnerships with schools to provide sustained, mentored experiences in classroom settings along with concurrent coursework. For the past 5 years, elementary and secondary special education teacher candidates at the…

This study examined the technology preparation component of two University of Houston-Clear Lake (UHCL) preservice teacher education programs: the traditional teacher education program and the Teacher Education Advancing Academic Achievement Model (TEAM) Collaborate teacher education program. Some characteristics of TEAM were: a year-long site…

The Texas Centers for Professional Development and Technology (CPDT) study gathered evaluative data about the progress and contribution of the centers toward their goal of systematic change in teacher preparation and student learning during four years of funding (1992-93 through 1995-96). The 21 centers in the sample included 35 universities, 15…

The American Telephone and Telegraph Company (AT&T) Alliance for Tomorrow's Teachers is a collaborative effort among the University of North Florida, Florida Community College at Jacksonville, the Clay and Duval County (Florida) school systems, and the Clay and Duval County teachers' unions. The goals of the program are to: (1) restructure the…

This paper describes the experiences of several individuals involved in the initial stages of orchestrating a school-university partnership. A group of elementary teachers, a student teacher, a cooperating teacher, a university faculty member, and a coordinator of school-university partnerships participated in the experience and shared their views…

A collaborative project between a Professional Development School (PDS) and a public school supported teachers' action research and initiated preservice teachers into action research. This paper describes one team's action research project in an inclusive high school classroom that shared the duties of teaching, assisting, modifying instruction,…

For the past year, 12 social studies, English/reading, bilingual, and library teachers at an urban middle school have collaborated with 2 professors and 2 graduate assistants from Michigan State University (MSU) to create the concept of "multiple literacies" in themselves and among their students. The purpose of the work is to extend the concept…

Accountability in many and varied forms is being required of teacher preparation programs. Weiner (2000) explores the dichotomy of the belief that meaningful learning needs to be situated versus policy that demands educational outcomes be standardized. This contradiction demands urgent analysis as we look for appropriate measures of accountability…

This paper describes the Partnership for Excellence in Teacher Education (PETE), which promotes reform in mathematics and science teaching and learning in regard to preparing mathematics and science teachers. One of PETE's goals is to redesign teacher education curricula for selected courses. The PETE collaborative formed a Professional…

This study examined the effectiveness of a Professional Development School (PDS) student teaching program within one university's teacher education program. The program is field-based during students' entire senior year, which is divided into a PDS semester and student teaching. During the PDS semester, students are placed in PDS sites around a…

This book redefines teaching as a profession with pronounced service and moral dimensions, then shows how this new paradigm can be instilled in both teacher education programs and teaching practice. The book argues that teaching practice requires much more than knowledge and technical competence. It calls for reflection and inquiry, a dedication…

This paper explores the university supervisor's role in the Professional Development School (PDS) context, examining the influence of the PDS context on one student teacher supervisor's practice at Penn State University and the surrounding school district. The primary vehicle around which the PDS was structured was a 1-year internship for senior…

Recent research as well as local, state, and national mandates promote an increased role of technology in teaching and learning. In response to this call, K-12 institutions and colleges of education are faced with preparing current and future teachers to teach with technology. The current models of inservice and preservice teacher preparation with…

Over the past decade or more, educators and policymakers have sought to define new directions for teacher education in order to address widely perceived failures to prepare teachers adequately for the challenges to be faced in schools, especially those serving the poor and English learners. As colleges of education and urban school districts have…