Removing Barriers

The purpose of this chapter is to articulate the success of a partnership facilitated by a PDS relationship in serving at-risk students in a collection of schools proximal to a university in the Midwest. The authors begin by describing characteristics of community partnerships, including professional development schools, which both enable and hinder schools and stakeholders when they attempt to build innovative partnerships promoting positive school and community outcomes. They then discuss how they leveraged the resources of the local community, a teacher education program, and the local schools to develop and implement an afterschool academic support program targeting students at-risk for school failure. In addition to explaining the procedural elements that were found to be useful in breaking down traditional barriers to effective partnerships (e.g., space, finance, staff, quality curriculum support), the authors present the results of their study that demonstrate student gains in both math and reading.

Transformative Partnerships

With all higher education educational endeavors there is a transformative element that enhances the progression forward in terms of academic program development. Teacher education is no exception to this aspect of the evolutionary process. The authors' story of that transformation and the impact of creative endeavors in teacher education offer a sense of moving beyond the traditional to the transformative in teacher education. Carter (1993) offers that the story can offer a perspective on our work and inform teacher education on the directions we might take to bring about improvement in our efforts to prepare educators for the future. The authors' story begins with a strong foundation and commitment to understanding the critical elements of successful partnerships. This foundation has served them for 15 years, and two distinct eras of partnership work that delineate the transformation. The authors explore each era: “The Professional Development School (PDS) Story” followed by “10 Years Later.”

Developing a More Systematic Approach to Professional Development School Partnerships

In this chapter, the authors describe the growth and development of a Professional Development School network between a large urban university and its school partners. This partnership included a variety of grade levels, ranging from Pre-Kindergarten through High School (PK-12). This chapter provides a historical overview, decisions that shaped the current status of PDS partnerships, and provides implications for systematic approaches to PDS partnerships.

The Necessity of Shared Vision to Achieve Coherence

The adoption of Common Core State Standards for Mathematics (CCSSM) has implications for state-level curriculum, policy, and assessment. For most states, including North Carolina, the CCSSM represents a departure from recent state curricula and requires more than a simple “retooling” of content organization. To respond to such change, district and school-level leaders must share a common vision of high-quality mathematics teaching based on common understandings. Just as importantly, classroom teachers must share this vision. In this chapter, the authors describe the Appalachian Mathematics Partnership (AMP), the factors that have significant impact on partners, an activity, and how the understanding gained from this activity impacted future professional development with the goal of working towards a shared vision and coherence.

Early Childhood Programs as Professional Development Schools

The focus of this chapter is on the establishment and maintenance of early childhood Professional Development Schools (PDSs). While the advent of PDS partnerships goes back to the 1980s and 1990s, very few of the PDSs have involved university partnerships with early childhood (pre-K) programs. This chapter outlines some of the opportunities and possibilities that early childhood PDSs offer, as well as some of the unique obstacles that are encountered when working with pre-kindergarten programs. Specific examples are provided of work in three different early childhood PDSs. The chapter concludes with an examination of future directions for early childhood Professional Development Schools.

Transformative Partnerships

This chapter provides an overview of a Digital Stories project that was part of a Professional Development School partnership between a faculty member at a university and a nearby elementary school. Following a description of the project, the authors connect this project to reflective practice and different types of knowledge related to teaching.

The Benedum Collaborative

The idea of simultaneous renewal articulated in the work of John Goodland (1994) has guided the Benedum Collaborative, a 20-year-old school-university partnership at West Virginia University. A strategic plan was developed in 2007 and updated in 2009 to guide simultaneous renewal activities. A rationale for simultaneous renewal is provided followed by a summary of the Collaborative's coordination features and governance structure. Previous program evaluation efforts are summarized. How the strategic plan was evaluated is followed by an analysis of the plans and reports across the ten goals. The current dean of the college taps her lenses and experiences in qualitative research, teacher education, and technology integration to comment on what has been done to support simultaneous renewal. The chapter recommends a program evaluation structure utilizing dynamic logic models be implemented in school-university partnerships to inform practice and understand the complexities of simultaneous renewal.

Viewing the Implementation of the CCSS through the Lens of One Transformative District-University Partnership

The study described in this chapter is on a more-than-20-year collaboration between a university mathematics department and its local high school district. The joint effort has created multiple components (such as strengthening teachers' mathematics knowledge, developing teacher leadership, and increasing teachers' appreciation of the importance of engaging students in tasks with a high cognitive demand) that are facilitating the districts' current efforts to implement the California Common Core State Standards for Mathematics. It describes a partnership that has always been grounded in mutual respect.

Socrates and the Search for Meaning at His Academy

The chapter describes a partnership between the University of North Carolina – Charlotte and Socrates Academy, a public charter school in suburban Charlotte, North Carolina. The historical framework of this collaborative work is summarized, and the implementation of a unique math program, the Comprehensively Applied Manipulative Mathematics Program (CAMMP), is detailed in its most important elements. From inception through its current implementation, the program has inspired both teachers and their students to become mathematical thinkers. Beginning with primary grades students, this developmental math program encouraged deep thinking and inquiry-based understanding of mathematical concepts. The history of the partnership's development and its most salient characteristics are summarized. Perspectives from teachers and parents are incorporated, and data-based evidence of the partnership's success is described.

Transformative Professional Development

This chapter begins by describing the authors' professional development team and its influence in schools where they have engaged in professional development partnerships. Next, the authors offer literature that supports the need for professional development teams in educational settings. Then, referring to the excited conversation above, they show how they study students, write about them, share writings, and share this work in schools. The authors end by explaining how this recursive process—study, write, share—might serve as a PD prototype for other collaborative teams within Professional Development Schools.