The federal mandate that all classroom teachers in the United States be highly qualified in three years may push professional development schools, a fast-growing form of university-school collaboration, to the education forefront.
Professional development schools tout themselves as ideal settings to make winners of a variety of stakeholders, including preservice teachers, veteran teachers, university professors, classroom students, and even the community at large.
The best school-university partnerships are two-way streets—they offer not only deeper practical training for new teachers but also ongoing professional development for seasoned classroom educators. Through such collaboration, experienced teachers gain guidance on best practices and often become mentors, college instructors, or degree-pursuing graduate students. University education professors gain access to authentic K–12 settings, and schools of education ensure that they graduate well-qualified new teachers.
Even so, the focus on creating a high-quality teaching program must be paramount, according to Marsha Levine, senior consultant for the National Council for Accreditation of Teacher Education (NCATE), the group responsible for devising standards for professional development schools. "When you put children at the center of professional development schools, the other goals of teacher preparation, staff development, and research can be met—but get defined according to the needs of the children," says Levine.
In such a model, the role of teachers is pivotal, say others. "This is not the old collaboration model where the university came in and told the school what was wrong. Now the questions and problems to solve are generated by the teachers, based on data they're reviewing. They are asking hard questions on how to improve instruction and how students are doing," says Robert Yinger, dean of Baylor University's School of Education and president of the Holmes Partnership, a pioneering national network of university-school collaboratives.
For that reason, the student achievement data required by the No Child Left Behind Act is a positive development, says Yinger. Teachers will be able to target improvements in teaching and learning practices more precisely because they'll have access to data disaggregated by race, ethnicity, English proficiency, economic level, disability, and gender.
The Greatest Need
Where highly qualified teachers are most needed—in high-poverty urban schools—is precisely where the new culture of professional development schools can do the greatest good for students, say experts.
"Professional development schools represent the kind of radical changes that need to take place in low-achieving schools with underprepared teachers," says Levine. Such changes can improve student achievement. Poorly performing schools, however, sometimes need a "radical restructuring" that might require replacing school staff with specially trained master and mentor teachers who could lead the change in school culture so that it is more like a "teaching hospital," Levine suggests.
"All quickie alternative programs" that profess to train teachers for problematic urban schools will never succeed, she warns.
Reflective Culture
In Worcester, Mass., Clark University has used its K–16 Professional Development School Collaborative to cultivate a strong relationship with the city's schools since 1996. The five collaborative schools have a 57 percent minority population, and 67 percent of their students qualify for the federal free or reduced-price lunch program. The Jacob Hiatt Magnet School and the University Park Campus School are two of the professional development schools located in Worcester's high-crime, high-poverty inner city.
A key to developing a reflective culture at participating schools has been the use of "rounds," a method of observation, analysis, and reflection borrowed from teaching hospitals. In a typical round, college faculty, teachers, and student teachers look closely at school practices together during pre-round, observation, and post-round sessions.
In a round examining a school's usage of literature circles, for example, the host outlines the targeted practice, sharing its background and issues in a pre-round discussion. The host, who might be a student teacher, veteran educator, or college faculty member, raises questions, such as "Are students fulfilling their roles in the literature circle discussion?" and "How do I coach students to participate?" The group making the round then works to answer these questions during a classroom observation that includes interaction with students. Immediately after the observation, the group gathers for a post-round discussion. The host leads with her observations, and then the group discusses what could be done differently to improve the teaching practice observed.
For Clark University faculty, participation at the school occurs in other ways, too. Clark professors may hold classes for school staff, carry out clinical work, and advise student teachers at a school site. Teacher leaders also may run weekly two-hour seminars for student teachers and staff. At the Jacob Hiatt Magnet School for K–6 students, for example, a learning disabilities specialist with 30 years' experience recently talked about the importance of individualized education plans and methods for recognizing and testing for specific disabilities.
Another important element of Clark's program is having full-time teachers from the partner school act as professional development school coordinators. They may coteach courses with university faculty or mentor student teachers. Mary Labuski, a coordinator at Hiatt Magnet School, currently coteaches a university-level course on research with Clark education professor Fiona McDonnell for nine staff members at Hiatt. Using Title II money from Clark plus Worcester school funds, Hiatt teachers are closely examining students' classroom work to gain insight into ways to improve their instructional practice.
The school-university collaborative model "definitely promotes leadership," Labuski says. "The principal calls everyone to step up to the plate to be active participants," and that promotes "healthy competition" while keeping people open to new ideas.
Collegial Ties
The cross-fertilization among college students, teachers, and university professors during rounds, mentoring, weekly seminars, and summer institutes fosters "a multidimensional way for teachers to reflect on their practice," says Tom Del Prete, director of Clark University's Jacob Hiatt Center for Urban Education. "And that is building a new school culture."
The culture is collegial because all participants are focused on teaching and learning. Donna Rodrigues, principal at University Park Campus School for grades 7–12, says the collaborative encourages mutual respect. During summer institutes, teachers and professors come together to study new instruction or curriculum strategies in different disciplines. "K–16 conversation is rare these days," says Rodrigues, "but in this program even kindergarten teachers can jump into the conversation with college professors."
New teacher Jody Bird, a Clark master's program graduate who teaches Honors Biology and Algebra II at University Park, is a firm believer in the collaborative's benefits. In a professional development school, even an undergraduate's classroom observations are more meaningful because of interaction with school students, Bird says.
As a student teacher, Bird was "so used to having people in the classroom" that now as a teacher "the more people who can give me feedback the better," she insists. "I want to have that constructive criticism."
Community Involvement
Educators are not the only ones providing feedback in school-university partnerships. Because the Worcester schools have diverse student populations (30 percent are Hispanic, 12 percent African American, and 8 percent Asian), the collaborative seeks direct input from community leaders for curriculum choices and internship candidates in the schools. "We have minority leaders helping to review applications and interview master's degree candidates" who will do their teaching internships in Worcester's professional development schools, says Del Prete. "It ensures that we take into account issues that might be important to the community."
The collaborative has also affected how Worcester's students view education and their chances for success in life, according to city educators. Qualified high school graduates of University Park are eligible to get free tuition at Clark. "That's one of the motivations for setting high standards," says Rodrigues. "Kids are eager to learn here." In addition, 8th graders recently received a semester's worth of Shakespeare seminars from a Clark professor, and juniors and seniors can attend classes tuition-free at Clark.
The Challenge of Research
Creating and sustaining school-university partnerships can take so much time and energy that sometimes research, documentation, and evaluation of the program "fall by the wayside," according to Yinger of the Holmes Partnership. The new challenge for professional development schools is proving that research-based practices are not only getting into the classroom but also making a positive difference in students' achievement. To accumulate evidence, the Holmes Partnership is encouraging its members to better document connections between teacher quality and student learning to meet Title II demands of the No Child Left Behind Act.
As schools assess the benefits of these partnerships, they find that universities are sharing research and evaluation skills, familiarity with the latest education issues and debates, and a deep understanding of education theory, Yinger adds.
In his study How Professional Development Schools Make a Difference: A Review of Research, University of Massachusetts professor Lee Teitel highlights studies that show how certain professional development schools have contributed to better practices, higher retention rates for teachers, and improved student achievement.
For example, the Benedum Collaborative Model of Teacher Education at West Virginia University showed significant improvement in math achievement based on an evaluation of students' standardized test scores.
Although pleased that the study showed professional development school practices have a positive impact, Benedum Collaborative Director Van Dempsey emphasizes that "we also don't want to make the claim that we are all about standardized test scores."
"Part of the work of the collaborative is to look at multiple ways . . . students learn," and share the best practices for classroom teaching, says Dempsey. The continued development and success of school-university collaboration also depends on continually educating the many stakeholders about ways they can work together, he adds.
"These relationships are constantly negotiated and need constant maintenance. You don't wave a wand and it happens. You have to build a lot of trust and have a lot of faith that people are moving in the same way," says Dempsey. If mutual trust between a school and university is built, he continues, the result is a combination of higher-quality teacher education and professional development that together are "better than either one could do alone."
Worcester teacher Jody Bird agrees that the benefits of school-university collaboration are best realized when participants' goals and expectations are fully understood. "There has to be open communication between the university and school," says Bird. "When avenues are open, then there's potential for amazing teaching and learning."
