PDS Partnerships part of the Education Reform Network

PDS Partnerships

The PDS Partnerships Network is a catalog of resources addressing education reform through partnership with professional development schools.

1. Accountability and Quality Assurance
   
2. Collaboration
   
3. Diversity and Equity
   
4. Learning Community
   
5. Organizations, Roles, and Structures
   

• 12-Step Partnership Process
  A brief overview of the National Association of Partners in Education 12-Step Partnership Process. A helpful framework for thinking about the stages of partnership development.
• A Cooperative Agreement Between North Carolina Central University, Department of Health and Human Services, and the Department of Public Instruction
  A sample partnership agreement.
• A Learning Organization
  Describes the attributes of a learning organization, discusses the value of strategic conversations, identifies skills that individuals need, and suggests how the learning organization may be assessed.
• An Introduction to PDS
  A slide-show overview of an initial PDS partnership session, focusing on some of the key elements of a PDS partnership.
• Are There Equity Implications in High-Stakes Teacher Testing?
  A keynote address that looks at the issue of ensuring equity and diversity within the teaching profession while maintaining high standards.
• Building Collaborative Partnerships
  Building collaborative partnerships are the mechanism for designing comprehensive strategies to address the needs of children and their families. Getting started, and planning for action are the focus of this paper.
• CCSU Professional Development School Network
  A sample PDS contract, the application process, university facilitator roles and responsibilities, defining characteristics of PDS partnerships, and tech support from Central Connecticut State University and its Professional Development School Network.
• Creating a Learning Organization
  Some answers to these basic questions:Can schools be learning organizations?How can staff learning be focused?How is learning driven by data?What changes in the workplace support organizational learning?What is the leader's role?
• Creating a Professional Development School
  Manual for Professional Development Schools from The University of Memphis College of Education. Includes their mission, focus, function, critical attributes, core commitments, and the partnership process.
• David Gibson, Ed.D.
  Dr. David Gibson is the Director of Research and Development at the National Institute for Community Innovations as well as the Vermont Institutes. He concentrates on partnership development and new programs, systems analysis, evaluation, higher education reform and statewide professional development planning. He also works on vision and project development, strategic planning, professional network building, national partners, and telecommunications in learning. His research and publications include work on complex systems analysis and modeling of education and the use of technology to personalize education for the success of all students.
• Developing Teachers' Leadership Skills
  This ERIC digest provides a summary of structures that provide emerging opportunities for leadership, and the personal characteristics and specific skills that assist in developing teacher leaders.
• Enhancing Technology Infusion through PK-12/Teacher Education Partnerships
  This ERIC digest explains how universities and schools can work together to provide individualized and on-site professional devlopment focused on integrating technology into the school curriculum.
• ERIC Digests on Diversity Issues
  Links to 2-page overviews with bibliographies on the topic of diversity, including the recruitment and retention of minority and culturally diverse teachers.
• Information Literacy and Teacher Education
  This ERIC digest discusses the concept of information literacy and its relevance for teachers.
• Infusing Technology into Preservice Teacher Education
  An overview of the obstacles to the use of instructional technologies, and suggestions for overcoming them.
• Learning Organization
  The National Center for Research on Vocational Education provides design specifications for a learning organization. The premise of this paper is that schools, colleges, and universities tend to be "teaching" institutions. An organizational re-examination and re-design is required to shift the focus to providing an environment in which these insitutuions become places of "learning."
• Locating Resources on Professional Development Schools
  An ERIC digest suggesting how to search the ERIC database, locating electronic resources, and finding non-routine literature dealing with issues affecting Professional Development Schools.
• NCATE Standard I: Learning Community
  Standard I focuses on learning and development by all members of a PDS partnership. Teaching and learning are grounded in research and practitioner knowledge, and change is supported through individual practice and improvement.
• NCATE Standard II: Accountability & Quality Assurance
  PDS partners continually assess and evaluate the success of the partnership through the collection of information and data that is used to inform and refine their practice. Evidence is publically shared, and a continual dialogue regarding the achievement of goals is fostered with all partner groups.
• NCATE Standard IV: Diversity & Equity
  Standard IV focuses on equitable opportunities to learn, policies and practices that support equitable learning outcomes, recruitment of minority and culturally diverse teachers, and the support of diversity within the PDS partnership.
• NCATE Standard V: Structures, Resources, and Roles
  Overview of NCATE Standard V for PDS partnerships, with a focus on governing structures that suport the learning and development of all members of the partnership.
• NCATE Standards for Professional Development Schools.
  Standards for Professional Development Schools from the National Council for Accreditation of Teacher Education. The standards include Learning Community, Accountability & Quality Assurance, Collaboration, Diversity & Equity, and Structures, Resources, & Roles.
• Overview: The University of Memphis Professional Development Schools Partnership
  The purpose, selection criteria, partnership principles, and components of the University of Memphis PDS Partnership.
• PDS At-a-Glance
  A summary describing a PDS partnership, the benefits, and the role of key players.
• PDS Handbook
  A PDS handbook from Purdue University Calumet and the Northwest Indiana PDS. Discusses the mission, functions, benefits, and roles within a PDS partnership.
• Pittsburgh State University Professional Development School Model
  Background, definition, purpose, and vision from the Pittsburgh State University PDS model. Also provides a mission statement, responsibilities of partners, and short-term and long-term goals and strategies.
• Professional Development School Network Glossary of Terms
  The Maryland Department of Education produced this glossary of terms for Professional Development Schools.
• Professional Development Schools and Educational Reform: Concepts and Concerns
  An overview of professional development schools and their role in improving public schooling.
• Professional Development Schools at a Glance
  A summary of common goals and characteristics of professional development schools from the American Association of Colleges for Teacher Education.
• Professional Development Schools: A Witness to Teacher Empowerment
  Identifies three attributes of teacher empowerment that emerged at Scales Professional Development School: teacher autonomy, collaborative opportunities, and emerging dialogue about all aspects of the educational process.
• Professional Devlopment Schools--Frequently Asked Questions
  A brief description of professional development schools.
• Professional Learning Communities: Communities of Continuous Inquiry and Improvement
  Through a review of the literature, this paper by Dr. Shirley M. Hord explores the concept and operationalization of professional learning communities: What do professional learning communities look like and how do they function? Why are such learning communities important for both staff and students? How are learning communities introduced and developed in schools as a new organizational arrangement?
• Professionalizing Teaching: Is There a Role for Professional Development Schools?
  This ERIC article maintains that professional development schools play a role in the professionalization of teaching. Resource list included.
• Recruiting Talented and Diverse People into the Teaching Profession
  The gap between the diversity of students and the racial and ethnic characteristics of those who teach them is a recruitment issue in public schools today. This paper illustrates some promising practices in recruitment efforts.
• Regional Professional Development Schools
  A sample mission statement from Salisbury State University (Maryland) and their partner schools.
• Strategic Alliances: Building Strong Ones and Making Them Last
  Success factors in strategic alliances and partnerships, including the importance of communication, participation, and trust.
• The Nature of Professional Development Schools
  Professional development schools as a key component in efforts to improve student learning by improving teaching.
• The Principal as Chief Learning Officer: The New Work of Formative Leadership
  This article maintains that the principal is the chief learning officer of a school. In this role, it is the responsibility of the principal to ask the right questions, analyze and interpret data, lead the faulty in conversations, create strategies for promoting innovation, optimize the talents of all personnel, promote and encourage change, and create opportunities for team learning.
• We're all here to learn
  Journal of Staff Development article describing the impact of adult learning on student achievemnet.