Toward a Common Understanding: Identifying the Essentials of a Professional Development School

• Published in: Childhood education 2008-12, Vol.85 (2), p.71-74
• Main Authors: Brindley, Roger, Lessen, Elliott, Field, Bruce E.
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Beginning Teacher Induction; Beginning Teachers; Boards of directors; College School Cooperation; Colleges & universities; Company business management; Conferences; Educational Change; Elementary Secondary Education; Higher Education; Information dissemination; Management; Mentors; Organizations (Groups); Partnerships in Education; Practice; Professional Development; Professional Development Schools; Schools; South Carolina; Student Teachers; Student teaching; Teachers; Training
• ISSN: 0009-4056; 2162-0725
• DOI: 10.1080/00094056.2009.10523066

Within these last 20 years, professional development schools (PDSs) have emerged and become, for many, the sine qua non of teacher preparation and professional development. Over the past decade, as PDSs increasingly became a focus of reform efforts and a subject of conversation, regional PDS conferences proliferated. As a result of these efforts, the National Association for Professional Development Schools (NAPDS) was launched at the March 2005 PDS National Conference. NAPDS has since been recognized as the preeminent PDS organization. Given the association's vision and its preeminent position as the only educational entity focused specifically on PDSs, it was a logical extension of the association's work to tackle the issue of what is and what is not a PDS, since it was becoming increasingly apparent that the term "PDS" was being used by many schools, colleges, and departments of education (SCDEs) as they talked about their work with P-12 partners. In August 2007, the NAPDS Executive Council and Board of Directors invited 11 additional professionals (including P-12 teachers and administrators and representatives of national education organizations) to join them in New Orleans, Louisiana, for a "Summit on Professional Development Schools: En Route to a Common Understanding." The goal was to reach consensus on precisely what it means to be a professional development school, and to do so in a non-prescriptive manner that, while seeking clarity on the meaning of the term, acknowledged and respected the value of other types of school-university partnerships. This article presents the nine philosophical underpinnings of PDS work that were identified at the summit.