Winter 2012 Partnership Magazine - College of Education Home ...

Note From the Director
Ginger Zierdt
Dear friends,
In the Spring 2011 issue of Partnership
magazine, perspectives from PDS partners
were shared about the 2011 National
Association of Professional Development
Schools (NAPDS) Annual Conference. I
personally noted “sharing of practices
often…elevates the reputation and prestige
of the partnering organizations.” I’m
pleased to share that our PDS partnership
has continued to make its mark on a
statewide and national stage with 1.)
An invitation to our University President,
Richard Davenport, to speak with the
MnSCU Chancellor and Board of Trustees
in January regarding the NExT project
and its relationship to the PDS partners,
2.) An invitation by the NAPDS to apply
for the 2012 Exemplary PDS Achievement
Award, 3.) The election of one of our PDS
partners to the NAPDS Board of Directors,
and 4.) Numerous proposals accepted
for presentation at the 2012 NAPDS
Conference about Co-teaching, AVID,
and partnership development (domestic
and international) to name a few. These
recognitions, however, demand even
greater responsibility and increased levels
of enacted leadership by every stakeholder
who calls him/herself a “PDS Partner.”
There are partnerships…
…and then there are PDS Partnerships.
On April 12, 2009, the NAPDS
released a policy statement, “What It
Means to Be a Professional Development
School,” at its annual meeting. “The
purpose of the statement is to share with
the educational community the NAPDS’s
articulation of the term, ‘Professional
Development School,’ ” said past-President
Dr. Elliot Lessen. “This statement is not
intended to be either an evaluation or a
critique of the phenomenal work that has
punctuated PDSs over the past 20 years
but, rather, the association’s recognition that
there is a tendency for the term ‘PDS’ to be
used as a catch-all for various models of
school-university partnership work that may
or may not be best described as PDS.”
The NAPDS encourages all those
working in school-university relationships,
called PDSs, to embrace and uphold
the Nine Essentials* of PDS work
communicated in this statement. In this
issue of Partnership magazine, you will
read about the successes and challenges
involved in leading partnership work, and
meet highly engaged partners who keep
the PDS Nine Essentials at the forefront of
their daily work.
The Center for School-University
Partnerships, as a stewarding entity of our
PDS, strives to interconnect, enrich, and
sustain PDS partners. We live our mission
fully when our PDS partnership pushes the
Nine Essentials even farther – to advance
Big Ideas (like the NExT project), and most
importantly, to impact the success of our
students like no other collective could.
Best wishes,
Ginger L. Zierdt, Ph.D.
Director, Center for
School-University Partnerships
*PDS Nine Essentials
1. A comprehensive mission that is
broader in its outreach and scope than
the mission of any partner and that
furthers the education profession and its
responsibility to advance equity within
schools and, by potential extension, the
broader community;
2. A school–university culture committed to
the preparation of future educators that
embraces their active engagement in the
school community;
3. Ongoing and reciprocal professional
development for all participants guided
by need;
4. A shared commitment to innovative and
reflective practice by all participants;
5. Engagement in and public sharing of
the results of deliberate investigations of
practice by respective participants;
6. An articulation agreement developed by
the respective participants delineating the
roles and responsibilities of all involved;
7. A structure that allows all participants
a forum for ongoing governance,
reflection, and collaboration;
8. Work by college/university faculty
and P–12 faculty in formal roles across
institutional settings; and
9. Dedicated and shared resources and
formal rewards and recognition structures.
2 http://ed.mnsu.edu/csup/