Rethinking Standards Through Teacher Preparation Partnerships (Suny Series in Teacher Preparation and Development)

Choice Outstanding Academic Title

Explores a particular educational reform effort, teacher preparation partnerships, with special attention to standards and assessment.

This book documents six exemplary teacher preparation programs participating in school-university partnerships in an effort to examine issues of standards in teacher education. It describes how attention to standards has played out in contrasting demographic, political, and intellectual contexts. The authors reveal the realities and consequences involved in the complex process of implementing standards in varied program contexts often having to reconcile external mandates with the needs of their students and their own program values. Working in pairs, teacher educators formed critical friend research partnerships focused on assessment, inquiry, equity, diversity, and technology. Institutional partnerships discussed include: The University of Louisville with University of Southern Maine; Teachers College, Columbia University with University of California, Santa Barbara; and University of Wisconsin, Milwaukee with Wheelock College.

"…timely and carefully focused … a very rich and robust research partnership model. What makes this presentation so credible and compelling is the contribution of the Leading Edge institutions engaged in the research … the reader is treated to case studies that are at once real and complex, intriguing and thought-provoking. The volume is well written and honest … This will be an invaluable resource for teacher training programs on the move." — CHOICE

“This book offers both a grounded and a nuanced discussion of teacher preparation. The various programs, and their work with standards, sound real. The stories ring true. It seems likely to me that the stories and especially the 'crosstalk' chapters will stimulate other partnerships, and will help teacher education personnel think about how they might examine their own programs.” — Lauren Sosniak, author of Partnerships with a Purpose: A Case Study on Curriculum Development and Delivery Through School-College Collaboration

“Teacher education is finally being recognized as an important aspect in the improvement of education. The issue—partnerships with schools—while known as an important element of quality teacher education, has not received the in-depth case study approach presented in this volume.” — Virginia Richardson, University of Michigan

Contributors include A. Lin Goodwin, Gary A. Griffin, Susie Hanley, Nancy Harriman, Sarah Jacobs, Mieko Kamii, Walter H. Kimball, Ann Larson, Alexandria T. Lawrence, Patrice R. Litman, Ann C. Lippincott, Phyllis Metcalf-Turner, Amy Otis-Wilborn, Marleen C. Pugach, Susan Redditt, Steve Ryan, Anne Sabatini, Tanya Sheetz, Karen Siegel-Smith, Jon D. Snyder, Betty Lou Whitford.