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##  The Impact of Professional Development Schools on the Education of              Urban Students. ERIC Digest Number 156.                                      

Professional development schools (PDSs) were originated a decade ago            to provide a new model for teacher education that enables graduate              students to have meaningful classroom experiences while they earn               their degree. Over 1,000 PDSs exist in nearly every state, operating            as partnerships between universities and public schools; most belong            to one of many national or regional networks. PDSs have four overall            goals: (1) teacher preparation, (2) professional development of                 inservice teachers, (3) research and inquiry on education practices             and dissemination of innovations, and (4) the improvement of                    students' school experiences. An additional goal for some PDSs is to            provide supports not available otherwise to underresourced urban                schools and to facilitate change in restructuring schools (Clark,               1999; Levine, 1997). 
Because of the several, and possibly                     competing, goals of PDSs, evaluations have been sketchy and                     inconclusive, although there is evidence that the achievement of                some students in some PDSs has improved (Abdal-Haqq, 1998a). There              have been many reviews of the concept itself, however, both strongly            supportive and critical. All reviewers can cite evidence for their              position, because experience varies so widely among the many PDSs               and because outcomes at a particular school are affected by the                 interplay of each partner's strengths and weaknesses (including                 regulatory constraints); the skills and commitment of the university            professors, student teachers, and school staff; and the                         characteristics of the students and the involvement of their                    families. 
This digest describes some ways that PDSs can improve               the school experiences of urban students; it also indicates their               possible pitfalls. The information can help guide schools                       considering a PDS partnership with a teacher education                          institution. GENERAL SCHOOL SUPPORTTo "engage in an authentic             collaboration" (Fountain, 1997, p. 2), the school partner in a PDS              must be wholly and actively engaged in its PDS program. It must be              willing to create different organizational structures, develop new              roles, and secure additional resources, either through external                 sources or the reallocation of internal resources. PDS teachers need            to be committed to making changes in their performance. (Indeed,                these are the same changes required of all restructuring                        schools.) BENEFITSOne important benefit of involvement in a               PDS for public schools is the presence of additional personnel who              can perform many useful functions. Student teachers can relieve                 teachers in the classroom while they do planning, curriculum                    development, inservice training, and other group activities that are            essential in restructuring schools. 
Another benefit of PDSs is the            professional development that university professors offer inservice             teachers. Development activities cover a wide range, such as ways to            assess teachers' own effectiveness, the value of certain teaching               techniques, and student needs; and training in new education                    strategies and multiculturalism. Computer training is often the most            useful, particularly when it contains a distance learning component             that expands teachers' ability to take courses and to provide                   children with new experiences (Abdal-Haqq, 1998b). The promise of a             more satisfying professional experience has a positive impact on                teacher retention in schools that otherwise would have high                     turnover. 
The implementation of integrated service programs in                PDSs benefits schools, particularly those suffering from a lack of              social service resources: mental health and job counseling, dropout             and gang prevention programs, etc. University partners can bring in             counseling professors and graduate students both to work directly               with students and families and to provide inservice staff with                  training (Clark, 1999). Unfortunately, though, not many PDSs have               successfully incorporated such programs, although the University of             Louisville has developed a Wellness Project that is now being                   replicated in some PDSs (Abdal-Haqq,                                            1998b). CHALLENGESImproving education in the participating                schools may not be the primary goal of the university partner, given            its mandate to educate its own students. Therefore, schools must                work to ensure that their students benefit educationally from the               partnership. There may be a tension between the need to raise test              scores, which is how a school's success is currently judged, and the            desire of a university to develop curriculum and teaching strategies            that increase student learning but not necessarily test                         scores (Pritchard & Ancess, 1999). Of course, these goals need not              be mutually exclusive, as demonstrated by a "reading buddy" program             at a Houston PDS that paired student teachers with elementary school            students for small group learning; the program, which also sparked              the strong involvement of inservice teachers, raised test scores                significantly (Abdal-Haqq, 1998b). INSTRUCTIONAL STRATEGIESOne            important aspect of the PDS model is "inquiry": ongoing "action                 research" by all PDS participants to explore how they themselves and            the students learn and interact, how they can apply this information            to improve students' learning, and how effective the instructional              innovations they develop are (Smith, 1999). 
The stated educational            philosophy of PDSs is learner-centered, constructivist practice,                which will increase learning by being responsive to the various                 needs of a diverse student population, instead of demanding that all            students fit into the "traditional, largely Eurocentric [teaching]              mold" (Abdal-Haqq, 1998b, p. 35). Specific strategies include                   cooperative learning, use of hands-on manipulatives, story reading              and writing, and students' use of the discovery method to learn                 independently (Davis, 1999). While assistance in implementing such a            philosophy can be an important benefit for the school partner, "only            a few studies" indicate that these strategies are actually being                used (Abdal-Haqq, 1998b, p. 35). 
The value to students of small               group learning and personal attention by teachers is well                       demonstrated by the PDS experience. Because of the large number of              educators on site, PDSs can develop one-on-one and group tutoring               activities whose pace is determined by the students' progress.                  Moreover, student teachers in a classroom can work privately with a             child to reinforce learning while the teacher moves through the                 curriculum more quickly with the remainder of the class (Pritchard &            Ancess, 1999). DEVELOPMENT OF EFFECTIVE MULTICULTURAL EDUCATION               STRATEGIESAn important PDS focus is infusion of a multicultural             perspective into learning. Ideally, PDSs implement multilingual,                multiethnic, and culturally diverse learning experiences, and adapt             them to meet the particular needs and learning styles of urban                  students. They sensitize teachers to student differences, explain               the importance of drawing upon community and family resources, and              provide opportunities for teacher education students to develop                 long-term relationships with children different from                            themselves (Fountain, 1997). 
Several problems have been identified            with this PDS effort, however. First, the public desire to train                more teachers whose ethnicity and socioeconomic status match their              students' is somewhat subverted by the PDS model itself. Teacher                education training through a PDS largely prevents students from                 working simultaneously; thus, it is most likely that white students             with better access to financial resources will enroll in the                    program. Second, research has shown that presenting information                 about the learning and behavioral characteristics of different                  ethnic groups can increase teacher stereotyping and even lead to the            belief that some students cannot learn (Proctor, Wagstaff, & Ochoa,             1998). Third, according to Murrell & Borunda (1998), many PDSs                  consider equity to be "equality of opportunity and access," as                  opposed to equality of outcomes, which is the true way disadvantaged            students an become equal with "mainstream" students. Finally, they              assert, most PDSs accept the traditional structure of schools,                  including their relationships with students' families and                       communities, thus possibly leaving in place inequitable access to               education and distributions of power (p. 69). PARENT AND COMMUNITY            INVOLVEMENTEfforts to involve parents depend on the commitment              of the public school and university staffs involved in the PDS, and             some PDSs have model programs. An El Paso PDS has developed                     a "democratic community" enabling parents to initiate their own                 action plans and collaborate with educators on school restructuring.            At a rural Nebraska PDS students engage in ongoing activities to                connect them to the community (Smith, 1999). A Houston PDS operates             a Saturday School, a ten-week program for parents and students that             complements other parent support services, including English                    language classes (LeCompte, Irby, & Lara-Alecio, 1995). 
These                 models notwithstanding, "explicit programming to involve parents and            communities...is not widespread" (Abdal-Haqq, 1998b, p. 54). Some               school and university staffs do not consider working collaboratively            with parents important; thus, their student teachers do not have an             opportunity to see how it can be done effectively (Proctor et al.,              1998) nor to work productively with individuals whose socioeconomic             status and race differs from theirs (Murrell & Borunda,                         1998). CONCLUSIONUrban schools can benefit from becoming a                partner in a PDS in many ways. Often, the positive effects, such as             staff development and the acquisition of technology resources, will             be felt even after the partnership is ended. But because the                    original promises of PDSs are frequently only partially fulfilled,              schools should seek assurances from potential university partners               that their institutional needs and the needs of their students will             be considered just as seriously as the effort to educate student                teachers. Schools entering into a PDS partnership must also commit              themselves to the hard work of institutional change, which involves             the way they operate and educate, and the way their staff members               work and relate to each other (Davis, 1999). Finally, schools and               communities need to partner in the planning and operation of a PDS              to ensure that the goal of equity translates into student                       achievement, school accountability, and community                               involvement (Murrell & Borunda, 1998). REFERENCESAbdal-Haqq,              I. (1998a, October). Professional development schools: What do we               know? What do we need to know? How do we find out? Who do we tell?              Paper presented at the National Professional Development School                 Conference, Baltimore. (ED 425 142) 
Abdal-Haqq, I. (1998b).                   Professional development schools: Weighing the evidence. Thousand               Oaks, CA: Corwin Press. (ED 415 226) 
Clark, R.W. (1999). Effective            professional development schools. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass. (ED               429 935) 
Davis, M.I. (1999, Spring). The restructuring of an urban            elementary school: Lessons learned as a professional development                school liaison. Early Childhood Research & Practice, 1(1). (ED 428              888) 
Fountain, C.A. (1997, February). Collaborative agenda for                change: Examining the impact of urban professional development                  schools. Paper presented at the Annual Meeting of the American                  Association of Colleges for Teacher Education, Phoenix, AZ. (ED 415             233) 
LeCompte, K., Irby, B.J., & Lara-Alecio, R. (1995). Community            learning: A field-based education model. Unpublished manuscript, Sam            Houston State University and Texas A&M University, Houston. (ED 399             222) 
Levine, M. (1997). Introduction. In M. Levine & R.                       Trachtman (Eds.), Making professional development schools work:                 Politics, practice, and policy (pp. 1-11). New York: Teachers                   College Press. (ED 411 222) 
Murrell, P.C., Jr., & Borunda,                    M. (1998). The cultural and community politics of educational                   equity: Toward a new framework of professional development schools.             In N.J. Lauter (Ed.), Professional development schools: Confronting             realities (pp. 65-86). New York: Teachers College, National Center              for Restructuring Education, Schools and Teaching. 
Pritchard,                 F., & Ancess, J. (1999, June). The effects of professional                      development schools: A literature review. New York: Teachers                    College, National Center for Restructuring Education, Schools and               Teaching. 
Proctor, T.J., Wagstaff, M.E., & Ochoa, B. (1998, Fall).            An urban professional development school. Teaching and Change, 6(1),            p. 35-52. (EJ 584 881) 
Smith, W.F. (1999). Service as moral                   stewards of the schools. In W. F. Smith & G.D. Fenstermacher (Eds.),            Leadership for educational renewal: Developing a cadre of                       leaders (pp. 155-88). San Francisco: Jossey-Bass. (ED 431                       212) 
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This Digest was developed by the ERIC Clearinghouse              on Urban Education, with funding from the Office of Educational                 Research and Improvement, U.S. Department of Education, under                   contract no. ED-99-CO-0035. The opinions in this Digest do not                  necessarily reflect the position or policies of OERI or the                     Department of Education.                                                     **Title:** The Impact of Professional Development Schools on the Education of              Urban Students. ERIC Digest Number 156.                                      **Document Type:** Information Analyses---ERIC Information Analysis Products (IAPs) (071); Information Analyses---ERIC Digests (Selected) in Full Text (073); **Available From:** ERIC Clearinghouse on Urban Education, Institute for Urban and                  Minority Education, Box 40, Teachers College, Columbia University,              New York, NY 10027 (free); Tel: 800-601-4868.                                **Descriptors:**  Educational Improvement,  Graduate Students, Graduate Study, Higher            Education, Professional Development,  Professional Development                  Schools,  Teacher Education, Urban Schools,  Urban Youth                     **Identifiers:**
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