When clinical instructors return to districts they assume new instructional leadership roles and continue to serve as school-university teacher education liaisons. The stated mission of the innovation is to create a more effective collaborative process of preparing student teachers and counselors and inducting them into the profession. Twelve school districts in different phases of collaboration now participate in the network. As well, the model or seamless teacher professional development across the career span has spread to other professions, other states, and other countries. The curriculum is based on theory and research about teaching, adult learning, ethical and intellectual development, developmental clinical supervision, and peer coaching.
Research indicates that such an approach to teacher professional development is highly effective.
Significant collaboration is achieved as colleges and school districts school-based educators initiate local preparation of mentors and clinical teachers, and as some of these educators serve as resource persons and clinical instructors on college campuses. In 1989, the Wake County Public School System and NC State received the Showcase of Excellence Award of the National Council of States for Inservice Education, for their collaborative program. In 1992, the School-University Mentor Network was featured by the Association of Teacher Educators Commission on the Role and Preparation of Mentor Teachers. In 1995, a doctoral dissertation completed at Vanderbilt University identified the NC State mentor network as one of the nation s top three school-university partnerships for teacher and counselor induction. I m not the same person I was.