This paper discusses an approach to educational improvement through collaboration between schools and universities. It develops the concept of symbiosis between unlike institutions in which each recognizes need for the other in seeking to fulfill its self-interest. The first section defines the essential characteristics of successful renewal: that…

The National Network for Educational Renewal is committed to cultivating and connecting all the essential components of a healthy teacher education enterprise: the partner schools (clinical or professional development schools); subject specializations of university arts and sciences departments; and the part of teacher education commonly provided…

A dual agenda of renewing schools and teacher education means that faculty members from both sides must join together as equal partners. The National Network for Educational Renewal engages three groups of faculty (in schools, university liberal arts departments, and colleges of education) in ongoing conversations about educational improvement and…

Experiences with and studies of a formal network of 18 elementary schools--the League of Cooperating Schools (LCS)--in Southern California are described and analyzed in a narrative account, with observations, of the network's creation and maturation. This set of formal agreements between the school districts and the Research Division of the…