This 5-year mathematics professional development project involves 27 elementary teachers prepared and supported as Elementary Mathematics Specialists (EMSs) in high-need urban schools. They complete a university's K-5 Mathematics and Teacher Supporting & Coaching Endorsement programs and participate in Professional Learning Communities and…

Language and culture are central to learning and human development, as they shape the ways in which people all learn and grow together. Individuals learn as members of a community that values their participation and is respectful, productive, and inclusive. This report tells the story of the UCLA Community School (UCLA-CS), a public school in…

This paper explores school leaders' and teachers' ideas about drivers of improvement at local level in the decentralised Swedish school system. An institutional perspective is applied to investigate how institutional logics at macro level are played out at micro level in improvement processes. The paper draws on a three-year collaborative research…

In response to the needs for kindergarten principals to foster teachers' capacities and commitment, this study examined the relationships between professional learning communities, principal leadership practices, and teacher commitment to kindergartens among 2106 teachers from 153 Hong Kong kindergartens, analyzing by using multilevel structural…

This inspirational book provides a concrete model of why university-district partnerships are essential to preparing justice-focused school leaders, and how these partnerships can thrive. Readers will find details of one such partnership, Leadership Education for Anaheim Districts (LEAD), which incorporated high-impact practices for equity,…

Low-income families face myriad stressors and challenges that often negatively affect students' reading achievement. Although community partners are crucial in supporting K-12 students, there is little research on how different types of community services affect students' reading achievement in Title I schools. The present study aims to assess the…

Transforming mathematics learning and teaching toward more equitable and effective approaches is critical to student mathematics learning and identity development. This task at-scale in a district takes time, commitment, and mathematics expertise that may not be widespread in the absence of focused professional development. District and regional…

Our contribution to this issue features a K12 school district + university partnership related to technology integration, and explores the connections between technology, teacher learning, creative risk taking, and failure. Austin Public Schools (APS) and the LT Media Lab (LTML) have been engaged in a research-practice partnership (RPP) for seven…

During the past year, teachers have expended much time and effort moving their mathematics instruction online. To do this, teachers had to build their content, pedagogical, and technological knowledge, or technological pedagogical content knowledge (TPACK). As teacher educators facilitating a professional learning sequence during the shift to…

Successful educator preparation programs rely on partnerships with K-12 schools. The literature emphasizes the importance of strong partnerships, but illustrates limitations in creating and maintaining partnerships that meet the needs of all parties--the partnering school and its students, the college/university and teacher candidates. The purpose…

This phenomenological study explored best practices to increase preservice teacher self-efficacy before the student teaching semester. The research was guided by this central inquiry and three sub-questions. Using a pre- and post-phenomenon survey instrument as well as an initial questionnaire and a final reflection, preservice teachers who were…

This study examines the experiences of six K-5 elementary school teachers in professional learning spaces for antiracism. Teachers from two elementary schools established school-university partnerships to begin antiracist work: one on a whole-school level, the other a group of teachers meeting voluntarily with university faculty. Given the paucity…

This study examined the elements of [critical] multicultural awareness ([C]MA) and [critical] multilingual awareness ([C]MLA) identified in the pedagogical responsiveness of five literacy teacher educators (LTEs), the factors that influenced such awareness, and the ways in which these forms of awareness shaped educators' pedagogical responsiveness…

This article provides a rationale for the crosspollination of two asset-based pedagogies: Universal Design for Learning (UDL) and culturally responsive teaching (CRT) and specific examples that illustrate the important role that strong school- university partnerships play to address potential barriers to UDL and CRT implementation. Concrete…

The challenges and successes of planning, implementing, and evaluating a nature-based four-year-old kindergarten program are shared as well as a description of the first years of the program that is designed to enhance the students' academic, physical, social, and emotional development. In addition, a description of how the partnership among a…