University of Delaware Office of Public Relations The Messenger Vol. 5, No. 3/1996 Public school partnerships help train next generation of teachers The national educational reform effort is being directed from within the University of Delaware by Frank B. Murray, H. Rodney Sharp Professor of Educational Studies and Psychology and a founding member of the Holmes Group, now the Holmes Partnership. This organization, with Murray as interim president, is committed to changing the teaching profession through widespread restructuring within the nation's schools and colleges of education. The Holmes Partnership includes the National Education Association, the American Federation of Teachers, the American Association of School Administrators and the National Staff Development Council, as well as colleges and universities across the country. The partnership, which will officially begin operation July 1, requires universities interested in joining to bring with them a professional development school-a "regular public school that has taken on all of the modern reform goals." Moreover, the Holmes Partnership requires that these public schools and their faculty "be partners in the training of teachers, administrators and counselors, in an effort to help build the next generation of educators. "Teaching experience is much better if gained on-site, in the real world," Murray says, "and it works better if the teachers in the real world are an integral part of the program." In addition, the schools may be asked to contribute to scholarly literature in the field, Murray says. "This would require that a regular public school take on the same role as a teaching hospital for medical students," he says. Two examples of such a professional development school already exist in Delaware. Three UD education students currently are completing a year-long master's program in the Thurgood Marshall Elementary School, located in the Christina School District in New Castle County, Del. These students have completed their undergraduate work in education and are licensed teachers. Their program at Marshall, says Murray, is "like a year's residency." Though four core courses are taken on the University's Newark campus, the balance of the students' work is completed in the school. As part of their year at Marshall, the students are required to complete a series of exercises, prepared by University faculty and designed to link their activities to the standards of the National Board for Professional Teaching Standards, an independent group in the Holmes Partnership working to develop the notion of a board-certified teacher. To earn such certification, a teacher with at least three years' experience would sit for a sort of clinical exam, in which he or she would actually demonstrate the ability to teach, Murray says. The master's program for student teachers at Marshall enables them to begin building a portfolio needed to sit for such an exam. The University also has received a grant from the U.S. Department of Education to develop an undergraduate teaching program in southern Delaware. Currently in the development phase, this program is being designed with the Lulu M. Ross Elementary School in the Milford School District. Students enrolled in the program would complete two years in the University Parallel Program at Delaware Technical and Community College and would then spend their next two years at the elementary school. Teachers at Ross will team up with University faculty via electronic mail, videotapes and an interactive video classroom. In the early stages, Ross teachers will act as "teaching assistants" to UD faculty, Murray says, "with the expectation that, eventually, the teachers at Ross will take over the instruction." Murray, former dean of the College of Education, says the presidency of the Holmes Partnership is "very labor intensive, but it's also exhilarating, for we are really inventing a whole new field." The partnership currently has approximately 50 members, and expects to add another 50 this year. Programs such as the Holmes Scholar, an aggressive effort to recruit minority educators, combined with the new instructional arrangements, are paving the way for extensive educational reform, Murray says. Though Murray says he recognizes the extensive changes that will be necessary to implement the partnership's programs on a large scale, he says he feels confident about the strength of the ideas. "There is very great interest in the work of the Holmes Partnership," he says, "and I'm sure our success will continue." -Kara Rupard, Delaware '96