This document includes a report describing the Precollegiate Enrichment Program at West Georgia College and a handbook developed by the program. The program was designed to meet both financial and volunteer needs of college students and to encourage children, ages 10-12, to continue their education past high school. Twenty academically talented…

A two-phase survey, employing two different survey instruments, was sent in January of 1988 to 51 institutions in Illinois engaged in teacher preparation. Each instrument was aimed at gaining information concerning either the extent of, or reaction to, middle-level teacher preparation in Illinois. The first phase was aimed at examining the extent…

The project described in this article, the Middle Grades Project, is based on a collaborative partnership between a university school of education and three middle grades schools. The project reflects a shift in the conceptual perspective of middle grades schooling. The three-step school improvement plan,…

The East Longmeadow/University of Massachusetts Professional Development School project is a school district/university collaborative for teacher preparation. A goal of the program is to bridge the gap between a university-based school of education and public schools in preparing new teachers. To accomplish this goal the collaborative has…

This paper examines the issues that emerged in the first six months of a collaborative program initiated by the Massachusetts State Department of Education for simultaneously developing or improving middle school teacher preparation programs and restructuring middle schools. The literature on interorganizational collaboration provides a framework…

This case study describes a 2-year (1988-90) demonstration dropout prevention program, a collaboration between a rural school and a university. The dropout prevention program attempts to identify effective teaching strategies that will increase the academic successes of at-risk sixth-grade students and expand the use of those strategies among the…

Describes POET (Principles of Educating Teachers), an ongoing statewide effort to improve the quality of Georgia's preservice teacher education in middle school mathematics and science. Explores POET's goals, foundations, processes, and activities and notes what POET staff have learned about statewide teacher education reform. (SM)

Describes preservice teacher education reform efforts at California State University San Marcos via program development and curricular design innovation. Beginning faculty worked on creating a middle level teacher education program informed by critiques of teacher education, visions for restructured middle schooling, and institutional realities.…

Forms of reasoning and problem solving required of students by innovative assessment projects in science are examined. The initial phase identified activities and school systems where new forms of science assessment were being piloted. The following are general dimensions of performance that were identified: (1) structured, integrated knowledge;…

This paper discusses the principles and describes the planning and development of a student teaching program model for Northeastern Illinois University students. The program is in its fourth year and was collaboratively designed by faculty from the university and a local middle school. The model is based on the importance of communication,…

This paper describes the goals, planning, governance, faculty roles, faculty development, and research activities at two professional development schools (PDSs) affiliated with Armstrong State College (Georgia). The college launched PDS partnerships with White Bluff Elementary School and Bartlett Middle School in September 1993. The roles of…

This document contains two studies of California curriculum enhancement projects designed to develop academic partnerships between secondary and postsecondary institutions and improve the academic preparation of students. The first study provides a qualitative evaluation of 20 projects funded by the California Academic Partnership Program (CAPP)…

Teams of teachers from four middle/junior high schools, in collaboration with faculty from the University of New Hampshire and consultants from the New Hampshire State Department of Education, implemented systemic changes in the teaching of mathematics and science. The curriculum goal was to design, adapt, implement, and evaluate hands-on,…

This case study reports on the experiences of teachers and student teachers during the process of developing and implementing professional development sites (PDSs) at one urban and two rural middle schools. The study examines the phases of development that teachers go through in the process of developing PDSs and how teachers' level of development…

The paper describes a successful effort at collaboration among a college reading program, a neighborhood self-help agency, and a public school. The three-way partnership was formed to improve the literacy levels of 12 behaviorally disturbed children in the fifth and sixth grades. The project involves whole language reading instruction and…