A former school superintendent who is now a university professor uses her experience in these partnership roles to describe how Kansas State University's collaboratively designed master's academy leadership preparation models merging theory and practice came about over fifteen years ago, and how it has evolved since then.

The purpose of this article is to share the history of one Professional Development School (PDS) partnership in an effort to help others reflect, set visions, and move forward into a new educational future. The emergence, development, and continuation of this partnership was dependent upon finding ways to create a growth-oriented environment,…

The 1983 publication of "A Nation at Risk: The Imperative for Educational Reform" (National Commission of Excellence in Education) "initiated the longest sustained period of attention to public education in the nation's history and ignited a new wave of interest in teacher preparation" (NRC, Committee on the Study of Teacher…

In this article, professors share how the district/university partnership model thriving at Kansas State University was successfully replicated in North Dakota, and was adapted to match their own department goals. While teacher leadership has become a theme among Kansas State academies, their model was created out of principal preparation efforts.…

School leadership matters when discussing teacher effectiveness and student performance, and preparation programs need to graduate principals with the skills necessary to lead schools for tomorrow. The traditional approach to preparing educational leaders is no longer getting the job done. In this article, Meija, Devin and Calvert, students who…

Considering how long societies have been educating their youth, the history of teacher education is relatively brief. From the first teacher education innovation in the 17th century through those of the late 20th century--de la Salle, the American normal school, the flood of student teachers into public schools after World War II, the student…

The conceptualization and measurement of education finance equity and adequacy has engaged researchers for more than three decades. At the same time, calls for increased academic accountability and higher student achievement in K-12 public education have reached new levels at both the national and state levels. Aligning these represents an…

For a quarter century, Kansas State University's College of Education has supported a Professional Development School (PDS) model involving professional collaboration with selected public school systems across Kansas. In that time, this relationship has proved to be an instrumental vehicle for educational change. The state of Kansas' adoption and…

The purpose of this article is to illustrate how a valid and reliable state accountability system could be developed that identifies effective schools and school districts in a comprehensive, understandable, and practical way. The author presents an overview of the strategy used in the analysis, discusses the use of education production functions…