Center for Professional Practice

Teaching Internship in Professional Development Schools

The teaching internship is also called the Professional Year because it encompasses the last 2 semesters of each program. This is a time when the teaching experience become more intensive in a Professional Development School (PDS).

A PDS is collaboratively planned partnerships for the academic and clinical preparation of interns under the guidance of a mentor classroom teacher and a Towson University faculty member. PDS training is much like on the job training for a doctor, therefore we call a "student teacher" an intern to illustrate they are engaged in the total school activities.

Professional Development School Network links:

• Why PDS?
• Network Milestones
• Network History
• Network Governance
• Network Features  

Why PDS?

In the last two decades, renewal and reform have been the agenda for P-12 schools, and the major approach to implementation has been standards-based reform and restructuring at the P-12 level. While crucial, this unilateral P-12 approach is insufficient. Attention to teacher quality is equally critical. As a result, P-16 partnerships have been created to initiate and sustain the simultaneous renewal of P-12 and teacher education, and to provide for the continuous professional development of educators, from pre-service, through induction, and throughout their professional careers.

PDS Network History

The College of Education at Towson University launched its Professional Development School Network in 1994 with Owings Mills Elementary School (Baltimore County Public Schools), which had been reorganized as a teacher education magnet. Today, the PDS Network includes the College of Education's departments--Early Childhood Education, Elementary Education, Secondary Education, and Special Education--and collaborates with each public school system in the Baltimore metropolitan area and surrounding school systems ( Anne Arundel, Baltimore, Baltimore City, Carroll, Cecil, Charles, Harford, Howard, Montgomery, St. Mary's, and Counties). The PDS Network includes elementary, middle and high schools, as well as special education centers.

PDS Network Governance

For the Professional Development School initiative to realize its full potential, all stakeholders must participate in refining the collaborative and in managing its operations. To that end, institutions within the network are actively involved in guiding this initiative. To foster communication and collaboration among members of the Towson University PDS Network, collaborative governing bodies exist for each PDS to make decisions regarding activities and fiscal requests.

Additionally, representatives of the Towson network participate with representatives from other institutions throughout the Maryland Professional Development School Network and the state.

PDS Network Milestones

Towson University's PDS Network is viewed as a national and state leader in professional development schools. Some of the Network's accomplishments follow:

• winner of NAPDS Spirit of Partnerships Award.

• winner of AACTE Pomeroy Award for Outstanding Contributions to Teacher Preparation.

• host of 2003 National PDS Conference, "Staying the Course: PDS, An Anchor for P-16 Reform."

• host with MSDE of annual PDS Research conference.

• winner of the 1998 Association of Teacher Educators Distinguished Program in Teacher Education

• selected as a pilot site for NCATE's PDS standards Field Test Project

• host of Maryland's 1998 National PDS Conference, "Charting a New Course"

• secured grant funding from organizations including Eisenhower, MHEC, NCATE, Goals 2000, MSDE and Title II

PDS Network Features

The PDS Network offers a number of on-site graduate courses at reduced rate:

• Differentiation of Instruction

• PDS: Planning for and Assessing Change

• Mentoring

• Education that is Multicultural

• The Teacher as Researcher

• Computer Technology and Utilization

• Utilization of Instructional Media

• Reading Instruction and Assessment

• Brain hazed learning