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New Partnerships. Finally, the members of the Holmes Group, after a decade of making uneven progress in the reform of teacher education, learned that schools of education cannot bring about the changes they seek by themselves. Initially, they saw that many of the weaknesses in teacher education could be addressed by strengthening the links between the faculty in the school of education and the faculty in the rest of the university. The reform of the schools of education, however, requires more than that and the invention of the PDS has made it clear that the links to the fields of professional practice need strengthening also.
The Holmes Group Formed The Holmes Partnership in 1996
A year after the publication of Tomorrow's Schools of Education in 1995, the Holmes Group joined with the
American Association of Colleges of Teacher Education (AACTE)
National Education Association (NEA)
American Federation of Teachers (AFT)
National Board for Professional Teaching Standards (NBPTS)
American Association of School Administrators (AASA)
National Policy Board for Educational Administration (NPBEA)
National Staff Development Council (NSCD)
to create a new organization, The Holmes Partnership, to advance a reform
agenda for the education of professionals who work in the schools. In January, 1996, the members of the Holmes Group made the necessary changes in their bylaws to form the new organization, which is dedicated to accomplishing the goals the Holmes Group announced in its three books, Tomorrow's Teachers (1986), Tomorrow's Schools (1990), and Tomorrow's Schools of Education (1995). The members of the Holmes Partnership were to be partnerships of universities and schools and other professional organizations.
After a decade of work, the Holmes Group commissioned a study, supported by the Ford Foundation, to evaluate its accomplishments and progress toward its goals. The study group, chaired by Michael Fullan, Dean of the School of Education at the University of Toronto in Ontario, Canada, and an authority on organizational change, confirmed the directions the Holmes Group had announced at its annual meeting a year ago. The study group found that the reform of professional education is so complicated and difficult that it has not yielded to any one reform groups efforts to improve it. Thus, the need for a partnership. The links between professional educators simply must be formalized and focussed for the reform work of the last decade to stand a chance of succeeding. The study was published by AACTE in 1997 under the title, The Rise of Stall of Teacher Education Reform.
The Holmes Partnership, a consortium of research universities, public school districts and organizations that represent professional educators, has adopted six principal goals:
Goal 1: High Quality Professional Preparation. Provide exemplary professional preparation programs for public school educators. These programs must demonstrate rigor, innovation, and attention to the needs of diverse children and youth. Their design, content, and delivery must reflect research and best practice.
Goal 2: Simultaneous Renewal. Engage in simultaneous renewal of public K-12 schools and the education of beginning and experienced educators by establishing strong partnerships of universities, schools and professional organizations and associations.
Goal 3: Equity, Diversity, and Cultural Competence. Actively work on equity, diversity and cultural competence in the programs of K-12 schools, higher education and the education profession by recruiting, preparing, and sustaining faculty and students who reflect the rich diversity of cultrual perspectives in this country and our global community.
Goal 4: Scholarly Inquiry and Programs of Research. Conduct and disseminate educational research and engage in other scholarly activities that advacne knowledge, improve teaching and learning for all children and youth, inform the preparation and development of educators, and influence educational policy and practive.
Goal 5: Faculty Development. Provide high quality doctoral programs for the future education professoriate and for advanced professional development of school-based educators. Redesign the work of both university and school faculty to enable accomplishments of the The Holmes Partnership goals -- better preparing educators in improving learning for children and youth. Promote conditions that recognize and reward educational professionals who better serve the needs of all learners.
Goal 6: Policy Initiation. Engage in policy analysis and development related to public schools and the preparation of educators. Advocate policies that improve teaching and learning for all students, promote school improvement and enhance the preparation and continuing professional development of all educators.
The need for partnerships between schools of education and the rest of the university and the educational professions is far more than a device for political advantage, although it is surely that. The core needs of the new school of education for the invention of a new curriculum, scholarship, faculty, instructional site, and so forth also require the intellectual contributions of higher education and the profession. Only then will teaching take its place as one of the learned professions that merits, like the other learned professions, the unwavering investment of higher education in it.
References
Holmes Group (1995). Tomorrow's Schools of Education. East Lansing, MI: Holmes Group.
Holmes Group (1990). Tomorrow's Schools. East Lansing, MI: Holmes Group.
Holmes Group (1986). Tomorrow's Teachers. East Lansing, MI: Holmes Group.
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