Queens University of Charlotte--Myers Park Traditional Elementary School Partnership.

As a single college and a single school, we were thrilled to receive the honor from the National Professional Development Schools’ Conference, the Award for Exemplary Professional Development School Achievement. It did not escape our notice that we were the only winner that was not a consortium of schools. Even though entering as a small comprehensive university and single elementary school for the award was a long shot, we knew what we were doing was special and in the true spirit of the PDS movement. Receiving the award was such an honor and it was also confirming and energizing! Knowing that there are other small colleges and schools that want to partner and do great work, we hope that the story of our journey will help you to achieve success in your partnerships. Great work can be accomplished with little budgets and big dreams and desires for increased student achievement. The focus of our partnership was excellent teacher development that centered on learning as a community of teachers (both pre-service and in-service). What we found was the one key ingredient that you must have for success is a team with passion and no fear of perspiration to put initiatives in place. Queens University of Charlotte and Myers Park Traditional School (MPTS) are neighbors and share property that is a vital part of the atmosphere on both campuses. There is also a significant institutional history between Queens and MPTS. Our relationship goes much further than staff to staff. MPTS parents consider Queens to be a vital part of MPTS’ success just as Queens considers MPTS as an asset to its program. Many MPTS teachers have received degrees from Queens and we have become a part of their Masters in School Leadership Program. Numerous MPTS staff are mid-degree at this time. The PDS component was initiated two years ago and now includes ongoing professional development with Queens’ professors and MPTS faculty. This is the component on which we founded our growth in relationship to a PDS and how we measure our success of working as a team. We work on issues that are essential to student success and develop staff initiatives that will enable in-service teachers, future teachers, and the Queens’ faculty to learn about the best way to conduct schooling. The unique component of our program is our collaboration as a professional learning community that determines professional development activities based on data and teacher surveys. Everyone has much invested and we are all fully devoted to the relationship.