The BYU-Public School Partnership (BYU-PSP) has served approximately one-third of the K-12 students in Utah for more than 28 years. It is now increasing its impact in teacher education and professional teacher development through its work with the National Association for Professional Development Schools (NAPDS).

The McKay School is an important contributor to the Partnership, and individuals from the McKay School, including Dean Richard Young, have been instrumental in the collaboration with NAPDS. Since 2009, members of the McKay School have attended the NAPDS national conference and worked to integrate the nine NAPDS essentials into the BYU-Public School Partnership.

Within the last year, BYU increased its involvement with NAPDS. Richard Young, Steven Baugh, and Vern Henshaw, members of the BYU-PSP governing board, presented at the 2011 National Conference. In May of 2012, NAPDS awarded the BYU-PSP one of four national awards for its exceptional work in teacher development. As a result, Young, Baugh, and Henshaw were asked by the NAPDS to contribute a follow-up article in the NAPDS magazine to share the work and progress of the BYU-PSP. McKay School faculty member Sharon Black was also an author on the project.

Vern Henshaw, Superintendent of Alpine School District, said, “We are sharing how the partnership meets those nine standards of a professional
development school. Each of us, as different participants of the Partnership, discussed how we work together to meet those nine components.”

One item shared in the article was the McKay School’s clinical faculty associates program (CFA), as related to one of the NAPDS essentials.  “Outstanding elementary teachers are granted two years of paid leave from their districts to function as BYU supervisors to interns/students teachers, conducting varied research and working collaboratively with K-12 peers in several schools while taking advanced education classes.” The essential addressed is “work by college/university faculty and P-12 faculty in formal roles across institutional settings.”

Young said both the university and the public schools have learned a lot over the time the partnership has existed, and the authors of the article welcomed the opportunity to share their knowledge. “We believe partnerships collaborating and working together ultimately build the best programs. We want to do anything we can to share our knowledge and help other partnerships, other universities and schools, be able to learn from [our experience].

Additionally, the BYU-PSP is learning from NAPDS, a group that focuses its philosophy and efforts primarily on working in depth in only a few schools. In contrast, the BYU-PSP works at varying levels in more than 200 schools in five Utah school districts.

In efforts to increase the depth of research and professional development in specific schools, the BYU-PSP is working with the NAPDS to integrate the elements of its in-depth philosophy while still maintaining the impact of the large partnership.

“We don’t want to do away with this large partnership that involves five school districts,” said Young. “It’s a wonderful, very successful partnership, but we also want to be able to go deeper into some of the issues in education.”

For more information about the BYU-Public School Partnership visit their website http://education.byu.edu/deans/psp.html.

August 22, 2012

(Banner photo courtesy of www.napds.org.)