Chapter 26: Rethinking School–University Partnerships Through Lived-in Models Teacher Education

This chapter provides insights into an operationalized “lived-in” model to teacher education to provide guidance and direction to educational leaders in public schools and colleges of education seeking to build mutually beneficial, effective, and proactive partnerships. This clinically intensive model embeds teacher education (inclusive of its faculty and education majors) in area schools to employ an all hands-on deck approach in preparing high-quality teacher candidates ready and able to meet the needs of PK–12 learners. For 16 weeks, preservice teacher candidates learn to mentor, tutor, and teach academically vulnerable middle and high school students as part of their lived-in methods courses. Under the direct on-site supervision of their professor and a cooperating teacher, methods students plan and take turns implementing rigorous and individualized instructional units in real classrooms. Methods professors meet regularly with collaborating schoolteachers and administrators to strengthen teacher education courses, reflect on outcome data for PK–12 students and teacher candidates for program growth, and collaborate in the design and delivery of district professional development. This chapter describes how two methods instructors, one in secondary social studies and one in special education, have partnered with a local urban school district to successfully prepare preservice teachers, meet CAEP Standards, and deliver individualized and high-quality instruction in schools.