Chapter 2: Teams (Teaching Excellence Achievement and Motivation Through Sport): A Case Study of a University-Community Collaboration

In the fall of 2001, the University of Miami’s Center for Research on Sport in Society (CRSS) began implementing TEAMS, a collaboration that provided and evaluated sport-themed academic instruction in core subject areas to local elementary school students in an after school program. This “community of practice” collaboration brought together faculty, researchers, graduate students, curriculum developers, public school teachers, and an after school care provider to implement this unique andengaging standards-based curriculum and instructional strategy to youth in some of the most underserved schools in Miami-Dade County. This chapter details the development of the program from idea to grant funding, to the development of partnerships and a curriculum, and finally, to the implementation and evaluation of program success. It also reflects on the challenges of a university-community partnership and of sustaining such a program in the local public schools.