Chapter 2: A Stone of Hope: Preparing Masterful Readers and Teachers in an Urban Professional Development School

In January of 2016, Susan Syverud, the Professor-in-Residence at Woodland Acres Elementary Urban Professional Development School (UPDS) in Jacksonville, Florida, was invited to speak at her university’s celebration of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.’s birthday and legacy. Susan was chosen as the featured speaker because of her exemplary role in the university as an equity-driven professor and educational leader in the area of reading instruction. Director of the University of North Florida (UNF) Intercultural Center for PEACE, Oupa Seane, extended the invitation for her to speak with a compliment: “Dr. King would be proud of your work in reading.” However, Susan did not see her work as hers alone. For this reason, she brought many more voices from her UPDS to celebrate Dr. King’s vision for equity, including a group of fifth grade students, administrators, and teachers, as well as a UNF graduate student Robert Rosales. She knew her engaged scholarship in reading education and social justice was notable on the university campus, but she also knew that her work was defined and refined by the rich, historical school-university partnership in which her work was professionally embedded.