Chapter 3: The Wichita Teacher Quality Partnership

For many years Wichita Public Schools (WPS) and Wichita State University (WSU) have collaborated together through a variety of programs to prepare college students to enter the profession of teaching. However, both the WPS school district and the WSU College of Education (COEd) recognized the need to attract, prepare and retain greater numbers of teachers with the knowledge, skills, and dispositions to effectively improve student learning in an increasing number of high poverty schools in urban Wichita. In 2009, our district-university partnership earned the recognition and support needed to commit to this shared goal through a U.S. Department of Education (USDE) Teacher Quality Partnership (TQP) grant.