In our editorial team’s first issue of PDS Partners: Bridging Research to Practice, anchored by Polly’s (2023) review of the journal’s contents from 2017 to 2022, we vowed that the study’s results would guide our approach to steering the journal through its next phase (Morrison, Currin, & Knotts, 2023). Now that we are in the final year of our collaboration as editors, this issue shows our dedication to that promise. Organized around the theme of resources, it addresses Polly’s concern that Essential 9: Resources and Recognition was the least salient principle in his dataset, mentioned directly in just over 3% of articles. Even as Polly expanded his analytical scope to consider whether articles aligned with the field’s core tenets without explicitly naming them, Essential 9 still landed at the bottom of the list, evident in less than 2% of the articles. With Essential 6: Articulation Agreements and Essential 7: Shared Governance Structures also posting relatively low numbers, Polly (2023) attributed the results to the principles’ common “focus on logistics and how to set up partnerships” (p. 11), calling for special issues that devote more attention to these key elements of strong school–university partnerships. This issue may be categorized as regular, yet as the contributions came together, we saw a special opportunity to answer Polly’s call.
Devoting our own resources of time and space to Essential 9 in 2025 is especially fitting now that the National Association for Professional Development Schools has transformed into the National Association for School–University Partnerships ([NASUP]; Garin, 2023). This rebranding coincided with a recommitment to the organization’s original principles within a broader, more inclusive scope. As Cosenza et al. (2023) explained in the first special issue during our term as editors, “A PDS requires significant resources and recognition structures beyond the normal operating scope of schools/districts and colleges/universities,” yet the resources that sustain healthy partnerships “can take a variety of forms, including, but not limited to, leadership, time, space, people, money, materials, expertise and workload” (p. 90). The articles in this issue reflect and illustrate that variety, suited to “the broad array of differences that exist in every partnership setting” (Badiali et al., 2023, p. 153), whether a traditional PDS model or the nuanced alternatives that are beginning to emerge under the larger NASUP umbrella.
Much like the framers of the Nine Essentials, Darling-Hammond (1996) listed “the principal resources of school — time, money, and people” (p. 198), while suggesting that the latter category of human resources played the most important role. Likewise, we begin with three pieces in which tangible resources take center stage and highlight the crucial work of committed partners. In the first article, Ankeny focuses especially on time, prefacing their current study with a description of a year-long training initiative to improve learning conditions for multilingual learners. Attesting to the slow and steady nature of partnership work, Ankeny shares, “Through this work, I established an ESOL Advisory Board. . . . Over time, the Board became a source of mentorship for [teacher candidates] in future academic terms.” Amid signs of success, Ankeny also noticed teachers’ jostling for instructional time and recognizing “one semester of culturally and linguistically responsive training was not enough,” hence the more extensive, three-phase approach reported in the article. In addition to the promising model, we applaud Ankeny’s call for “monitoring the experience over time.”
Next, we focus more squarely on purchased resources that enable flourishing partnerships. For example, Ende et al. note how the Next Generation Science Standards prompted “many schools to buy new science curriculum materials for their elementary teachers,” which created an opportunity for practicing and preservice teachers to collaborate. Making sense of the materials involved literally and metaphorically unpacking the science kits, ensuring those valuable resources would not go to waste. Prior to the authors’ involvement, one teacher shared, “All the kits I got, I never used because I was intimidated by them. . . I was so overwhelmed.” To address this concern, the authors recommend embracing teacher candidates as a “ready resource,” gesturing toward the added value of human resources. As Yendol-Hoppey and Smith (2011) found, time constraints may limit partnership collaboration to discussions around logistics rather than learning. Ende et al.’s work demonstrates a positive alternative that is readily adaptable to other settings.
In the third article, Holden and Eargle describe how the budding leadership potential in their “PDS steering committee” members gave rise to an evolving 6-year book study. Selected books aligned with the committee’s examination of data related to school success, such as graduation rates, and the group posed inquiry questions related to those data. Book study empowered the teachers as “change agents and problem solvers,” emphasizing actionable change and practical implementation by “fostering a culture of observation, collaboration, and shared accountability.”
As all three pieces demonstrate, “school–university partnerships are resource hungry” because “collaboration is at the heart of partnership” (Badiali et al., 2023, p. 154). Building that kind of rapport and learning to think and work differently are time-intensive activities, bolstered by concrete instructional materials without solely relying on them. As Badiali et al. (2023) asserted, “More important than money and materials are the shared human resources contributed by each partner” (p. 155). Thus, the next two articles highlight such human resources that sustain school–university partnerships.
First, Reichenberg et al. report on a well-designed mentor academy that both recognized the “robust partnership” already in place and saw room to improve it. Tellingly, the co-created effort included a “goal-setting guide” with specific attention to “resources,” and the participating mentors reported the most impressive gains in the area of “helping a mentee learn to seek out and identify resources and alternatives to address challenges.” In other words, even when hands-on resources are lacking, human resources can nourish learners at every level. At the same time, we are mindful of Yendol-Hoppey and Smith’s (2011) concern that monetary resources are necessary “to support consistent university faculty involvement” in school–university partnerships (p. 533), particularly to avoid being a professional development school in name only.
Indeed, “providing the human resources for collaboration and accountability requires reconceptualizing the work of educators on both sides of the partnership” (Yendol-Hoppey & Smith, 2011, p. 545). In this issue’s fifth article, Hub and Jones demonstrate this boundary-spanning of resources by recounting their creation of an executive-in-residence position, modeled on those within Colleges of Business, to bridge classroom theory and “real-world perspectives” by providing lectures, workshops, mentorship, advising and external evaluation. The individual who took on the role, a retired school superintendent, capitalized on their connections and experiences to provide rich, thoughtful and authentic learning by “address[ing] the need for real-world perspectives in educator training, thus enhancing the relevance of teacher and school leader preparation programs.”
Confirming that resources of any sort “should be the joint responsibility of each partner” (Badiali et al., 2023, p. 157), the next article by Eargle et al. features a wide range of voices: faculty member, instructional coach, administrator and teacher. Presenting an accessible dialogue, the authors show how “In essence, PDSs are the center of a Venn diagram, existing as a unique, innovative third-space learning community, where such binaries of schools and universities, theory and practice, academic and practitioner knowledge and so on are integrated in new ways” (Cosenza et al., 2023, p. 85). This work also reinforces that practices can be resources (Yendol-Hoppey, Gregory, Jacobs, & League, 2008), echoing prior scholarship on the value of site-based teacher education as a means of providing access to “the materials and resources that are considered the tools of the trade and not widely available on the college campus” (Gajda & Cravedi, 2006, p. 47).
Finally, we acknowledge how Essential 9 conveys that “resources that support and maintain partnership” go hand in hand with “celebratory traditions that enhance a partnership community by pulling partners together” (Badiali et al., 2023, p. 153). For PDS Partners, one such tradition we established is a Thank You for Your Service column. In this issue, Ferrara highlights the unwavering dedication of a former president of Information Age Publishing to championing educators and establishing a platform that facilitates the dissemination of their research, discussion and collaboration within the field of education. George Johnson’s efforts and leadership have been instrumental in sharing and amplifying the voices of K–12 practitioners who engage in scholarly activities in conjunction with their university partners. In short, Ferrara emphasizes that through more than 2 decades of service, Johnson has partnered with and actively supported NASUP’s fundamental principles, including Essential 9.
Upon revisiting the Nine Essentials, Badiali et al. (2023) reiterated, “there is much more to say” about Essential 9 (p. 159). Years later, that fact remains, yet this issue of PDS Partners is a considerable step toward addressing the gap that Polly (2023) highlighted. As always, we welcome future contributions to the journal that align with and illuminate all Nine Essentials, but especially those that capture the wide variety of resources and traditions of recognition and celebration that sustain school–university partnerships in all kinds of diverse settings.
