Learning-focused Teacher Leadership: The Professional Development School (PDS) Advantage

Abstract

Professional development schools (PDS), a specific type of school-university partnership, offer distinctive learning environments for teachers by encouraging innovation and modeling best instructional practices. In PDS partnerships, opportunities abound for teachers to assume learning-focused leadership roles such as team lead, instructional coach, and professional developer. Drawing from the book Teacher Leadership in Professional Development Schools, this article recounts stories of learning-focused teacher leadership in two different PDS partnerships that resulted in positive outcomes for kindergarten through fifth grade English Learners (EL) and for ninth grade algebra students. Supported by research, the stories illustrate how providing embedded support and opportunities for teacher leadership through the PDS core practices of teacher preparation, professional development, inquiry and research, and student learning is advantageous for both teachers and students.