Improving America's Schools Together: How District-University Partnerships and Continuous ImprovementCan Transform Education is the first definitive text on continuous improvement in school district-university partnerships, covering improvement methods, theory, research, and real cases across the country with practical improvement tools that can be adapted to any setting. Through an array of in-depth stories of district-university partnerships, the book aims to demonstrate how improvement science—as a shared method—can guide institutions of higher education and their local education agency partners to enact the types of infrastructures that foster leaders and educators capable of enhancing students’ learning outcomes and opportunity structures. Among other topics, readers will benefit from reading about how these partnerships developed course and program offerings for aspiring urban school leaders centered on local problems of practice; strengthened improvement capabilities within districts and schools; leveraged improvement science to transform how teachers are professionally supported; and spanned institutional boundaries through shared tools, frameworks, and practices. Through rich stories and detailed artifacts, including protocols, MOUs, and other practical tools, the authors provide deep insight and practical guidance on the mechanics of place-based, problem-focused, and improvement-minded district-university partnerships. Readers can assess their readiness and ability to work in such ways; identify the constraining and enabling conditions in their locales; and recognize the kinds of tools, resources, and strategies that allow for mutually-beneficial collaborations.

What constitutes a high quality teacher education program and what standards teacher candidates should meet before receiving their teaching credential? This volume advances deep understanding of the nature and sources of policy affecting the preparation of teachers in the U.S. and the conflicts or interconnections of these policies with the broader field of education policy. Contributions from actors in the policy world and experts representing the stakeholders are balanced and based on issues currently facing the field. Policy is viewed as evolving and political. The connection or lack thereof between policy and research is examined. Policy case studies ground the principles developed within specific chapters in practice and illustrate that policy questions and solutions are continually evolving and unsettled. Chapter-end commentaries by the editors relate the focus of each chapter to the overarching themes of the book: policy formation, policy influences, policy paradoxes, and connections to research. This volume is an essential resource for understanding and resolving today's uncertainty and confusion over teacher education policy.