The Graduate School of Education and Human Development, The George Washington University, is committed to collaborative teacher training endeavors supported by partnership activities. The Urban Initiative is a Professional Development School Partnership established as the result of continuing work, over several years of commitment, to the Washington, D.C. Public Schools. Working in cooperation with Cardozo High School?s Ninth Grade Learning Community, the project offers a dual certification teacher preparation program in secondary and special education and urban school reform/change efforts.

The mission of the partnership was to bring together partners who would support the university and the school in its joint work to: (1) prepare teachers for urban schools; and (2) address the difficult issue of raising student achievement. At the time of the partnership agreement, the school leadership was in flux ? an appointed Board of Trustees, which had usurped the power of the elected school board, had put General Becton in charge of the schools. Subsequently, a superintendent was chosen by the Board to assume what was undeniably a school system in crisis. Two major partners joined the Urban Initiative: The World Bank Group, increasingly involved in the city, chose the GWU/Cardozo Urban Initiative as one major domestic endeavor; and AT&T gave substantial support and funding to the project, most particularly the areas of literacy and technology.

The Urban Initiative collaborates with Cardozo general and special education teachers who are responsible to the Explorers Ninth Grade Learning Community to prepare teachers for dual certification in transition special education and a secondary content area. In addition all Urban Initiative teacher interns teach Literacy, a special ninth grade course which focuses on increasing the literacy and technology competencies of entering ninth graders.

Project Components

A quality pre-service preparation program for George Washington University graduate students, supported by the faculty and Urban Initiative staff onsite at Cardozo, is the hub around which six major program components are structured. The curriculum for pre-service teachers and for Cardozo students supports a focus on literacy and technology integration. Curriculum development emphasizes interdisciplinary units that are standards-based and demonstrate inclusive practice. The in-service professional development component for Cardozo teachers, La Escuela de los Profesores/Teachers' School, responds to research that identifies onsite and teacher-generated staff development as the key to productive professional development. Ninth grade students participate in weekly Advisory Groups with teacher advisors and have work-based field trips four times yearly, both of which enhance positive connections to school, teachers, and peers and prepare them to make career decisions.

Guiding Our Practice

The Urban Initiative has been chosen as one of five national case study sites of the USDOE Contextual Teaching and Learning Project (CT&L). As such, the CTL characteristics are a part of the program and serve as guides for thinking about improving the pre-service teacher preparation.

Selection and Admission Process
"We?re looking for a few good men and women"

A key to the zero attrition rate in three years of the Urban Initiative and its precursor, D.C. Spirit, is careful selection of students. Two factors seem to indicate that students are ready to face the challenge of becoming teachers in urban schools: (1) prior employment experience so that they truly understand the world of work and have made a conscious choice to become teachers; and (2) a commitment to social justice, in the form of prior advocacy or work with young people. The Haberman interview protocol assists the faculty and project staff as well as the applicants in making thoughtful decisions about the probability of successful completion of the program as well as a commitment to teaching as a career.

The admissions process is personal because teaching is personal. Prospective students meet with faculty advisors and spend a day at Cardozo observing classes and talking to current interns. They write a statement of purpose and prepare an onsite writing sample, as well as participate in group discussion, sharing their reasons for wanting to become a teacher. We want the prospective interns and the faculty and staff to jointly participate in making the best decision about which clinical placement in The George Washington University Teacher Education Program best fits the career goals, experiences, and strengths of the graduate student.

Pre-Service Preparation: A Project Cornerstone
"If you can do it here, you can do it anywhere"

Exemplary practice demonstrates that teachers who are prepared in the complex context of an urban school for a full year, with the support of cooperating teachers, university faculty and onsite staff, and a strong cohort stand a better chance of remaining in urban schools. The pre-service program is a rigorous 42-hour Masters program that certifies teachers in a Secondary Education content area with a Special Education endorsement and offers teacher interns the opportunity for a full year internship at Cardozo. While in the school context, each intern has a full day ? they co-teach a literacy class; plan with staff, teachers and teammates; teach a content or special education class; and spend one class period of the four period day in seminars and reflection sessions with fellow interns in their cohort.

Teacher interns have multiple opportunities for problem solving in a supportive and collaborative environment with George Washington University project staff and faculty, cooperating teachers, and Cardozo faculty. Teacher interns participate in the full life of the school: attending meetings and staff development; curriculum planning and implementation; teaching and assessing; co-facilitating Advisory Groups and homerooms; maintaining contact with parents; tutoring; extending their technology skills; and immersing themselves in the life of the school and the students. The Urban Initiative Partnership offers the graduate students the opportunity to mesh theory with practice in the reality of the urban school setting, while receiving daily guidance and support. Thus they are better prepared to become teacher-leaders in the dynamic environment of urban education.

Literacy and Technology Focus

Designing a secondary school professional development school partnership devoted to the needs of students at risk for school failure due to significant literacy deficiencies is an ambitious undertaking. Yet that focus upon students at risk is the heart of the attempt to change the life course for students in urban schools. At the center of the Urban Initiative work are strategic reading, writing, and communication, which are fully supported by access to technology and the development of technological skill. The diagnostic and prescriptive reading process that is consistent with best practice assists all interns in becoming teachers of reading and writing. Interns are taught to use technology as a vehicle for instruction, and for preparing students for their transition to work and citizenship.

The Real Deal

The interns, Urban Initiative staff, and university faculty collaborate with Cardozo teachers to attack the multiple issues presented by students who are placed at risk for school failure because of poverty and inadequate preparation experiences. However intractable the dilemma may be, we are problem solving daily around important issues, thereby offering a model for teacher interns as they assume their roles as teachers. The work of the Urban Initiative confronts the "messy" issues of urban education head-on. This work is hard, it is daily, and it is sometimes overwhelming. Despite the dilemmas, the teacher interns who participate in this intensive and extensive program are eager to take on the mantle of advocates and change agents and are fully prepared to do so.

Relationship to Institutional Work

The Urban Initiative Partnership Project is a member of The George Washington University's regional partnership, The Capital Educators, an affiliate of the Holmes Partnership and Project UNITE. The Capital Educators meet quarterly, engaging in activities concerning Professional Development School Partnerships and related public education reform agendas. The George Washington University Graduate School of Education and Human Development and the Cardozo High School administration and teachers are dedicated to the Urban Initiative Partnership and its related workscope, and commitments.

Key Partnership Representatives

Reginald Ballard, Principal, Cardozo High School
Joan Brown, Coordinator, 9^th Grade Learning Community, English Teacher, Cardozo High School
Maxine Freund, Professor and Director of Special Projects, The George Washington University
Nataki Reynolds, Technology Coordinator, The Urban Initiative, also Holmes Scholar
Juliana Taymans, Professor and Principal Investigator, USDOE grant
Lynda Tredway, Project Director, The Urban Initiative

For more information, please contact:

Maxine B. Freund
George Washington University
2134 G. Street NW
Washington, DC 20052
Phone: 202-994-3365
E-mail: mfreund@gwis2circ.gwu.edu

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