Holmes Partnership
Professional Development Schools and the Holmes Partnership
Professional Development Schools grew out of Goodlad's Teachers for Our Nation's Schools (1990) and Tomorrow's Teachers: A Report of the Holmes Group (Holmes Group, 1986). Tomorrow's Teachers (1986) was written by the Holmes Group, "a consortium of education deans and chief academic officers from the major research universities in each of the fifty states." (p. 3) Their primary purpose was to come together as a group to improve the quality of their teacher education programs. Although The Holmes Group (1986) has evolved significantly in the past 10 years, one of the original goals of the group is still strong:
If university faculties are to become more expert educators of teachers, they must make better use of expert teachers in the education of other teachers and in research on teaching. In addition, schools must become places where both teachers and university faculty can systematically inquire into practice and improve it. After publication of the Holmes initial report, which emphasized the need for teacher education reform, many universities sought collaborative partnerships with public schools. These partnerships allow for experimentation, reflection, and open discussion to take place among practicing teachers, administrators, teacher educators, and student teachers (Pugach and Johnson, 1995). The Holmes group has evolved to The Holmes Partnership, where public schools and universities apply for a joint membership in the organization.The first meeting of the expanded organization occurred in January 1997 and was characterized by equal participation of deans of schools, colleges, and departments of education (SCDEs); teachers and administrators from public schools; and university faculty. The first annual meeting in St. Louis was attended by teachers and administrators from the State College Area School District and administrators and faculty from the Pennsylvania State University, where the foundation for the SCASD-PSU Professional Development School was laid. The Holmes Partnership has grown tremendously in their new formation, as evidenced by attendance at national meetings. In 1997, approximately 300 people attended the national meeting. In 1999, over 1000 people from across the nation attended the meeting in Boston. Members of the SCASD-PSU Professional Development Schools attend and present at this conference each year, providing national leadership in the PDS movement.
According to the Holmes Group (1990), six general guiding principles exist for creating PDSs. PDS sites must include a commitment to:
Teaching for understanding (rather than a factual recall) so that students learn for a lifetime
Organizing classrooms and schools as learning communities
Setting ambitious goals for everybody's children
Establishing an environment that supports continuing learning for all adults as well as children
Making reflection and inquiry the central feature of the school
Inventing a new organization (Holmes Group, 1990, p. 7).
As PDSs are born and develop across the country, the fifth Holmes principle stated as "making reflection and inquiry the central feature of the school" appears to be the most difficult to actualize. This may be because inquiry has not typically been a part of the teaching culture (Kincheloe, 1991). To be an inquiry oriented Professional Development School, teacher inquiry (sometimes referred to as teacher research) becomes a part of the professional practice of all members of the PDS, practicing teachers, prospective teachers, administrators, and university teacher educators. Teacher inquiry is defined as systematic, intentional study of one's own professional practice (see, for example, Dana, Gimbert, and Silva, 1999; Hubbard and Power, 1993; Cochran-Smith and Lytle, 1993). Inquiring professionals seek out change and reflect on their practice by posing questions or wonderings,collecting data to gain insights into their wonderings, analyzing the data along with reading relevant literature, making changes in practice based on new understandings developed during inquiry, and sharing findings with others. A PDS culture supports and celebrates the engagement of teachers and other PDS professionals in constructing knowledge through intentional, systematic, inquiry and using that knowledge to continually reform, refine, and change the practice of teaching.
A more detailed description of the inquiry process is found in the section of this report entitled, "What is inquiry and what impact does inquiry have on teaching practice and the children in the State College Area School District?"
