National Association for Professional Development Schools

The pertinent experiences I would bring to the NAPDS leadership include working tirelessly with all facets of school university partnerships. In 1992, I left a position at Penn State University where I was the Coordinator of the Office of Staff Development and School Improvement because I recognized a need for closer relationships between schools and universities. Inspired by the work of John Goodlad and his associates, I took a faculty position in the Department of Educational Leadership at Miami University where I taught courses in curriculum and supervision, and where I became liaison to Madeira City Schools. In 1994, I was selected as a Leadership Associate in the Institute for Educational Inquiry (IEI) at the University of Washington in Seattle. I became active in the National Network for Educational Renewal serving on its governing board, participating in its conferences and taking lead responsibility for Miami’s involvement in “In Praise of Education.” As chair of the department at Miami, I continued to serve as liaison to Madeira where we developed a model secondary school partnership and produced the award winning documentary video, “A Good Place to Learn.” During that time I also worked at the Institute for Educational Inquiry as a Project Associate to develop a program to encourage democratic high schools. In 2004, I rejoined the faculty at Penn State where I currently coordinate the nationally recognized Central Pennsylvania Holmes Partnership Elementary Professional Development Schools. I have served the past three years on the Board of Directors for NAPDS.

Bernard Badiali is an Associate Professor in Penn State’s College of Education where he teaches courses in curriculum leadership, supervision and teacher research. He currently serves as Coordinator of the nationally recognized Central Pennsylvania Holmes Partnership Elementary Professional Development Schools. He has been active in the National Network for Educational Renewal, the Holmes Partnership and the National Association for Professional Development Schools. He spends much of his time in classrooms and has an active research agenda focused on the professional development educators experience throughout their careers. He is an AED Scholar in the Institute for Educational Inquiry in Seattle.

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Denise Barth
North Springs Elementary School, South Carolina

Board of Directors

The work of a Professional Development School is more than student teaching, and the leadership vision of the NAPDS should be more than “what is.” It must be thoughtful, innovative, and meaningful. For these reasons, I wish to serve as a member of the NAPDS Board. I have been actively involved in forming North Springs Elementary School’s model of what Professional Development Schools should be and do. For these effective practices, North Springs was recognized with the first NAPDS award for a single school partnership in March of 2009. I have been a leader in the University of South Carolina’s PDS Network of twelve schools, and I also have been deeply involved at the national level, with annual presentations at the PDS National Conference and with participation in the articulation of the Nine Essentials. I want our Board members to be people who take the time to think deeply about issues and their ramifications. I want them to be people who are analytical and creative, who always keep the focus on the purpose of NAPDS, and who can communicate clearly. I pride myself on my ability to seek the input of others, then meld multiple viewpoints. My experience of teaching and being an administrator at both elementary and middle school levels, my leadership at the district level, and my active work with interns and the PDS Network all indicate my multiple levels of expertise, which I believe will allow me to make a significant contribution to the NAPDS Board.

Denise Barth is the principal of North Springs Elementary School in Richland School District Two located in Columbia, SC. She earned her Bachelors and Masters degrees from the University of South Carolina and has twenty-five years experience in both teaching and administration in public elementary and middle schools. Denise has been an active member of the NAPDS and has presented at the PDS National Conference the last three years.

It is my pleasure to solicit your support to serve as a Board Member of our worthy organization. My 28 years as an educator of young children and 6 years as University of South Carolina College of Education faculty member demonstrates my knowledge and understanding of both settings. In 1992 and continuing to date, I have been actively engaged in and served in numerous leadership positions within the USC PDS Network and SC National Network for Education Renewal (NNER). In the 2001-2002 school year, I completed a year-long leadership training with the Institute for Educational Inquiry in Seattle, Washington. This training provided me with many opportunities to assume leadership roles within the NNER. In 2006, I was designated one of 30 Agenda for Education in a Democracy Scholars in the United States. One of my proudest accomplishments was to work with the Organization Foundation Committee from 2003-2005. This committee’s work culminated in the formal creation of the National Association for Professional Development Schools in the spring of 2005. For the last 4 years, I have served as Membership Chairperson for our worthy organization. I trust that you will recognize the personal and professional leadership qualities I offer for you and our organization.

Paul has 33 years of diverse leadership experiences in the realms of public schools, higher education and national organizations. He has received comprehensive leadership training at the national level. He has been recognized for his leadership abilities by being selected as an Agenda for Education in a Democracy Scholar by the NNER. His work with a group of like-minded people led to the formal creation of the National Association for Professional Development Schools. He has served our organization for the last 4 years as Chairperson of the NAPDS Membership Committee. He wishes to serve you in the future as a Board Member of the NAPDS.

I have been in the teacher education field for over twenty years and spent five years (1999-2005) as a Professor in Residence in an urban PDS in northern New Jersey. In that role, I worked alongside teachers and school administrators to help them reach their academic goals and improve instruction for all learners. I co-taught, researched and published with school faculty, and presented our successful partnership initiatives locally and nationally. There were many lessons learned during these five years and, with guidance from NAPDS, the College of Education refined its concept of PDS Partnerships.

When I became the Associate Dean in 2005, I had the opportunity to help expand our PDS partnerships with a philosophical commitment from our faculty to the PDS model. In the past five years, our network has grown to over 30 Professional Development Schools each at different stages on the continuum. Full time and part time faculty serve as professors in residence and districts look to us for guidance and support. We have been able to establish partnerships between urban and suburban PDSs and we work closely with faculty in the College of Humanities and Social Sciences and the College of Science and Health. Our PDSs play an integral role as our advisors for continued improvement of our teacher education programs.

Dorothy Feola, Ph.D., is Associate Dean in the College of Education at William Paterson University of New Jersey (WPUNJ). WPUNJ is a founding member of NAPDS and Dorothy has been an active member for many years. She spent five years working as a Professor in Residence in one of WPUNJ’s urban Professional Development Schools and has published and presented on her work there. Dorothy has led the College of Education in the development of its PDS network which now numbers over 30 schools in northern New Jersey, many in urban school districts.

I am most interested in serving on the National Association for Professional Development Schools’ Board of Directors.

I recently developed a program for preservice teachers to experience a year-long school internship with the same mentor teacher. Working collaboratively with middle school teachers and school administrators, the design is such that supervision of the interns is an equal and joint venture that includes input from the interns themselves, the mentor teachers, the school-to-university liaison, and the university-to-school liaison. The growth of the interns and mentors has been so substantial that we worked throughout the year to further develop the program into a formal PDS using the Nine Essentials. We have gone from six interns at one school last year, to sixteen interns at two schools this year. We are currently establishing a PDS Board to provide organization and structure as we significantly expand our PDS initiative. Based on the already-established foundation, the expansion, which revolves around a multi-year, multi-million dollar TQP grant, establishes a PDS relationship with feeder elementary, middle, and high schools.

Further, having served as Chair of the College Faculty Council and member of the Dean’s Leadership Team, I have gained firsthand experience with shared governance. I have learned, and whole-heartedly believe, that with thoughtfully opinionated, insightful, and passionate participants, great things can be accomplished. I have the passion, leadership experience, and knowledge of best-practice to provide valuable leadership as a NAPDS board member. As well, I have the commitment and determination to help make a difference.

Kimberly S. Ligon, Associate Professor of Adolescent Education at Kennesaw State University (KSU), was a middle school teacher before going to higher education. She, with a local middle school teacher, has developed a year-long internship for KSU preservice teachers. This initiative recognizes exceptional classroom teachers by requesting that they become mentors for preservice teachers. The internship has developed into a formal PDS using the Nine Essentials, and is expanding to additional schools. She also actively participates in faculty leadership roles at KSU. Her research interests include school-university partnerships, integrated curriculum development, and dispositions for effective teaching.

Lourdes Zaragoza Mitchel
Seton Hall University
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Board of Directors
Lourdes was accidentally left off the ballot. Please use the "write in" space to vote for her.

I am a learner, teacher, administrator and university faculty member who deeply believes in the “power” and “impact” of Professional Development Schools, (PDS). I believe the “power” comes from the unique opportunity of a PDS to bring together educators from all facets of the education community to do what Arthur Levine, (2006) described as “ a superb laboratory for education schools to experiment with the initiatives designed to improve student achievement”. I believe in the “impact” because I have seen how the joining, working ,and staying together of a group of caring educators can result in increased benefits for all: children, teacher candidates, teachers, administrators, faculty and policy makers.

I believe I can contribute to the NAPDS’s agenda through my extensive knowledge, experience, research and lessons learned from two very different perspectives, the university and the schools. I became involved with the PDS over twenty years ago as Principal of the first PDS in New Jersey and Montclair State University. For the last ten years, I have served as professor and liaison to our PDS’s at Seton Hall University. As leadership associate with Dr John Goodlad, and the Center for Educational Renewal, I acquired the leadership skills to assist the NAPDS in realizing its vision and mission. I am an ongoing learner with passion, high expectations, years of experience and excellent interpersonal and managerial skills. I have always been known as someone who can get the job done and believe that PDS can and do make the difference!

Bio

Lourdes Zaragoza Mitchel, Ed.D, Associate Professor of Education at Seton Hall University, has over 20 years experience with Professional Development Schools. As educational leader she has served in both urban and suburban communities, and public and private universities. Dr. Mitchel has published several studies based on her work with the PDS. She has worked extensively leading efforts in school reform and addressing the dissonance between theory and practice. She believes that teachers are the key to enhancing learning in schools and has dedicated her career to developing and researching the teacher continuum from pre-service, to induction through in-service phases.

First, let me say I am honored to be nominated for the NAPDS Board of Directors. The pertinent experiences I will bring to NAPDS leadership include more than 20 years of teaching in 1-12 schools. That includes teaching every grade except second. I also spent ten years in high school administration. In 1989, after earning my doctorate from Boston University, I was hired to teach in the Department of Education at Emporia State University. Four years later, we designed and implemented a pilot program using the Professional Development School model in partnership with the Olathe, KS School District. I was the first director of the PDS. The program grew over the next five years from a pilot with 20 interns in two schools to 40 interns in five schools. By then our research had let us to the conclusion that this was the best preparation we could provide for our candidates. Over the next few years, the PDS program became mandatory for elementary education majors. During that same period, we developed partnerships with Butler Community College and KCK Community College. In addition to directing the PDS, teaching and supervising interns, I have for the past four years chaired the Department of Early Childhood/Elementary Teacher Education. University and public school partnerships have visited our campus to learn about our PDS program. My colleagues and I have been invited to conduct workshops on developing PDSs. I believe these are the types of pertinent experiences you want in a director.

Dr. Jean Morrow has a wealth of teaching experience, “every grade except second,” 10 years in high school administration, and 20 years at Emporia State University. When ESU began its Professional Development School program for elementary teacher preparation, she was the first director. The PDS has grown from that pilot program with 20 interns in Olathe, KS to a full program with sites in Emporia and the surrounding area, Topeka, Kansas City (Kansas City Community College partnership), and El Dorado (Butler Community College partnership). Currently, Jean is chair of Early Childhood/Elementary Teacher Education and Interim Chair of Special Education/School Counseling.

I am interested in serving on the NAPDS Board of Directors. I have been part of our Kemper Professional Development Schools at Bradley University in Peoria, Illinois for eleven years. During that time, I have served as the Assistant Site Coordinator for Roosevelt Magnet School-Pre-K through Eighth Grade (2000-2002), Site Coordinator for Valeska Hinton Early Childhood Education Center (2004-Present), and Interim Kemper Fellow during the spring of 2008. My duties as Site Coordinator were to provide academic and professional development support for the schools, as well as supervise novice and student teachers within the buildings. As the Interim Kemper Fellow, I conducted the monthly Executive Council meetings and the Teaching Academy/Spring Celebration for the College of Education and Health Sciences faculty and the four Professional Development Schools’ faculty.

The PDS National Conferences have been very informative and extremely well done. My colleagues and I have been able to network well and share our learned experiences with others from around the country who also share our love of university and school collaborations. I had the opportunity to participate in the National Leadership Forum on the Nine Essentials of PDS Work in New Orleans, LA during the summer of 2008. It was a wonderful experience. Upon my return to Bradley University, I was able to share the information with the four Professional Development Schools, the university, and the Peoria Public Schools Administration through meetings and our biannual Kemper Newsletter.

Dr. Sherrie Chan Pardieck is an Associate Professor at Bradley University in Peoria, Illinois. Before coming to Bradley University, in 1989 she taught in rural and urban public school settings, assisted in the development of an at-risk Pre-K program, and worked with urban adult literacy programs. During the spring of 2008, she was the Interim Kemper Fellow for BU’s professional development schools. She earned her Ed.D. in Curriculum and Instruction and Reading at Illinois State University in 2000, received her BA from Eureka College, and her MA from Bradley University with a Reading Specialist Endorsement from the State of Illinois.

It is an honor to be nominated for a leadership role for the PDS committee. I have been privileged to play a role in numerous school-based programs for sixteen years. In 1993 I was hired as a liaison between Northern Arizona University and Sedona Unified School District. In that capacity, I co-directed with two colleagues a program whereby our students were in classrooms daily, and our mentor teachers in the district took professional development courses. Co-teaching occurred on a regular basis, and all involved analyzed ‘best practice’ in an atmosphere of mutual respect. Relationships were built and maintained based on credibility, trust and responsibility. Ten years later, I once again was able to participate in a school-based program that had been established in the late 1980’s. Again, visibility and accessibility by the university professors is key to establishing the necessary relationship between schools and university partnerships, so I taught the undergraduate methods classes at the school site, while observing our students planning, organizing and implementing their lessons in their assigned elementary classrooms. I have been instrumental in planning, organizing and co-directing three school-based programs since 1993, one that was truly developed as a Professional Development School as defined by the NAPDS organization. I strongly believe in the importance and value of this type of teacher education program. A colleague and I have just had an article published in the May issue of the PDS newsletter and have also submitted an article for publication in the PDS journal. Based on my experiences and research, I believe I could provide an additional voice to the PDS organization.

Emilie Berruezo Rodger, Associate Professor in the Department of Teaching and Learning at Northern Arizona University, has been involved in leadership roles in school-based programs since 1993. She is a strong advocate of the roles PDSs can play in creating relational balances between schools and universities in the preparation of future educators, while providing current educators ongoing professional development as identified by all constituents.

Barabara Schwartz-Bechet
University of Maryland University College
Barbara Schwartz-Bechet

Board of Directors

My background as a regular and special educator, principal, and as a professor, has fostered my work in the development of PDS. My first experience in the PDS model began over 12 years ago in a newly acquired special education PDS. As a new Assistant Professor, only out of the P/12 realm for 3 years, I was anxious to apply my knowledge of theory and practice. Yet, while I was teaching on site at the special education school and visiting classrooms, I wasn’t engaging with the school culture; we were still a separate entity. It became my goal to develop collaborative methods to fulfill the mission of the PDS. Over the last 12 years, I have worked to develop, foster and facilitate the growth of the special education PDS by working with each school constituency in tandem with higher education constituents, with equal access to personnel, materials, and facilities. I have received grants to train paraprofessionals by faculty and created non-English speaking families’ literacy meetings conducted by student teacher interns, IHE faculty, and teachers. I have trained teachers on effective instruction, provided book clubs for parents, teachers and faculty, organized a “Special” Prom that takes place yearly at the university, and have availed myself for parent consultations. I have presented at local PDS conferences, at the PDS National Conference, and have published an article in the NAPDS newsletter. My future goal would be to have breakout meetings for special education practitioners at all NAPDS conferences.

Dr. Barbara Schwartz-Bechet, Director of Certification Programs & Collegiate Associate Professor at University of Maryland University College, has been a special education parent & teacher advocate for over 20 years. Dr. Schwartz-Bechet received her doctorate in Applied Behavior Analysis from Teachers College/Columbia University in New York City. She began her career as a special education teacher and principal of several special schools in New York. Upon relocation to Maryland, Dr. Schwartz-Bechet supervised and taught graduate special education students at Johns Hopkins University and Bowie State University. Dr. Schwartz-Bechet was instrumental in the creation, facilitation, & vitality of three special PDSs over the last 10 years.

Debbie Williams
Louisiana State University in Shreveport
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Board of Directors

My current position as an Associate Professor of Education at Louisiana State University in Shreveport includes responsibilities as a Professor-in-Residence at Midway Elementary Professional Development School in Shreveport. Midway is a school with a 90+% minority student population, located in a high-poverty area of the city some twenty minutes from the university campus. Midway and LSUS have had a PDS relationship since the late 1990’s with the Professor-in-Residence component a part of the program from the beginning.

My faculty load includes the teaching of three 3-credit undergraduate reading/language arts courses along with a 25% reassignment of time to the PDS. My work with the PDS ranges quite broadly, including conducting in-service and other faculty development activities for faculty and staff, involvement in annual planning, modeling teaching in classrooms, and instruction for LSUS undergraduate students. I am at Midway every day and, to be honest, probably spend more time there than I do at the university.

For several years now, I have taught my undergraduate classes at Midway. While this may have caused some logistical problems for our students initially in terms of getting to and from the school and the scheduling of their other classes, the effort has definitely been worth it. Midway provides an “LSUS classroom” for us which allows me to instruct my students for a portion of the class, followed by opportunities for my students to work with students individually, in small groups, and in full class instruction. My students love it and so do the Midway kids. Having extra hands and eyes in the classroom has paid real and measurable dividends in the academic lives of the students, as well as providing another positive adult role model to children who are very often in need of such. An added benefit for my students has been involvement in the lives of the Midway children outside the classroom. We assist in obtaining books and other materials via donations, participating in a “Secret Santa” program sponsored by the University and a local law firm, helping with Field Day, and many other service opportunities.

I fell that I have the perfect job which mixes theory, practice, and a wonderful interaction with my students and the Midway children and that these experiences have given me a unique perspective to contribute to the NAPDS Board of Directors. I am truly honored to have been nominated for consideration.

A native of northwest Louisiana, Dr. Deborah Williams returned to her alma mater, Louisiana State University in Shreveport, in June 2003 as an Assistant Professor of Education, specializing in the teaching of reading. Prior to receiving her Ph.D. degree from the University of Arkansas at Little Rock, Dr. Williams spent six years as an elementary classroom teacher and three years as a Reading Recovery Teacher Leader in Caddo Parish (La.) Public Schools, followed by six years as a Research at the University of Arkansas at Little Rock.

Along with her appointment as an Assistant Professor at LSUS in 2003, Dr. Williams was named Professor-in-Residence at Midway Elementary Professional Development School in Shreveport.

Dr. Williams was promoted to Associate Professor of Education, effective August 2009.