UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa.—The College of Education’s Professional Development School (PDS) is committed to helping teacher candidates develop into leaders in their field. Now alumni of the College’s PDS program are impacting education across the nation with new PDS programs that are being recognized with national awards.
Oliver Dreon (’08 Ph.D. C&I), an associate professor at Millersville University (MU) and a College of Education alumnus, helped to create a PDS program at the university in Millersville, Pa. He said that he has worked to put into action the teacher-preparation strategies he learned while he supported the PDS at Penn State.
“At Penn State, I worked with several faculty members that were instrumental in my development and my understanding of innovative teacher preparation programs,” said Dreon.
The MU PDS program has slowly grown to include almost 50 secondary interns working in seven different schools, according to Dreon. The National Association for Professional Development Schools (NAPDS) recently recognized the MU PDS with the Exemplary Professional Development School Achievement Award. This award recognizes PDS relationships for their ongoing contributions to the mission and vision of the NAPDS in creating and sustaining genuine collaborative partnerships between P-12 and higher education that shapes educator leadership and practice.
“Receiving this award is both humbling and gratifying,” said Dreon. “It means that the struggles and challenges were worth it and that we’ve stayed true to the overall mission of Professional Development School models.”
College of Education alumni are also involved with the award-winning PDS program at the University of South Florida (USF). Four Penn State College of Education graduates, Amanda Bellas (’06 B.S. EKED), Rebecca West Burns (’02 B.S. EKED, ’08 M.Ed. C&I, ’12 Ph.D. C&I), Jennifer Jacobs (’99 B.S. EKED) and Diane Yendol-Hoppey (’86 M.A. C&I, ’99 Ph.D. C&I), are part of the USF PDS. This program recently won three national awards, the Exemplary Professional Development School Achievement Award, the 2014 Association for Teacher Educators Distinguished Program Award and the 2014 Spirit of Partnership Award.