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This paper will discuss one university’s efforts to initiate a process to better support PK-12 continuous school improvement goals for all 13 schools in their PDS network as a way to broaden the university’s mission and respond more formally to the individual school communities with which they partner.

The paper is conceptual in that it presents an innovative idea to stimulate discussion, generate new ideas and advance thinking about cross-institutional collaboration between universities and professional development schools.

The paper provides insights and ideas for bringing about change and growth in a seasoned PDS partnership network by connecting PK-12 continuous school improvement efforts to PDS partnership work.

This paper fulfills an identified need to study how seasoned partnerships can participate in simultaneous renewal by offering ideas that school–university partnership leaders can build upon as they make efforts to participate in the process of growth and change.

Changes in American public education can be linked to wider social movements. New policies and practices have historically emanated from a variety of social problems such as racism and the marginalization and exclusion of populations of children who differ by ability, economic class, and ethnic heritage. In the era of a global pandemic (COVID-19), the authors embrace the context of civil unrest in the United States as it directly relates to the factors necessary to build effective collaborative relationships in public institutions shaped by history and culture. In this chapter, we position school inclusion in the United States as an issue of social justice. In sharing our positionality and professional experiences as educators, we discuss instructional coaching as a collaborative lever to support inclusion in American classrooms. Our experiences, combined with the literature, serve as evidence that the formation of deeply meaningful professional relationships rooted in authentic empathy may serve as a powerful collaborative action to transform unjust structures. These relationships as actions in and of themselves, thus, form a psychological foundation (community consciousness) needed to effect positive change. The chapter is organized into three sections that examine instructional coaching for inclusion on marcopolicy, mezzo-academic, and microsituational levels. The chapter ends with a call to action applicable to PK–12 educators and leaders, as well as instructors and professors in teacher preparation programs.

The authors suggest strategies for addressing and combating these attempts at racelighting.

The authors of this article– five anti-racist educators working in various educational settings in SLC– employ the Critical Race Theory counter-story methodology (Delgado and Stefancic, 1993) to confront resistance to educational equity in Utah. They do so by first providing a historical context of race and education in Utah before presenting four short counterstories addressing the racelighting efforts of students, fellow educators and administrators when confronted with the complexities of racial injustice.

These counterstories are particularly important in light of the recent increase in color-evasive and whitewashed messaging used to attack CRT and to deny the existence of racism in the SLC school system in K-post-secondary education, and in the U.S. as a whole.

These stories are set in a unique environment, yet they hold national relevance. The racial and religious demographics in Utah shed light on the foundational ethos of the country – white, Christian supremacy. They reveal what is at stake in defending it and some of the key mechanisms of that defense.

The purpose of this study is to serve as an exploration of technology engagement on culturally responsive pre-service teachers. In an effort to increase interests of PK–12 students of diverse populations in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) education, many will need opportunities and introductions presented from their PK–12 teachers. Thus, as a part of teaching in the twenty-first century, PK–12 teachers play an intricate role in sparking beginning and continuing interest in technology. This is especially important for students who may not have the opportunity to engage in technology outside of their school setting. Consequently, it is imperative that PK–12 teachers develop a positive disposition toward and engage in technology themselves.

Using a mixed-method approach, this study investigates the perceptions of Historically Black Colleges and Universities PK–12 pre-service teachers in the area of technology engagement as they work to become culturally responsive teachers. The study provides an interpretation of the pre-service teachers’ level of interest/engagement practices and its relationship with their preparation as culturally responsive teachers.

The findings suggest a positive correlation between their education preparation program and their ability to utilize technology with their future students.

Finally, the study highlights the need for teacher educators to place a heavier focus on their own technology integration and for education preparation program courses/practicums to follow suit so that under-represented student populations develop more interest in STEM subjects.

Teacher educators in rural settings where few English learners (ELs) may be enrolled in PK-12 schools are responsible for creating learning experiences that support preservice teachers in building a foundation for teaching culturally and linguistically diverse learners. The goal of the self-study described in this chapter was to investigate a teacher educator’s practice in a largely White, English-speaking rural area in the northeastern US. Learning experiences embedded in the one required course for preparing to teach ELs were grounded in extant research. This chapter highlights one unique experience in which the preservice teachers interacted with international ESL peers on campus to negotiate meaning of a complex text. The preservice teachers reported that this interaction led to analogous understandings for planning and implementing literacy instruction with ELs. These results may be useful to other teacher educators in rural areas who seek principled ways to strengthen preservice teachers’ preparedness for teaching ELs.

This study responds to major administrative and policy priorities to support science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) education by investigating a multi-sector ecosystem of regional organizations that support a STEM pipeline for education and careers.

We use social network analysis to investigate an entire region within a geographic region of California which included 316 organizations that represent different stakeholder groups, including educational institutions (school districts, schools and higher education), government, private companies, museums, libraries and multiple community-based organizations. This STEM ecosystem reflects a systems-level analysis of a region from a unique social network perspective.

Results indicate that organizations have a surface-level access to STEM-related information, but the deeper and more intense relationship which involves strategic collaboration is limited. Further, interactions around information and collaboration between organizations were purportedly in part to be about education, rarely included PK-12 schools and district as central actors in the ecosystem. In addition, while institutions of higher education occupy a central position in connecting and bridging organizations within the ecosystem, higher education's connectivity to the PK-12 education sector is relatively limited in terms of building research and practice partnerships.

This research has implications for how regional-level complex systems are analyzed, led and catalyzed and further reflects the need to intentionally attend to the growth of STEM networks.

This paper introduces a cognitive coaching and reflection tool to help school leaders build self-efficacy at a time when schools are facing a crisis in leadership. Key themes emerged from the data generated as part of a larger study of PK-12 administrators' leadership during the coronavirus pandemic.

This qualitative study is based on phenomenological research methods and uses naturalistic inquiry design.

The findings consider the building of school leaders' efficacy in crisis management during a pandemic. A total of seven data-driven reflection themes are identified: self-care, professional development (PD), communication, school climate, instruction, parent resources and advocacy.

Investigated using a purposeful, nonrepresentative sample were the perceptions and experiences of PK-12 administrators as they served in their leadership role during the pandemic. Therefore, the results are not generalizable beyond the scope and context for which the research was conducted. An implication of this study is that this tool can be used by coaches working with school leaders and by leaders themselves to increase self-efficacy.

The cognitive coaching and reflection tool could be beneficial in developing leaders' self-awareness and reflection skills, in turn building self-efficacy. Although there are other tools to support leaders' self-awareness and reflection, the effects of the pandemic represent a unique opportunity for examining leader practices to adjust to, prepare for and deal with the impacts of a crisis.

African American male teachers are the nation’s most academically credentialed and professionally experienced teachers. Though less than 2 percent of the nation’s teachers are African American males, these teachers are more likely than their White male and female peers to hold a master’s or doctorate degree. Additionally, African American male teachers who become principals assume the position with more years of experience as a PK-12 classroom teacher than their White peers. And, those who leave the principalship to become superintendents have more years of experience as a PK-12 principal than similarly situated White peers. Why, then, are African American males underrepresented in critical school district policy and leadership posts such as the principalship and superintendency while lesser credentialed and experienced White males hold these posts in percentages that exceed their representation in the teacher workforce? This chapter reviews data about African American male teachers and the school leadership pipeline and proposes a series of policy recommendations to increase representation of African American males in the PK-12 teacher and school leadership workforces.