PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT

Course Descriptions
PD Schedule
CPS Descriptors of Effective Teaching
Teaching for Understanding
Course Catalog
PD Schools Partnership
New Teacher Collaborative
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132 Thomas St.
Cranford, NJ 07016
(908)-272-9100



   In January, 2000, the Cranford Public Schools and Seton Hall Univerity signed an agreement to establish a Professional Development School. The Program Abstract of that proposal explains the initial visions of the project, which included the following:
  • Shared governance marked by exchange between professionals of the two organizations.
  • Joint participation in Think Tanks, designed to examine the teacher education program and to engage in true systemic reform.
  • Schools as centers of inquiry wherein learning is constant and continual for all parties.
  • An underlying pedagogical framework of Teaching for Understanding, characterized by a performance perspective toward lesson and assessment design.
  • Essential links to the New Jersey Core Curriculum Content Standards and the New Jersey Professional Teaching Standards.
  • Mentoring relationships between Cranford teachers and Seton Hall University teacher candidates
  • Joint participation in professional development activities that encourage reflection and action research, and joint teaching of such activities.
  • Delivery of standards-based instruction that will lead to sustained benefits and positive impact on the learning of all children.

 The partnership has progressed through the course of ten years. The PDS has worked toward implementing this vision and these activities. Cranford Public Schools and Seton Hall University have committed to continue this partnership in a written partnership agreement.

 With current research and recommendations from the National Association of Professional Development Schools our PDS is governed by the Nine Essentials as determined by the NAPDS.

The nine required essentials of a PDS:

  1. A comprehensive mission that is broader in its outreach and scope than the mission of any partner and that furthers the education profession and its responsibility to advance equity within schools and, by potential extension, the broader community;
  2. A school–university culture committed to the preparation of future educators that embraces their active engagement in the school community;
  3. Ongoing and reciprocal professional development for all participants guided by need;
  4. A shared commitment to innovative and reflective practice by all participants;
  5. Engagement in and public sharing of the results of deliberate investigations of practice by respective participants;
  6. An articulation agreement developed by the respective participants delineating the roles and responsibilities of all involved;
  7. A structure that allows all participants a forum for ongoing governance, reflection, and collaboration;
  8. Work by college/university faculty and P–12 faculty in formal roles across institutional settings; and
  9. Dedicated and shared resources and formal rewards and recognition structures.