Lessons learned from school-based teacher preparation programs

There are many advantages and challenges associated with school-based teacher preparation programs. Five such programs are briefly described in this paper. The Center for Excellence in Education at Northern Arizona University operates the Flagstaff Partnership Program, the Sedona Partnership Program, the Rural Special Education Program, the Rural Multicultural Training Collaborative, and the Praxis Program. Based upon our experiences with these programs, four important variables have been identified that need to be considered to maximize the likelihood that a school-based teacher preparation program will succeed. These variables are (a) the importance of the personnel in the program, (b) the importance of administrative support for the program, (c) the importance of flexibility and risk-taking, and (d) a focus on new conceptions of quality. Each of these variables is briefly described in this paper.