A blue ribbon education
Four Maryland schools in TU’s College of Education’s Professional Development School Network named state Blue Ribbon honorees
By Kyle Hobstetter on January 23, 2018
Towson University’s College of Education (COE) is Maryland’s largest producer of teachers, and its footprint can be felt throughout the state.
That footprint continues to grow through COE's Professional Development School Network, the largest and longest-standing network in Maryland. It was part of the very first PDS partnership in the state, formed with Owings Mills Elementary in 1993.
Since then, the network has expanded to 11 school districts and 128 schools in the state, with many Towson University interns and student-teachers getting crucial experience in school settings.
“For 25 years, the Towson PDS Network has been at the core of our teacher preparation internships,” said M. Lynn Brown, director of Towson University’s Center for Professional Practice. “It’s where our future teachers apply best practices that they learn both from their professors on campus and from their mentor teachers, principals and others in our partner schools.”
This past December, four schools in the COE’s Professional Development School Network were among the six were named 2017-18 State Blue Ribbon Honorees by the Maryland State Department of Education. The Towson University PDS Network schools that received these honors were:
- Waterloo Elementary School in Howard County
- West Towson Elementary School in Baltimore County
- Fallston Middle School in Harford County
- Luxmanor Elementary School in Montgomery County.
By receiving the honor, the schools will be invited by the U.S. Department of Education to apply to be National Blue Ribbon Schools. Each school will receive a Maryland Blue Ribbon Flag; a monetary prize; $1,000 in teaching supplies; interactive technology equipment and a school congratulations party. They will also be honored by the Maryland House of Delegates and the Senate in a special dinner held in March.
The schools were selected in the category of “Exemplary High Achieving School,” and scored in the top 15 percent of all Maryland schools on the 2017 PARCC assessments. This assessment shows that Towson University students and interns are at the right place to start their careers.
“We were thrilled to learn that of the six schools in Maryland named Blue Ribbon Schools, four are Towson University Professional Development Schools,” Brown said. “These schools embody what we strive for throughout our network— dedicated learning communities focused on supporting all students in their care. Our interns learn from the caring, talented professionals in these schools, and we also expect that our interns make a positive contribution to the lives of their schools as well.”
The MSDE defines a Professional Development School (PDS) as a collaboratively planned and implemented partnership for the academic and clinical preparation of interns and the continuous development of both school system and Institution of Higher Education (IHE) faculty. The focus of the PDS partnership is to improve student performance through research-based teaching and learning.
Currently the MSDE requires interns to complete 100-day internships across two consecutive semesters in a PDS. TU and its PDS partners collaborate throughout each year to plan for and monitor the partnership’s work in meeting certain PDS standards focused on the achievement of the students in our partner schools.
Many Towson University student-teachers and interns get to engage in their school community, learning to teach students of diverse backgrounds and abilities.
“After 25 years, we have a lot of collective experience with what makes a partnership work,” Brown said. “We seek to continuously improve our practices and adjust our partnerships to meet the growing needs in our field. For example, in recent years our programs have added partnership schools with focus areas such as English language learners, restorative practices, middle school certification and dual certification, to name a few.”