Abstract
This article describes the conditions for establishing an advanced master’s degree program that focuses on teacherleadership. The creation of the model is examined from the perspective of nine administrators from EanesIndependent School District in Austin, Texas, and Texas State University – San Marcos. These administratorscollaborated to design the Partnership in Teacher Excellence Program (PTEP), with the purpose of developingteacher leaders who would become experts in their subject areas, deliver high-quality classroom instruction to theirK-12 students, provide ongoing professional development to their colleagues in the district, and serve in a variety ofteacher leadership roles. Emerging from anecdotal evidence are positive results that confirm the administrators’efforts to develop PTEP.
Highlights
This article describes the conditions for establishing an advanced master’s degree program that focuses on teacher leadership
We identified three studies that focused on teacher leadership and university-district partnerships but did not result in a master’s degree (Chartrand, Moore, & Lourie-Markowitz, 2000; Crawford, Roberts, & Hickman, 2008; Gemo, Meskel, & Rieckhoff, 2009)
Two additional key findings showed that all stakeholders must clearly understand the teacher leadership roles that will be available after graduation and that sufficient support is required for the teacher leaders throughout the program
Summary
This article describes the conditions for establishing an advanced master’s degree program that focuses on teacher leadership. The creation of the model is examined from the perspective of nine administrators from Eanes Independent School District in Austin, Texas, and Texas State University – San Marcos These administrators collaborated to design the Partnership in Teacher Excellence Program (PTEP), with the purpose of developing teacher leaders who would become experts in their subject areas, deliver high-quality classroom instruction to their K-12 students, provide ongoing professional development to their colleagues in the district, and serve in a variety of teacher leadership roles. Administrators from Eanes Independent School District (Eanes ISD) in Austin, Texas, and Texas State University – San Marcos collaborated to design the Partnership in Teacher Excellence Program (PTEP) with the purpose of developing teacher leaders who would become experts in their subject areas; deliver high-quality classroom instruction to their K 12 students; provide ongoing professional development to their colleagues in the district; and serve in a variety of teacher leadership roles, such as instructional coaches, team leaders, and department chairs. Several features made PTEP unique: (a) the master’s degree focused on the classroom-level aspects of teacher leadership; (b) the suburban school district was continually labeled exemplary or high performing, based on student performance on state-mandated assessments; (c) the district formally supported ongoing professional development through a policy that required all newly hired teachers to obtain a master’s degree within the first six years of employment; (d) the Eanes Education Foundation, a philanthropic group of district residents, provided scholarships to offset costs for tuition and books; (e) the university and the district co-constructed the curriculum to meet the teachers’ specific needs; and (f) the university adapted its course delivery to meet the teachers’ needs, including teaching the graduate classes onsite in the district and providing individual mentoring for the required teacher research projects
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary Sign-in/Register to access full text options 
Free) 
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a call
