The Education Leadership Program is collaborating with Fairfax County Public Schools to help prepare the next generation of school leaders in a manner that is timely for the district. In the Accelerated Certification Cohort (ACC), Education Leadership faculty have co-constructed the curriculum and share in the instructional process. On another level, faculty collaborate in team planning and team teaching, marrying various areas of expertise to form coherent leadership development that combines theory and practical application. In addition, they teach students how to collaborate and encourage them to practice collaborative leadership in role-playing scenarios.

The ASTL Program has a committed focus on collaboration across the core courses. A central collaboration is with the National Board for Professional Teaching Standards (NBPTS). Several board-certified teachers are regular instructors in the program, ensuring an ongoing alignment with the NBPTS propositions. In addition, one board-certified teacher serves as a consultant to the program. ASTL also collaborates with other programs within the college such as educational leadership, special education, and literacy, as well as other units on campus to deliver the content-based course component of the program. One of the program learning outcomes, "teachers are members of learning communities," is embedded in each of the core classes and directly addresses collaboration. Through cohort-based program delivery and collaboration within and across grade levels, teachers in the ASTL Program experience a variety of professional collaborations.

An Educational Psychology faculty member serves as a local evaluation specialist for the Alexandria City Health Department’s Teen Pregnancy Prevention Initiative. In addition, graduate students are involved in program evaluation and educational assessment at sites related to the initiative.

Mathematics Education Center and Educational Psychology faculty are collaborating with COSMOS Research Corp., Brown University, and Vanderbilt University on a national project to evaluate the Math and Science Partnership Program and assess its impact on the mathematics and science education. This $14.7 million, five-year contract examines a variety of program features of the K–16 mathematics and science educational system, including teacher quality, student achievement, and curricula. College of Science faculty also are involved in this project.

Elementary Education’s two programs, Professional Development Schools (PDS) and Partnership Schools (PS), are examples of deep collaboration between teacher education and individual elementary schools and districts. An advisory committee serves as a conduit for information in all directions and for all major activities, and serves to support students at multiple levels.

An Educational Psychology faculty member collaborates with Fairfax County Public Schools on two projects: WeCare@School, a wireless emergency care information service for schools, and Fort Belvoir ExCELLS, a library project that benefits students, families, and active duty and retired military personnel in the Fort Belvoir community.

George Mason is the only university in North America to offer certificate programs in a partnership with the International Baccalaureate Organization (IBO). CEHD’s Center for International Education is offering a two-track initiative. The Certificate in Advanced IB Studies is for practicing teachers, covering domains in the Primary Years Program (PYP), the Middle School Program (MYP), and the Diploma Program (DP). The second track allows students in the FAST TRAIN Elementary Education Program to complete course work in elementary education, as well as a capstone course, Teaching and Learning the IB Primary Years. After teaching for one year in an IB school at the PYP level to complete the internship requirement, participants are eligible to apply to the IBO for the Level I Award.

KIDLAB (Krasnow Investigation of Development Learning and Behavior), a joint project with the Krasnow Institute for Advanced Study, is innovating ways to make the functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) environment and experimentation more closely mimic learning environments and learning processes that occur in the real world. Research efforts are focused on investigating the cognitive neuro science of reasoning and attention processes. All of KIDLAB's practices are research-based and seek to provide interdisciplinary connections that will benefit health, medicine, and education.

KIDLAB (Krasnow Investigation of Development Learning and Behavior), a joint project with the Krasnow Institute for Advanced Study, is becoming a laboratory known for providing opportunities for young women in science. It offers training and support to a high school senior, a college sophomore from Washington and Lee University, a college junior from Virginia Tech, two George Mason freshmen, and two George Mason graduate students—one from CEHD’s Educational Psychology Program [and one from the graduate Neuroscience program].

At the graduate level, more than 100 students per year in the Literacy Program are involved in preparation to become reading specialists in diverse schools. One aspect of this program is an intensive 6-credit practicum experience working with children and adolescents in local schools. Several full- and part- time literacy program faculty members have been instrumental in organizing this practicum over the past few years in collaboration with local school divisions. Children from diverse families with special needs in literacy are provided free instruction from licensed teachers who are preparing to become reading specialists. Program faculty supervise the tutoring on site over the course of a spring or summer term.

At the undergraduate level, the Literacy Program collaborates with Mason’s New Century College to offer a program in which undergraduates provide 45 hours of service to local school children in the area of literacy. Each term, approximately 25 students in the Literacy and Curriculum Integration for Specialist Teachers course (EDRD 300) are linked with reading educators in local schools. Students, many of whom are considering applying to graduate programs in education, learn effective tutoring methods for diverse populations. Teachers in the schools report that these students provide extremely helpful assistance in classrooms, as well as one-on-one support for children.

Mathematics Education faculty cultivate the development of the next generation of mathematics education leaders and scholars. The faculty’s research activity allows advanced graduate students to participate in ongoing inquiry projects that allow them to apply their course work to real educational research issues. Alongside mathematics education faculty, PhD students learn first-hand how to conduct educational research by participating in study design, instrument development, data collection, data analysis, manuscript preparation, and research presentations. [Financial support for students has come from the externally funded projects in the Mathematics Education Center, including funds for graduate research assistants and summer positions, tuition support, and travel support to attend and present at research conferences. These presentations and publications are truly collaborative, with students having direct opportunities to write and present in national and international venues.]

CEHD has partnered with Frederick, Loudoun, and Stafford County Public Schools to develop the Virtual High School Collaborative. Twenty-five high school teachers, supported by their school divisions and George Mason, work within the framework of advanced graduate study to create web-based instructional materials. The program’s Online Academy enables high school students to meet their educational goals through online courses that reflect the content areas of Virginia’s Standards of Learning, school divisions’ curriculum guidelines, and relevant text-based materials. The project recently received the Governor's Technology Award in the category of “Innovation in K–12 Education,” which recognizes the innovative use of technology to provide improved service delivery to Virginia’s high school students.

In a partnership with the Academy for Educational Development, the Center for International Education (CIE) is providing both U.S.-based and in-country training to Pakistani teacher educators in pedagogy, leadership, technology, and content, as well as math and ESOL education. Implementing an Islamabad-based program that replicated the work that was undertaken over three semesters in the United States, CIE trained more than 100 Pakistani professionals. [CIE has maintained a professional collaboration with the Pakistani university, and collaborative research is ongoing.]

A partnership with eight schools in Arlington, Fairfax, and Prince William Counties is providing practical experience for teacher candidates, while improving the academic performance of students. The nationally recognized program involves Professional Development Schools (PDSs)—clinical field sites similar to teaching hospitals in the medical profession—where interns assume responsibilities under the supervision of trained clinical faculty.

Through a partnership with Robinson Secondary School in Fairfax, Va., more than 30 teachers have been trained as clinical faculty and 47 CEHD students have completed internships in English, math, science, or social studies since 2002. The partnership, part of the Professional Development School program, has expanded in size and scope in recent years. Unique to Robinson is a program that provides interns with enriched feedback. "Operation Observation" affords interns an opportunity to be observed by Robinson students. The students observe for 45 to 90 minutes, complete an observation form, and, if requested, meet one-on-one with the intern to discuss their observations. [The feedback interns have received has been detailed, balanced, and honest, while Robinson students have gained a sense of empowerment as they see themselves as valuable contributors to the education field.] In addition, CEHD faculty and teachers in the Social Studies Department at Robinson started an action research project in spring 2004 to examine best practices for teaching and assessing research and writing. This study has been replicated twice and has expanded from four teachers to 12. Interns who have worked with the clinical faculty involved in these studies also have participated in the data collection and analysis.

A District of Columbia/Consortium of Universities grant awarded to Literacy and IET faculty created the RAC-II Project, which provides collaborative, school-based support to middle and high school teachers and administrators participating in the DC Public Schools “Reading Across the Curriculum” (RAC) professional development program. Teacher study groups and mini-grants were additional features, designed to facilitate critical teacher discussions within and across schools, as well as exchange of information on the challenges and successes of implementing content literacy strategies. The project is using the expertise of a cadre of George Mason University professors, doctoral graduate assistants, and consultants specializing in content area reading, adolescent literacy, teacher professional development, program evaluation, and educational technology in direct support of these teachers and the design and study of all project components. The RAC-II web site can be found at http://itdb.gmu.edu/ratc.