Professional Learning through P-16 Partnership Design: Emergent Lessons Learned toward Improving and Sustaining Partnership Development

The purpose of this paper is to explore the processes and features of one P-16 partnership developed to improve the clinical experience of teacher preparation. The development of partnerships reflects a commitment among institutions to collaborate in a purposeful manner with a keen awareness that each partner must seek to better understand and respect the culture of the other's institution, maintain a level of flexibility, and established common goals for outcomes. In particular, partnership members within this study provided their assessment of the benefit(s) of the partnership program on their professional development. With these ideals in mind, this study was designed to investigate the critical conditions of a newly developed school-university partnership that fosters professional development among its members. In turn, the relationships between member development and program quality are explored. Implications for partnership sustainability are offered as a result.