Pam Panchak, Post-Gazette
	Student teacher Christine Roe works with third-grader Rachel Freda at Wexford.

At Wexford Elementary School in Pine, student teaching is a two-way street.

	Stacy Innerst, Post-Gazette Click image for more stories, audio and a slideshow about the vital role of teachers in education.

Students from Slippery Rock University of Pennsylvania get classroom practice and earn the needed credits.

The student teachers are carefully placed to help the elementary students learn. Wexford's close relationship with the university also brings other resources, including professors' expertise and other undergraduates who help children.

Wexford is known as a professional development school.

The popularity of such schools is growing nationwide as educators seek to narrow the gap between the ivory tower and the real world of K-12 education.

It is one way teacher preparation is becoming more relevant and rigorous, including increased requirements for a teaching certificate.

And regardless of whether teacher candidates are assigned to a professional development school, Pennsylvania's education students are doing more field work nowadays.

When the Duquesne University education dean, Olga Welch, was at Howard University about 30 years ago, her first classroom experience was student teaching.

Now, she said, "Our students are in the classroom from the very beginning. In the first year, they go to various school systems for observation time and, in some cases, opportunities to help in the classrooms."

More than a third of teacher education institutions use professional development schools for at least some of their teaching candidates, said Marsha Levine, senior consultant for the National Council for Accreditation of Teacher Education.

Pennsylvania has a network of 33 colleges and universities as well as 40 school districts that have professional development schools, some more extensive than others. The state has 95 colleges and universities with teacher education programs.

"Professional development schools are more based on the hospital model," said Dr. Levine.

"They are real schools and very often in challenging districts and challenging settings. They are designed to bring to the school what the university has to offer and to also provide to the university what the schools have to offer. The beneficiaries are real kids who need the best teaching."

Professional development schools make the public schools more of a full partner in helping teacher candidates learn classroom management skills and skills for meeting individual student needs, said Stephen Pavlak, executive director of the Pennsylvania Academy for the Profession of Teaching and associate vice chancellor for school and university programs for the State System of Higher Education.

In Maryland, where 93 percent of teacher candidates spend at least 100 days in a professional development school, Assistant State Superintendent John Smeallie said such candidates "literally hit the ground running. The consistent feedback is they are not like typical first-year teachers."

A recent Towson University study shows that such teachers also stay longer. In one unnamed urban district, their retention rate after five years was 71 percent compared with 35 percent for other teachers.

Slippery Rock has 14 professional development schools, in Pine-Richland, Pittsburgh, Sharon City and Slippery Rock school districts.

About a third of Slippery Rock's 220 student teachers choose professional development schools for 16 weeks of student teaching.

At Wexford Elementary, now in its third year as a professional development school, the student teacher assignments are based on the elementary students' needs.

"Every activity should have that child's learning drive it. If we do that, we will meet the needs of our teacher candidates, the needs of the teacher in the classroom," said Claudia Balach, an assistant professor at Slippery Rock. "We really want our teacher candidates to graduate focused on student learning."

Last semester, four Slippery Rock student teachers and an intern from Duquesne University worked with the five third-grade teachers at Wexford. The college students assessed each student's reading ability and planned lessons with the cooperating teachers.

Student teachers and students on field assignments provide an after-school math program.

Future student teachers spend three weeks at Wexford before beginning student teaching. They are matched with Wexford teachers to meet needs. For example, a student teacher strong in math is placed in a class needing math help.

Said current student teacher Christine Roe, a Slippery Rock senior from Zelienople, "The teachers treat us more as partners, working together to educate the kids."

Principal Yvonne Hawkins asks teachers to research classroom issues, just as the college students do. When she asks, Slippery Rock sends professors to meet with teachers.

With K-12 schools pressured to meet academic performance standards under the federal No Child Left Behind Act, colleges have come under increasing scrutiny for how they prepare teachers.

In a report released last fall by the Education Schools Project, Arthur Levine, former president of Columbia University's Teachers College, said, "Teacher education is the Dodge City of the education world. Like the fabled Wild West town, it is unruly and chaotic."

In Pennsylvania, 95 colleges and universities turned out 15,954 newly certified teachers last school year. Statewide, there were 4,538 first-year teachers in Pennsylvania in 2005-06. Many newly certified teachers leave the state or find other jobs.

Among education schools, Alan Lesgold, dean of the University of Pittsburgh education school, said, "There's a great variability in strength of subject-matter knowledge and variability in how much real, coached practice they get in doing their jobs."

Dr. Lesgold believes there should be standards for how much supervised teaching time candidates have and more review of how graduates perform after they are hired.

To become a certified teacher in Pennsylvania, a candidate is required to complete a state-approved teacher education program, including student teaching or an internship.

In addition, Pennsylvania in recent years has added requirements. As of fall 2005, all candidates must have at least a 3.0 grade-point average in college.

In addition, they must pass two standardized tests, Praxis I, to measure basic skills in reading, writing and math, and Praxis II, for the content area. The state lists the success rate by each school and subject area on its Web site, www.pde.state.pa.us.

Teacher candidates also must have six credits in college-level math, three in college-level English composition and three in college-level English/American literature.

The state board also has given first approval -- another round of review needs to take place before they are final -- to more requirements by 2010, including courses in special education and English as a second language for all teachers.

"The idea behind the proposals is to prepare all teachers to educate all students," said Virginia Montgomery, director of the bureau of teacher certification and preparation in the state Department of Education.