The Partnership in Teacher Excellence Program: A District-University Collaboration to Create Teacher Leaders

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.