Creating the 21st-Century School of Education: Collaboration, Community, and Partnership in St. Louis

Abstract

Creating 21st-century schools of education requires a new way of working in collaborative partnerships. In this article, we describe 3 key factors in restructuring the University of Missouri-St. Louis School of Education. Collaboration, partnerships, and community building helped shape the nature, pace, and outcomes of that restructuring. We assert that if education, and especially teacher education, does not heed the signals issuing from the workplace and the public, those who prepare professional educators run the risk of being late for a very important date: the dawn of the 21st century. How well educators are prepared to collaborate, develop partnerships, and make effective use of technology directly correlates with how well regions can meet workforce and community needs-and how schools of education themselves will fare in the 21st century.