The Tri-County Partnership for Excellence in Teacher Education is a Title II grant for $2.5 million acquired by the Youngstown State University Beeghly College of Education and the College of Arts and Sciences to form partnerships with local school districts. This five-year grant is the largest grant ever received by YSU and is intended to facilitate two-way interaction between local school practitioners and YSU faculty members from the two colleges in order to improve both public school effectiveness and college teacher preparation programs.

     The partnership currently involves YSU, Youngstown City Schools, Warren City Schools, and Beaver Local Schools. YSU faculty from the College of Education and the College of Arts and Sciences work on-site in selected local school buildings as faculty in residence. The YSU faculty work with designated classroom teachers, exchanging ideas and practices involving teaching methods, curriculum, innovative and effective teaching-learning activities, and classroom management strategies.

     Paul Gallagher, Ed.D, is the project director and coordinator of the effort. Gallagher's idea for the project is centered around the vision that curriculum should be alive and changing as the needs of classrooms change to better meet the real-world demands of public school effectiveness and university teacher education. Central to the project is the sharing of ideas where public school practitioners are equal partners with college faculty in shaping changes in both public school classrooms and in college teacher preparation classrooms.