Strategic Partnerships
The SPaCE Office at BU Wheelock partners with schools, community organizations, government agencies, and more. Some of our partnerships include:
Boston Public Schools
The BU Wheelock and Boston Public Schools (BPS) Partnership supports and promotes researchers, practitioners, and policymakers working in collaboration to focus on systemic transformation that influences learning and human development for a thriving, sustainable, and just future in Boston. Each year, around 80 students are placed in 125 BPS schools to experience in-class teaching. To learn more about our partnership with BPS, watch “Working in Public Schools: Community-Engaged Work with Boston Public Schools.”
Network Science for All: Positioning High Need, High Opportunity Youth for Success in Pursuing STEM Pathways
In collaboration with a community-based organization Sociedad Latina, the Network Science for All project designs, implements, and evaluates evidence-based network science and career development lessons that help underserved youth populations in Boston identify their strengths and skills and develop STEM career identity, leading them to further educational, job, and future opportunities. This project is led by Dr. Kimberly Howard and Dr. V Scott Solberg of the Center for Future Readiness at BU Wheelock and is funded by the National Science Foundation. The project team works collaboratively across the University, including the Physics department and the Office of Government and Community Affairs.
AACTE
The Reducing the Shortage of Special Education Teachers Networked Improvement Community (NIC) seeks to examine ways of helping school districts address the critical need of recruiting and retaining special education teachers. Led by the American Association for Colleges of Teacher Education (AACTE), the team is made up of 11 colleges and universities, including BU Wheelock, Virginia State University, and Cleveland State University. The institutions involved in NIC are committed to increasing recruitment into their special education teacher preparation programs, with a focus on recruiting diverse candidates; addressing teacher turnover through strengthened partnerships with Pre K-12 schools and districts; and developing new programs that aim to prepare and retain diverse special educators for specific vacancies.
Harvard Project on Workforce
The Boston Career and College Pathways Partnership (BCCPP), an initiative of Harvard University’s Project on Workforce, prepares students in the Boston Public Schools for a life of work and learning that will enable them to have a career and be full participants in civic life. It aligns Boston Public Schools, business, higher education, city government, and youth-serving community organizations. By June 2025, all Boston high school students will have been provided the opportunity to get started on college while in high school; and all students will have had sufficient exposure to the world of work and careers to make an informed choice about the best path to follow beyond high school.
Bahrain Teacher’s College Partnership
BU Wheelock and Bahrain Teacher’s College have collaborated to offer the EdM in Educational Leadership & Policy Studies (PreK–12) to school leaders in Bahrain. The partnership provides Bahraini school leaders with affordable access to BU’s graduate education programs. The first cohort of 25 students enrolled in fall 2022 and will finish the eight-course degree focusing on school leadership development in two years. BU Wheelock program director, Dr. Bob Weintraub, and faculty members in the Educational Leadership program are enthusiastic about learning from and with students in the Bahrain cohort, who will take the courses online with students from around the US and globally. Learn more about the Bahrain Teacher’s College Partnership.