What is 180 Days in Springfield?


180 Days in Springfield is a professional development school partnership between the University of Massachusetts Amherst and the Springfield Public Schools. It features an intensive, yearlong, urban middle and high school-based teacher education program leading to a master’s degree in education and a Massachusetts initial teacher license in mathematics, English, physics, chemistry, biology, general science, history, or political science.

Designed for graduating college seniors, recent college graduates, and career changers who have displayed leadership and achievement, are interested in a career in education, and seek the opportunity to teach urban schools, 180 Days features:

1. Master’s degree coursework through the University’s School of Education combined with the opportunity to teach throughout a full academic school year at either Chestnut Accelerated Middle School or Central High School in Springfield.

2. Massachusetts and NCATE (National Council for the Accreditation of Teacher Education) approved teacher education program leading to a middle or high school level license in mathematics, the sciences, English, history, or political science.

3. University professors and Springfield Public School teachers working together to prepare teachers to be leaders in education.

4. A commitment to academic excellence and high achievement by culturally and linguistically diverse urban students.

Since its inception in 1996-1997, 180 Days has prepared 107 new educators who are teaching in schools in Massachusetts, California, New York, Rhode Island, Connecticut, Florida, and Washington. Six graduates of the 180 Days are enrolled in education doctoral programs at Harvard University, Boston College, the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, the University of Miami, and the University of Massachusetts Amherst.

180 Days receives funding support from the Massachusetts Coalition for Teacher Quality and Student Achievement, an U. S. Department of Education, Title II-funded initiative. The project’s partnership with the Chestnut Accelerated Middle School was part of the National Council for Accreditation of Teacher Education's Professional Development School Standards Project.

An Immersion Model


180 Days in Springfield offers an immersion route to teacher education. While working in a school setting throughout the program, new teacher candidates proceed through a developmental sequence of field experiences, moving from observation, to microteaching, to student teaching, to a teaching internship. In so doing, they integrate professional study, teaching experience, and community service to their schools (through a youth leadership “legacy” project conducted with middle or high school students).

180 Days is built on a set of essential characteristics that are common for many professional development school partnerships between public schools and institutions of higher education. These essential characteristics include:

1.  Teacher candidates go into school as part of a cohort.

2.  The whole school welcomes teacher candidates.

3.  Relationship between program and school includes a signed inter-organizational agreement.

4.  Courses for the program are usually taught at the school sites.

5.  Support for teacher candidates in the schools extends beyond a single supervising practitioner.

6.  Intensive clinical teaching experiences preceded by a developmentally appropriate prepracticum.

7.  Preservice and inservice teacher development is interconnected between the University and the school system.

8.  School faculty plays active leadership roles in program design and operation.

9.  University and school system faculty and staff do recruitment and selection of teacher candidates collaboratively.

10. Teacher candidates earn a master’s degree in education as part of the program.

The 180 Days program begins at the end of the August and remains school-based for the duration of the Springfield Public Schools academic year. During the fall University term, 180 Days candidates work as faculty members on a middle school instructional team or in a high school academic department. For 10 weeks, beginning in October, they teach three classes under the direction of a supervising Springfield public school teacher.

In the spring semester, 180 Days candidates assume a more complete teaching load, with three classes, instructional planning time, curriculum development responsibilities, and other duties of a regular teacher. Graduate coursework throughout the year complement and enrich the teaching experiences while providing the academic framework of a master’s degree in secondary education.

Legacy Projects


Every new teacher candidate in 180 Days in Springfield designs and conducts a "Legacy Project" with middle or high school students during their year in the program. Legacy projects are designed to get kids involved in learning by developing their creative talents and leadership skills. Recent Legacy Projects include

Jazz Choir Video Game Club
Chestnut Student Council Boys and Girls Track and Field
School Web Site Project Soccer Club
Photography As Personal Expression Environmental Awareness Group
Music and Dance Group Visual and Artistic Expression
Fitness Club Footprints: An Outdoor Group
Science Solutions Group Mentor/Mentee Program
Theatre/Dance Club Central Perks Program
Healthy Living Class for Girls Girls Softball
Debate Club 7th Grade Basketball Group
Scrabble Club Girls Photography Group
Haiku Hikers Poetry Project Computer Club
Woodwind Ensemble Hair Club for Girls
Theater Improv Crew Underground Game Room
Model Congress GIVE Community Service Group
Quilting Arts in Motion


Legacy projects may take place during school or after school; each represents significant value added to the school in terms of initiatives that most likely will not happen without your energy and leadership. The goal in every case is to improve learning outcomes for students while enhancing your own development as teachers.

The Impact of Legacy Projects on New Teacher Candidates

For teacher candidates, legacy projects are intended to change your "job description" as a new teacher by placing you in different relationships with students outside of the structured environment of classrooms and school-day schedules. You serve as facilitators of student learning rather than instructors of academic content.
The projects you do with kids also affect how you think about yourself as a secondary school teacher in the following two ways:

• By thinking broadly about the best learning and teaching experiences for students, and how you make them part of your work as a teacher.

• By working as an organizational change agent, including networking and relationship building with school, campus or community groups and people.

• By developing essential professional skills used by teachers including taking responsibility for program activities, explaining concepts to others, building dialog rather than debate, facilitating small group discussions, engaging in collaborative problem-solving, communicating across different organizational contexts, and resolving issues through meetings with students and teachers.

The Impact of Legacy Projects on Middle and High School Students

The importance of legacy projects for the students who participate in them is enormous. Young people want exciting learning opportunities—in and out of the classroom—and they value opportunities to express their ideas, get involved in the community, and make decisions about their educational lives. One recent study, Community Counts: How Youth Organizations Matter for Youth Development (March, 2000) summarized 10 years of data from 120 youth-based organizations in 34 cities from Massachusetts to Hawaii. According to the report, youth involved in program providing innovative learning opportunities:

• Achieve at higher academic levels and hold higher expectations for themselves than students less involved in extracurricular school activities.
• Demonstrate greater self-confidence and optimism about what the future holds.
• Express a strong desire to “give back” to their communities.
• Go on to be productive, employed and active members of their communities.


Legacy projects offer powerful ways to promote the healthy self-development of middle and high school students.