Recently, the National Association for Music Education (NAfME) National Executive Board (NEB) announced that beginning with the 2020 NAfME National Conference, the meetings of P–12 music education practitioners and members of the higher education community will be reunited. Prior to 2008, NAfME had traditionally provided biennial opportunities for these two different but interdependent groups to interact in a common professional development setting. The NEB decided in 2008 to change to a yearly conference model each summer in Washington, DC; however, this new model did not align well with the needs of the higher education community. Consequently, the NEB agreed to hold a separate biennial conference for the higher education community, which has come to be known as the NAfME Research and Teacher Education Conference.

One of the rationales that the NEB provided for the return to a combined conference model was the opportunity for the cross-pollination of ideas between P–12 inservice teachers and higher education music researchers and teacher educators. Collegiate faculty involved with music teacher education certainly recognize the collaborative nature of their relationship with P–12 practitioners. We could not be effective in our work without the cooperation of in-service teachers and their willingness to host our students in their classrooms for early field experience practica and student teaching.