To be admitted to teacher education (Gateway 3), all initial teacher education candidates are required to complete 100 contact hours with students in a P-12 classroom setting. Teacher education candidates acquire these 100 hours through a series of observation and participation field experiences conducted in cooperation with P-12 schools within our service region, or with out of area schools.
The first two field experience requirements are fulfilled during the EDUC 131: Introduction to Teaching course and the PSYCH 231: Educational Psychology course, where candidates, respectively, complete a 10 clock hour and a 15 clock hour field experience requirement. These experiences are completed in a local area school, or the student may return to their home area school to complete the placement. If the experience is to be in the local area, the Director or Field Experiences, or his/her designee, makes the field experience placement for the candidate. If the experience is to be out of the local area, the candidate makes the request to be assigned to a designated teacher within the school of their choice, upon the approval of the Field Experience Office. By allowing candidates to determine their own placements, they then have the ability to achieve increased school/classroom diversity by choosing a rural school, a suburban school or an urban school site.
The third field experience requirement for education candidates is completed as a part of EDUC 300: Secondary Observation and Participation course, or EDUC 320: Elementary/Middle-Grades Observation and Participation course. These courses require a field experience of 75 clock hours within a school-based classroom setting for secondary level candidates, and 100 clock hours within a school-based classroom setting for elementary and middle level candidates. Due to the vastness of the service region and the relatively small population of the Chadron community, candidates are allowed to make arrangements for their own site observations, upon the initial approval of the Field Experience office. If candidates wish to be placed within the local Chadron area, the Director of Field Experiences makes arrangements for the placement of these candidates.
To fulfill these [above described] three field experience requirements, candidates are required to complete a field report (responding to specific questions) pertaining to the schools, classrooms, students and teachers they observed. In addition, P-12 school site teacher supervisors are asked to submit a form evaluating each candidate that participated in observation within their classroom. These assessment measures are then used to evaluate the quality of the specific field experience.
In addition to these field and clinical experiences required of all candidates, there are additional required field experiences for candidates pursuing endorsement programs in physical education: HPER 490; special education: SPED 316/416; and early childhood education: FCS 448. (CSC General Bulletin 2005-07, p. 181, p. 172, p. 137 respectively). The specific nature of these experiences are designed in collaboration with the P-12 school supervisor, given the specificity of the content area.
During academic years 2001-02 and 2002-03, EDUC 300/320: Observation & Participation candidates (Junior level) participated in a two-day multicultural Hispanic oriented field experience as part of the Nebraska Partnership for Quality Teacher Education Project—a grant project which provided monies to support preservice training efforts. In year one, candidates traveled to schools in North Platte River Valley communities, where they observed in P-12 schools with large populations of Hispanic students. This trip included a visit to the North Platte Hispanic Cultural Center, with a presentation from the Center Director on issues affecting Hispanic immigrants. In the Year 2 experience candidates traveled to Colorado with visitations in Greeley, CO schools (large Hispanic population) and to Denver, CO schools (large Hispanic and African American populations), thus providing an urban education field experience for the elementary and secondary students. This field experience concluded with attendance at the Association for Teacher Education annual meeting in Denver, CO. The Spring 2006 semester will once again find O&P (Junior level) candidates participating in a similar field experience to the North Platte River Valley community schools. A field experience itinerary may be found in the Documents Center.
During the Professional Year, many candidates have opportunities for additional field and clinical experiences with students in local schools. Candidates within Physical Education, Art and Music Education, Math Education, and Science Education programs routinely assist area schools by providing instruction and/or assistance with performing arts, athletics, tutoring, and/or honors fairs and achievement programs.
The culminating field experience program for candidates is a minimum 16-week teacher internship (student teaching experience), required of all candidates for program completion. Candidates completing a field endorsement program are required to complete a minimum ten-week internship experience for each field endorsement program they are seeking. Candidates seeking subject endorsements are required to complete a minimum eight-week field experience for each subject endorsement they are seeking. In most cases the candidates are placed in schools that are located within a 150 mile radius of Chadron State College. Table 3.1 identifies cooperating schools within the CSC service region, and those in Wyoming and South Dakota. If candidates wish to be placed beyond the 150 mile radius of CSC, they are advised that they may have to pay a fee for their college supervision (from another institution with a teacher education program), in addition to other possible fees (i.e. gas and mileage). Although program candidates are required to complete a full range of standard prescribed activities required of a beginning teacher, many internships are tailored to the specific needs of the candidate and/or the school site that they are serving (i.e., Speech Coach). Table 3.2 identifies program gateways and their associated field experience programs.
Table 3.2: Field Experiences, Initial Candidates
|
Gateway 2 |
EDUC 131 |
Introduction to Teaching |
10 hours |
|
Gateway 3 |
PSYC 231 |
Educational Psychology |
15 hours |
|
Gateway 4a |
EDUC 300 |
Secondary Observation & Participation |
75 hours |
|
Gateway 4a |
EDUC 320 |
Elementary Observation & Participation |
100 hours |
|
Gateway 5 |
EDUC 480/490 |
Teacher Internship (Student Teaching) |
16 weeks |
The CSC Handbook for Cooperating Schools on Teacher Internship Programs (p. 11, in document center) describes activities in which candidates take part. These include: planning and teaching lessons, participating in team planning and organization, assisting with media resources and technology, observing and discussing different teaching techniques with professional personnel, participating in co-curricular activities, attending after-school meetings and teacher inservice sessions such as department and grade-level meetings, participating in parent/teacher conferences, preparing teaching materials, and administering and correcting evaluation materials. As candidates proceed along the continuum, they gradually increase their teaching responsibilities in the classroom until they have assumed as many responsibilities of the cooperating teacher as possible.
During student teaching, interns are required to complete a Teacher Work Sample (TWS, Rubric). First, candidates are expected to research and report information about the community, the school, and the students in the classroom where they are teaching. In cooperation with the cooperating teacher, an instructional unit is planned based on the learning needs of the students. Students are pre-tested to assure that the candidate has taken the previous learning and experience of the students into account. At the end of the unit, the students are given a post-test, and the Intern describes the resulting data and prepares graphs indicating the degree of student gain/improvement. The candidate then analyzes and reflects on why learning did or did not occur. In addition, the candidate must report what modifications were used to promote the learning of all students, what instructional strategies appeared to work well, and any barriers that existed to student understanding. The Teacher Work Sample is submitted to Unit faculty and cooperating teachers for grading. A rubric is used to grade the TWS and to ensure for assessment consistency. A teacher intern cannot successfully complete a TWS without considering the diverse needs of students or without adapting instruction to meet the learning needs of existing exceptional populations.
Assessment instruments and activities have been developed to embrace the unit’s conceptual framework. Examples include the Teacher Intern Checklist that evaluates candidate knowledge, skills, and dispositions inherent in the Unit’s conceptual framework. Knowledge, skills and dispositions are confirmed as they pertain to these conceptual framework components: Thinking Skills, Human Relations/Diversity, Assessment, Communication, Methodology/Technology, and Professionalism. Cooperating teachers also complete a similarly organized evaluation instrument, which is submitted to the Director of Field Experiences at mid-semester and at the end of the 16 week/18 week field experience. All assessment measures are reflective of the candidate’s ability to become an effective leader within the education profession. Specific teacher internship course descriptions are found in the 2005-07 General Bulletin, (p. 169).
Field experiences at the advanced level are defined as practica, internships, action research projects, or other approved PK-12 related activity. A description of the field experience requirement for each advanced program follows.
Master of Education: Elementary/Secondary Curriculum and Instruction
Candidates seeking a Master of Education degree are not required to complete an internship/practicum experience as the degree does not add an additional endorsement to the candidates’ teacher certification. The majority of candidates in this program are practicing teachers/practitioners who are seeking to broaden their content knowledge base. Within the courses of the candidate’s plan of study, the candidate is expected to research areas relevant to the plan of study and to produce a scholarly paper. In some instances, candidates are asked to produce an action research or a scholarly project; this occurs only with the approval of the advisor, their graduate committee, and if relevant- with the input and approval of the representative school system.
Master of Education/Education Administration: Elementary/Secondary
Candidates in the Master’s degree program leading to a degree in Educational Administration at the elementary or secondary levels, are required to complete a three credit-hour internship/practicum course; this typically occurs toward the end of their program of study. Enrollment in the practicum experience is concurrent with the Internship/Practicum course, EDAD 639, which meets six Saturdays throughout the academic year.
Candidates are engaged in major field experiences and projects associated with their respective administrative program: elementary principalship, secondary principalship, special education director, or athletic director. These field experiences are under the supervision and direction of a mentor school administrator and a College Supervisor. Emphasis for advanced field experiences are based on the Interstate School Leaders Licensure Consortium (ISLLC) Standards. ISLLC was established in 1994, under the guidance of the Council of Chief State School Officers (CCSSO). ISLLC is a consortium of thirty-two education agencies and thirteen education administrative associations that have worked cooperatively to establish an education policy framework for school leadership. The Consortium's vision of leadership parallels CSC’s conceptual framework focus on leadership, and is based on the premise that the criteria and standards for the professional practice of school leaders must be grounded in the knowledge and understanding of teaching and learning. The overarching goals of ISLLC are to raise the bar for school leaders to enter and remain in the profession, and to reshape concepts of educational leadership.
Chadron State College believes a school administrator is an educational leader who should promote the success of all students. Adoption of the IISLC standards provides a framework for such visionary leadership to occur.
During the internship/practicum experience advanced candidates accrue 200 hours of practica. Candidate performance is self-assessed, assessed by their on-site mentor school administrator/supervisor, and by the college practicum supervisor. The practicum Supervisor Checklist Evaluation, used as the assessment instrument, addresses the ISLLC standards. Candidates are asked to design, organize and establish their own practicum/internship program/s, where they are asked to intern with two different leaders, for example; two principals, a principal and special education director, a principal and an athletic director, or, if the candidate is eligible for K-12 principal endorsement-- an elementary principal and a secondary principal; preferably at two different school districts. As an additional assessment measure, candidates must also submit a portfolio of materials as evidence of satisfying the ISLLC standards that parallel the Nebraska state standards. Within the portfolio, candidates must verify completion of 200 clock hours and how the activity completed met one specific ISLLC standard. The portfolio is further divided into various areas that are related to the standards and activities of the principal or director (i.e., communication skills, school policy, and board meetings). The portfolio must also indicate how the conceptual framework: Developing Visionary Leaders has been infused into their program and internship. Table 1.8: Content Knowledge, Professional Knowledge and Skills Demonstrated in the Practicum Portfolio by Education Administration Candidates in Field Experience Activities, may be found in the Documents Center.
An additional 50 hours of internship are acquired during coursework within the program. For example, in EDAD 636: Fundamentals of School Administration, candidates are required to attend a school board meeting and report on the proceedings, and interview a school Superintendent or Business Manager about school finance and/or budget issues. In EDAD 632: Supervision of Instruction, candidates are asked to perform a clinical supervision on a colleague, write up the pre-conference, observation, and post conference results, then provide a reflection on the experience.
Master of Education in School Counseling
Candidates in the Chadron State College school counseling program are required to complete a three to six credit-hour internship program; generally occurring toward the end of their program of study. To obtain either a K-6 or 7-12 School Counseling Endorsement, candidates must enroll in COUN 633: Internship in Counseling which requires the completion a 450 clock hour school counseling internship experience. To become endorsed at the K-12 level for School Counseling, candidates must complete a 900-clock hour internship experience.
The supervised fieldwork internship experience is designed to refine and enhance the basic counseling or student developmental skills, and integrate professional knowledge and skills appropriate to the candidate’s specialization area. The standards developed by the Council for the Accreditation of Counseling and Related Educational Programs (CACRP), the American School Counseling Association (ASCA), and the American Counseling Association (ACA) Code of Ethics and Principles were used to establish guidelines for the fieldwork internship experience, as well as to develop evaluation/assessment criteria.
An evaluation of the candidate skills is conducted both at mid-term and at the end of the practicum/internship experience. The Counseling Internship Evaluation Form is completed by the candidate and the college practicum supervisor. The purpose of the evaluation is to document the candidate’s continued professional development.
As further evaluation of the abilities to become a school counselor, the candidate is required to develop a portfolio that addresses the standards listed above, as well as the manner in which the unit’s conceptual framework is integrated into their program of study. The portfolio is due to the college supervisor prior to the candidate’s culminating oral examination. The Department of Counseling, Psychology and Social Work has developed an Oral Examination Assessment Rubric used to evaluate candidate performance as relative to CACREP standards.
Advanced Programs
Initial Programs