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Standard 3.A
Collaboration Between Unit and School Partners

Target: The school and unit share and integrate resources and expertise to support candidates' learning in field experiences and clinical practice. Both unit and school-based faculty are involved in designing, implementing, and evaluating the unit's conceptual framework(s) and the school program; they each participate in the unit's and the school partner's professional development activities and instructional programs for candidates and for children. The unit and its school partners jointly determine the specific placements of student teachers and interns for other professional roles to maximize the learning experience for candidates and P-12 students.

Introduction. EMU has been substantially involved in collaborative activities with school districts and other educational agencies for many decades. In fact, what is now the COE Office of Collaborative Education can trace its roots back almost 25 years. Click here for a description of the work of the COE Office of Collaborative Education. Several major projects (e.g., C-SIP, consociate schools ) are operated directly from this office. The decade-long Comer Project with the Detroit schools, recently ended, was closely associated with the Office of Collaborative Education. In addition, the Office of Collaborative Education maintains records of faculty members who are involved in outreach activities, by faculty member and by topic of interest/involvement.

As a member of the Renaissance Partnership for Improvement of Teacher Quality, the unit has partnerships with 40 teachers in the Ypsilanti and Willow Run School Districts. Teachers in this program receive mentor training and attend workshops with the preservice teachers placed in their classrooms. The focus of the Teacher Quality Project is on analyzing student learning resulting from classroom assessments.

In addition, P-12 personnel regularly serve on the several program-oriented advisory committees of the College of Education. Prominent among these is the Department of Teacher Education Advisory Committee, which has been substantially involved with the emerging development of the conceptual frameworks and the mid-program assessments. See Exhibit 3.9. The College of Education Advisory Committee, dormant for several years, has been revived for 2003-2004. See Exhibit 3.10. A number of local-area P-12 personnel serve as adjunct lecturers for the College of Education.

All these examples illustrate ways that EMU faculty and staff members and P-12 personnel participate in the unit's and the school partner's professional development activities and instructional programs for candidates and for children. Although many of these activities do not directly relate to field experiences for candidates, they do illustrate "background" relationships that ultimately lead to highly successful field placements.

Shared Resources and Expertise to Support Candidates' Learning.

(1) Background. Candidates in the initial teacher preparation program who enrolled in any college before Fall 1998 must complete a minimum of 100 clock hours of pre-student teaching field experiences. A minimum of 50 of these hours must be obtained in an age-appropriate classroom environment at the elementary or secondary level and at least one experience must be in a multicultural setting. The additional 50 hours may come from a variety of professionally-related experiences working with children at an age-appropriate level.

Candidates in the initial teacher preparation program who enrolled in any college after Fall 1998 take three courses that provide laboratory experiences in which they develop the skills and concepts taught in the methods courses they are currently taking. These courses account for 60 of the 100 hours required for pre-student teaching. Students begin the sequence with FETE (Field Experiences in Teacher Education) 201 (five hours of pre-student teaching), a community-based experience, that until the recent end of the project, has been closely affiliated with the Detroit-EMU Comer Project. Students take FETE 301/302 in conjunction with CURR 304/305 and EDPS 340 and take FETE 401/402 with RDNG 310/311. During the FETE 301/302 experience, students teach a student, observe and analyze the learning environment, and pre-assess and teach one whole-class lesson, completing 25 hours of pre-student teaching. During FETE 401/402, students teach a student with emphasis on reading comprehension, assess a student's reading, and teach reading lessons, completing 30 hours of pre-student teaching. The additional 40 hours may come from a variety of professionally related experiences working with children at an age-appropriate level. For additional information, see the FETE Handbook in Exhibit 3.11.

Candidates in business education and technology education do not take FETE 302 but complete field experiences attached to their curriculum methods courses. Students in music education, physical education, and special education do not take the FETE courses but complete field experiences attached to course work within their individual programs.

All initial preparation program candidates take at least a 12-credit hour, full semester, full time student teaching experience. For additional information, see the Student Teaching Handbook in Exhibit 3.6. At the advanced level, the internship requirements for the programs in education leadership are described in the Internship Handbook and the supervised counseling experiences for school counselors are described in the CSAP Student Handbook.

(B) Agency responsibilities. In all these instances, the printed materials cited above identify what EMU provides for the experience and what the host agency provides for the experience. In general, EMU prepares the candidate up to a certain level before she/he engages in the field experience. The P-12 supervisor is aware of the background and limitations of the candidate at the time of the field experience. The host agency provides the place where the candidate has the field experience and provides the field supervisor, with whom the candidate works closely. EMU provides a university supervisor who is responsible for maintaining the academic integrity of the experience and for the formal evaluations/grades. All the field experience documents cited above stress the importance of a three-way partnership among the candidate, the field supervisor, and the university supervisor.

Placements. For FETE 201, all students in a particular section of the course are assigned to the same school. For FETE 301/302/401/402, self placements are possible under certain conditions, provided that the proposed location meets certain criteria. Otherwise, the FETE office in the Department of Teacher Education handles the placement, using predetermined and arranged for classrooms and buildings. See Exhibit 3.11. For student teaching, EMU maintains cooperative agreements with a number of school districts, buildings, and other educational agencies. The cooperative agreements cover many topics, including the necessary qualifications for any cooperating teacher. Candidates may request to be assigned to any of the locales where a cooperative agreement exists. The Director of Student Teaching and the university supervisor strive to make the best possible matches between the student teachers and the available, qualified cooperating teachers. For additional information, see Exhibit 3.6. Similar arrangements exist for the advanced level program field experiences. See the Handbooks referenced above.