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Level: Initial and Advanced
The unit, its Professional Development School partners, its traditional partner districts, and other key field experience/clinical practice entities collaboratively design, implement, and evaluate field experiences and clinical practice placements. The tone for the collaborative effort to professionally prepare Educators as Leaders starts at the organizational top with the unit head’s Superintendent’s Circle, the leaders of the 24 districts in the general vicinity of the university. This group meets regularly to discuss matters of mutual concern. Field placements, one of the primary interfaces between districts and the university, are one such interest. Communication occurs both vertically and horizontally. Organizationally, administrators talk to administrators, university supervisors talk to clinical supervisors, candidates team with the supervisors, and their students prosper.
Field experiences and clinical practices are characterized by three levels of intensity: (a) early clinical experiences for students exploring a possible career in the profession, (b) specialized methods for junior- and senior-level teacher education students involved in professional education coursework, and (c) advanced studies that consist of student teaching and internship experiences as well as preparation for advanced professional school roles via practica in special education, school psychology, reading, graduate licensure programs, educational leadership, and ESL. In an academic year, between 400 and 500 early clinical and specialized methods (field experiences) placements will be made, and between 225 and 250 advanced studies placements will be made via coordination between the Field Experience Office, the candidate's academic department, and the school district and building in which the placement is to occur. The majority of the early clinical and specialized placements are in Lawrence and five other traditional partner school districts: Basehor-Linwood, DeSoto, Eudora, Perry-Lecompton, and Tonganoxie. About 100 of our advanced studies placements are in Lawrence or Kansas City, Kansas. These placements provide particularly culturally- and ethnically-diverse experiences.
Integrated Extended Five Year Teacher Education Program. Each year, approximately 35 (from some 45 applicants) of the unit’s approximately 110 initial candidates in the fifth year of the extended teacher preparation program participate in the Professional Development Schools Alliance (PDS) professional year. General information about the PDS Alliance and program features can be retrieved at: http://www.soe.ku.edu/pds/. A critical feature of the PDS Alliance is that it prepares candidates to serve high needs schools. Six of the Alliance schools have high poverty and minority student counts; the seventh was chosen originally because of its high level of technology integration. These seven schools (one high school, two middle schools, and four elementary schools) from four school districts form the PDS partnership. Candidates are selected for PDS participation on the basis of their academic performance, commitment to working in high needs schools, clinical experiences and performance, and recommendations from faculty. In the fall semester, participating candidates complete a six-week student teaching experience in a PDS school, followed by graduate professional education coursework (called the Collaborative Class) team-taught at Central Junior High School in Lawrence and at J.C. Harmon High School in Kansas City. These courses are taught by graduate faculty in a manner by which course content and material are integrated and anchored to the student teaching experience. The Collaborative Class consists of 11 graduate credit hours, comprising educational measurement/assessment, school organization and governance, classroom management, and instructional adaptations/accommodations for exceptional children and youth. The course syllabus can be found at http://www.soe.ku.edu/pds/docs/CClassSyllabus.pdf. Technology integration is a hallmark of the collaborative class.
The remaining 80 or so candidates student teach for six weeks in traditional partner schools during the fall semester. Like their PDS counterparts, candidates complete 11 hours of graduate professional education coursework, which, for them, is taught in a traditional campus-based manner. The following spring semester, both PDS and traditional teacher candidates complete a 13-week internship , PDS candidates in a PDS school and traditional candidates in a traditional partner school. For visual arts education candidates, the spring semester is divided into two eight-week experiences in two educational settings at different levels.
Four Year Programs in Music and Health/Physical Education. Field experiences and clinical practice are major features of the four-year licensure programs in Health and Physical Education (HPE) and Music Education (Music Ed). In these programs, candidates complete a variety of early field experiences followed by a capstone clinical practice experience. In HPE, candidates are required to successfully complete two eight-week student teaching experiences during the last semester of the program (fall or spring). Music Ed candidates must complete a five-week student teaching experience, followed by a 13-week internship experience in a second educational setting during the last semester of the program (fall or spring).
Graduate Licensure Program. The unit’s remaining initial program is the Graduate Licensure Program (GLP), which serves candidates with bachelor’s degrees who want to teach mathematics, the sciences, foreign languages, art, or physical education and health. These candidates complete a semester-long internship experience in a partner school district.
Advanced Programs for Teachers and Other Professional School Personnel. Advanced programs for teachers and other professional school personnel include the English as a Second Language (ESL) endorsement/master’s degree program, endorsement/master’s degree programs in adaptive special education, functional special education, deaf education, and early childhood special education, the reading specialist, educational leadership at the district and building levels, and the school psychology education specialist programs. Each advanced program features rigorous early field experiences and clinical practice requirements. The reading specialist program requires a practicum experience as well as an internship. The ESL program culminates in a 14-week student teaching clinical practice, which can be completed in either the fall or spring semester. Special education clinical practice consists of at least two, eight-week practicum experiences, the second of which may be done as an on-the-job practicum if approved by the academic advisor, school, and practicum supervisor. In addition to focused early field experiences in intelligence testing and school-based practica, the specialist program leading to the license in school psychology features a one-year internship requirement in order for candidates to complete the program. Educational leadership programs require a minimum of a semester-long practicum experience and an up-to-two year post employment internship.
Following are discussions of evidence pertaining to each of the three elements underlying Standard 3. Related information regarding the implementation of these elements can be retrieved at http://soe.ku.edu/fieldexp.
