Student Teaching: Florida
Delivering Well Prepared Teachers Policy
Analysis of Florida's policies
Florida requires its preparation programs to provide "field experiences" for teacher candidates. "Preservice field experience must include candidate practice and demonstration of the uniform core curricula specific to the candidates' area or areas of program concentration with a diverse population of students in a variety of settings. The length of structured field experiences may be extended to ensure that candidates achieve the competencies needed to meet certification requirements." Florida changed its policy to no longer require a 10 week minimum for field experiences; the state currently does not require any minimum duration for student teaching.
Florida also requires cooperating teachers to show evidence of "clinical educator" training as well as have at least three years of teaching experience in prekindergarten through grade 12. The state also requires all cooperating teachers to have earned an effective or highly effective rating on the prior year's performance evaluation.
Finally, teacher preparation programs must select the school sites for field experience activities. "These sites must represent the full spectrum of school communities, including, but not limited to, schools located in urban settings. In order to be selected, school sites must demonstrate commitment to the education of public school students and to the preparation of future teachers."
Recommendations for Florida
Require teacher candidates to spend at least 10 weeks student teaching.
Florida should require a summative clinical experience for all prospective teachers. Student teaching should be a full-time commitment, as requiring coursework and student teaching simultaneously does a disservice to both. Alignment with a school calendar for at least 10 weeks ensures both adequate classroom experience and exposure to a variety of ancillary professional activities.
State response to our analysis
Florida was helpful in providing NCTQ with facts that enhanced this analysis.
The state noted that the minimum length requirement for student teaching was removed with the intent not to set a minimum time requirement but to establish outcomes that measure the effectiveness of the candidate based on a number of factors.
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Florida
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Delivering Well Prepared Teachers
- Admission into Teacher Preparation
- Elementary Teacher Preparation
- Elementary Teacher Preparation in Reading Instruction
- Elementary Teacher Preparation in Mathematics
- Early Childhood
- Middle School Teacher Preparation
- Secondary Teacher Preparation
- Secondary Teacher Preparation in Science and Social Studies
- Special Education Teacher Preparation
- Special Education Preparation in Reading
- Assessing Professional Knowledge
- Student Teaching
- Teacher Preparation Program Accountability
Expanding the Pool of Teachers
Identifying Effective Teachers
- State Data Systems
- Evaluation of Effectiveness
- Frequency of Evaluations
- Tenure
- Licensure Advancement
- Equitable Distribution
Retaining Effective Teachers
Exiting Ineffective Teachers
Pensions
Research rationale
The stakes are too
high for student teaching requirements to be left to chance.
Student teaching is the final clinical experience of teacher
preparation, and teacher candidates have only one chance to experience the best
possible placement. Student teaching
will shape their own performance as teachers and help determine the type of
school in which they will choose to teach.
A mediocre student teaching experience, let alone a disastrous one, can
never be undone.
Central to the quality of the student teaching experience is
the classroom teacher who serves as the teacher candidate's mentor, or
cooperating teacher. Only strong
teachers with evidence of their effectiveness, as assessed by objective
measures of student learning and their principals, should be able to serve as
cooperating teachers. Yet placement is
much more likely to be the luck of the draw. NCTQ's reports including Student Teaching in the United States and
the Teacher Prep Review found most
teacher preparation programs fail to require that cooperating teachers must be
effective instructors.
Student Teaching: Supporting Research
For
evidence on the importance of the selection of the cooperating teacher,
particularly the benefits of selection by the preparation program, see D. Boyd,
P. Grossman, H. Lankford, S. Loeb, & J. Wyckoff. (2008). "Teacher
Preparation and Student Achievement," Calder Institute, Working Paper 20.
Further
evidence and discussion surrounding the impact of student-teaching on student
achievement can be found in NCTQ's report: Student Teaching in the United States (2011) which includes citations of all of 34
studies published since 1997 in peer-reviewed journals on student teaching. They include: N. Anderson and M. Radencich, "The Value of Feedback in an Early Field Experience: Peer, Teacher, and Supervisor Coaching. Action
in Teacher Education, Volume 23, No. 3, 2001, pp. 66-74; B. Brink, D. Grisham, A. Laguardia, C. Granby, and C. Peck, "Who needs student teachers?" Action in Teacher Education, Volume 23, No. 3, 2001, pp. 33-45; D. Boyd, P. Grossman, H. Lankford, S. Loeb, and J. Wyckoff, "Teacher Preparation and Student Achievement". Educational Evaluation and Policy Analysis, Volume 31, No. 4, December 2009, pp. 416-440; R. Bullough, Jr., J. Young, L. Erickson, J. Birrell, D. Clark, M. Egan, C. Berrie, V. Hales, and G. Smith, "Rethinking Field Experience: Partnership Teaching Versus Single-Placement Teaching". Journal of Teacher Education, Volume 53, No. 1, January 2002, pp. 68-80; M. Cochran-Smith, "Reinventing Student Teaching". Journal
of Teacher Education, Volume 42, No. 2, March 1991, pp. 104-118; K. Connor and N. Killmer, "Cohorts, Collaboration, and Community: Does Contextual Teacher Education Really Work?", Action in Teacher
Education, Volume 23, No. 3, 2001, pp. 46-53; C. Daane, "Clinical Master Teacher Program: Teachers' and Interns' Perceptions of Supervision with Limited University Intervention". Action in
Teacher Education, Volume 22, No. 1, 2000, pp. 93-100; A. Fresse, "The role of reflection on preservice teachers' development in the context of a professional development school". Teaching and Teacher Education, Volume 15, No. 8, November 1999, pp. 895-909; P. Grossman, K. Hammereness, M. McDonald, and M. Ronfeldt. (2008). "Constructing Coherence: Structural Predictors of Perceptions of Coherence in NYC Teacher Education Programs". Journal
on Teacher Education, Volume 59, No. 4, September/October 2008, pp. 273-287; W. Hopkins, S. Hoffman, and V. Moss, "Professional Development Schools and Preservice Teacher Stress", Action in Teacher Education, Volume 18, No. 4, 1997, pp. 36-46; M. Lesley, D. Hamman, A. Olivarez, K. Button, and R. Griffith, "I'm Prepared for Anything Now": Student Teacher and Cooperating Teacher Interaction as a Critical Factor in Determining the Preparation of "Quality" Elementary Reading Teachers". The Teacher
Educator, Volume 44, No. 1, 2009, pp. 40-55; J. Justen, III, M. McJunkin, and H. Strickland, "Supervisory Beliefs of Cooperating Teachers". The Teacher Educator, Volume 34, No. 3, 1999. pp. 173-180; S. Kent, "Supervision of Student Teachers: Practices of Cooperating Teachers Prepared in a Clinical Supervision Course", Journal of Curriculum and Supervision, Volume 16, No. 3, Spring 2001, pp. 228-244; S. Knight, D. Wiseman, and D. Cooner, "Using Collaborative Teacher Research to Determine the Impact of Professional Development School Activities on Elementary Students' Math and Writing Outcomes", Journal of Teacher Education, Volume 51, No. 1, January 2000, pp. 26-38; D. Knoblauch and A. Woolfolk Hoy, "Maybe I Can Teach Those Kids": The Influence of Contextual Factors on Student Teachers' Efficacy Beliefs". Teaching and Teacher Education, Volume 24, No. 1, January 2008, pp. 166-179.
R. Knudson and S. Turley, "University Supervisors and At-Risk Student Teachers". Journal of Research and Development
in Education, Volume 33, No. 3, Spring 2000, pp. 175-186; F. Korthagen, J. Loughran, and T. Russell, "Developing Fundamental Principles for Teacher Education Programs and Practices", Teaching and Teacher Education, Volume 22, No. 8, November 2006, pp. 1020-1041; M. McNay, and R. Graham, "Can Cooperating Teachers Help Student Teachers Develop a Vision of Education?" The Teacher Educator, Volume 42, No. 3, 2007, pp. 224-236. Student Teaching in the United States, 2011; D. Mewborn, "Learning to Teach Elementary Mathematics: Ecological Elements of a Field Experience", Journal of Mathematics Teacher Education, Volume 3, No. 1, 2000, pp. 27-46; L. Mule, "Preservice Teachers' Inquiry in a Professional Development School Context: Implications for the Practicum",Teaching and Teacher Education, Volume 22, No. 2, February 2006, pp. 205-218; H. Nguyen, "An Inquiry-Based Practicum Model: What Knowledge, Practices, and Relationships Typify Empowering Teaching and Learning Experiences for Student Teachers, Cooperating Teachers and College Supervisors?" Teaching and Teacher
Education, Volume 25, No. 5, July 2009, pp. 655-662; H. Pence and I. Macgillivray, "The impact of an international field experience on preservice teachers". Teaching and Teacher Education, Volume 24, No. 1, January 2008, pp. 14-25; B. Peterson and S. Williams, "Learning Mathematics for Teaching in the Student Teaching Experience: Two contrasting cases". Journal of Mathematics Teacher Education, Volume 11, No. 6, November 2008, pp. 459-478; S. Putman, "Grappling with Classroom Management: The Orientations of Preservice Teachers and Impact of Student Teaching". The Teacher Educator, Volume 44, No. 4, 2009, pp. 232-247. V. Richardson-Koehler, "Barriers to the Effective Supervision of Student Teaching: A Field Study". Journal of Teacher Education, Volume 39, No. 2, March 1988, pp. 28-34; D. Ridley, S. Hurwitz, M. Hackett, and K. Miller, "Comparing PDS and Campus-Based Preservice Teacher Preparation: Is PDS-based preparation really better?" Journal of Teacher Education, Volume 56, No. 1, January/February 2005, pp. 46-56; A. Rodgers and V. Keil, "Restructuring a traditional student teacher supervision model: Fostering enhanced professional development and mentoring within a professional development school context". Teaching and Teacher Education, Volume 23, No. 1, January 2007, pp. 63-80; A. Roth McDuffie, "Mathematics Teaching as a Deliberate Practice: An Investigation of Elementary Pre-service Teachers' Reflective Thinking During Student Teaching". Journal
of Mathematics Teacher Education, Volume 7, No. 1, March 2004, pp. 33-61; J. Sandholtz and K. Wasserman. "Student and Cooperating Teachers: Contrasting Experiences in Teacher Preparation Programs". Action in Teacher
Education, Volume 23, No. 3, 2001, pp. 54-65.
S. Slick, "Assessing versus assisting: The supervisor's roles in the complex dynamics of the student teaching triad".Teaching and Teacher Education, Volume 13, No. 7, October
1997, pp. 713-726; K. Tellez, "What student teachers learn about multicultural education from their cooperating teachers?" Teaching and Teacher Education, Volume 24, No. 1, January 2008, pp. 43-58; H. Tillema, "Assessment for Learning to Teach: Appraisal of Practice Teaching Lessons by Mentors, Supervisors, and Student Teachers ", Journal of Teacher Education , Volume 60, No. 2,
March/April 2009, pp. 155-167; S. Valencia, S. Martin, N. Place, and P.
Grossman, "Complex Interactions in Student Teaching: Lost Opportunities for Learning". Journal of Teacher Education, Volume 60, No. 3, May/June
2009, pp. 304-322; S. White, "Articulation and Re-articulation: Development of a Model for Providing Quality Feedback to Pre-Service Teachers on Practicum". Journal of Education for Teaching , Volume 35, No. 2, 2009,
pp. 123-132. See also A. Levine, (September 2006). Educating School Teachers (p. 39). Washington, DC: The Education Schools Project; E.
Guyton and D. McIntyre, 1990. "Student Teaching and School Experiences". In
W. R. Houston (Ed.), Handbook of Research on Teacher Education (pp. 514-534). New York: Macmillan.