Standard 3: Aspect B

Preparation programs ensure that candidates, upon completion, are ready to engage in professional practice, to adapt to a variety of professional settings, and to grow throughout their careers. Effective program practices include: consistent offering of coherent curricula; high-quality quality, diverse clinical experiences; dynamic, mutually beneficial partnerships with stakeholders; and comprehensive and transparent quality assurance processes informed by trustworthy evidence. Each aspect of the program is appropriate to its context and to the credential or degree sought.

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Rationale for Partnerships:
Education Specialist candidates have three options for completing their clinical experiences in our partner schools: student teaching, internship, and teacher residency. 

• The traditional pathway involves student teaching with placements facilitated by the Office of Clinical Practice.  
• The second option is a university internship for eligible candidates who meet the intern eligibility requirements and who have been offered employment as teachers of record in special education teaching positions within the university’s service area. 
• The third option is a specialized Teacher Residency model, established to support the need for Education Specialists in the local area. It is similar to student teaching but residencies usually provide stipends and additional supports for teacher candidates. The university also provides a Professor in Residence who works closely with the school site and district administrators to ensure a high quality experience for our teacher candidates. 

Education Specialist candidates are placed in public, nonpublic and/or charter schools in our partner districts’ schools within the university’s service area, which encompasses four counties: Fresno County, Kings County, Madera County, Tulare County. All four counties have both urban and rural areas with ethnically diverse populations, as highlighted in the placement table below. Clinical practice placements in schools in these counties reflect the socioeconomic and cultural diversity of the Central Valley, include support for English learners/emergent bilinguals, and provide opportunities for teacher candidates to work with students with disabilities in schools with qualified site administrators. Education Specialist candidates may be placed in a variety of clinical practice settings within each county including classrooms, inclusive settings, co-teaching opportunities, self-contained classrooms, adult transition programs or separate schools for the most severely disabled and medically fragile students.  

The Office of Clinical Practice (OCP) works with district contacts to ensure that appropriate placements are made for all student teacher candidates. In addition, the Coordinator of Clinical Practice works with the Program Coordinators to make appropriate matches of candidates to their clinical supervisors, the University Clinical Coaches. 

Teacher Residencies:
As is the case statewide, our region currently has a high rate of Education Specialists serving students with specific learning and behavioral needs under provisional (i.e., temporary) credentials. In order to support both teachers and student teachers in the community, the Special Education residencies help to address this need by offering stipends for tuition in return for a commitment to teaching service. 

Currently there are two special education teacher residences through the university funded by state teacher service grants. Both teacher residencies are accelerated, fast-track programs which condense the coursework into fewer semesters. Courses are blended and taught through faculty co-teaching in face-face and online formats with traditional student teaching infused throughout the week. Coursework in the residency program provides opportunities for candidates to identify issues and problems within the context of their current placements/job sites and seek solutions to those issues/problems within their placement/job sites to improve student learning and outcomes in local schools. Other features include district professional development and preferential employment upon successful completion of the program. One special education residency is with Clovis Unified School District for Education Specialist Mild/Moderate or Moderate/Severe candidates. There are 18 residents in this cohort currently. The other special education residency is with Fresno Unified School District for Dual Mild/Moderate candidates pursuing both the Multiple Subject and Education Specialist Credential Mild/Moderate Credentials. There are 17 candidates in the residency currently. We have begun planning for our next teacher residency as an integrated, undergraduate program with the Education Specialist Credential included. Courses will be held in Visalia on the College of Sequoias campus.  

The Education Specialist Residency at Clovis Unified and the Dual (Multiple Subject/ES) Residency at Fresno Unified are designed to support families with students who may be struggling, through a service commitment by the resident candidates to teach in special education within local communities for a minimum of three years. In doing so, Fresno State, Clovis Unified, Fresno Unified, and resident candidates make an active commitment to train and teach in local communities. The Education Specialist residencies offer a close partnership with the Education Specialist and the Multiple Subject credential and curriculum content, faculty, teachers, and students so that teachers in training or residents are able to connect with their students more closely, offer more one on one instruction and connect with the students’ families to offer them support and information.

Description of Clinical Experiences:
Clinical experiences are the cornerstone of effective teacher preparation. Participation in clinical experiences allows teacher candidates to apply the learning from coursework into practice and to receive coaching and feedback to improve implementation. Clinical experiences include candidate observations of the classroom environment, observations of the students for the purpose of gathering information, observations of the Master/Mentor Teacher’s instructional and classroom management approaches, developing lesson plans, preparing materials, teaching lessons, co-teaching, assessing students’ progress, self-reflection, attending meetings and professional development workshops with the Master/Mentor Teacher, and participation in all other teacher activities at the school. Teacher Candidates are also responsible for uploading their clinical practice agreements, lesson plans, reflections, videos, related documents and time logs of their clinical hours into Tk20, the clinical practice data system. 

All phases of the Education Specialist Credential Program include a clinical experience. In each clinical experience, teacher candidates have two support persons: a district assigned, fully credentialed and experienced teacher who may be referred to as the Master, Cooperating or Mentor Teacher, and a university  assigned Clinical Practice Coach. Clinical experiences include observations, gathering information about the students, developing lesson plans, preparing materials, teaching lessons, co-teaching, assessing student progress, self-reflection, attending meetings with the Mentor Teacher at his/her direction, professional development workshops, etc. Teacher Candidates are responsible for uploading their clinical practice agreements, lesson plans, reflections, videos, related documents and time logs of their clinical hours into Tk20, the clinical practice data system. 

Candidates are required to increase the amount of time spent in clinical placements over the arc of the program. Phase 1 Education Specialist candidates enroll in EHD 178, a supervised field experience in an elementary general education classroom three full school days per week across the semester. Phase 2 Education Specialist candidates enroll in either SPED 171 [mild/moderate] or SPED 172 [moderate/severe], the initial supervised clinical experience in a special education classroom and/or inclusive setting three full school days per week across the semester. The placement may be in any grade level or levels from Kindergarten to age 22 adult transition program. In Phase 3, Education Specialist candidates enroll in either SPED 175 [mild/moderate] or SPED 176 [moderate/severe], the final supervised clinical experience in a special education classroom and/or inclusive setting for five full days per week across the semester. All placements in final student teaching include a four week solo takeover of the classroom. 

Clinical supervision of teacher candidates is conducted by both district-provided Veteran Practitioners and University Clinical Practice Coaches. Veteran Practitioners [mentor teachers] must hold a Clear Credential in the content area for which they are providing supervision and have a minimum of three years of content area K-12 teaching experience. The Veteran Practitioner must have demonstrated exemplary teaching practices as determined by the employing district and the university teacher preparation program. The matching of Teacher Candidate and the Veteran Practitioner is a collaborative process between the school district and the program. The University Clinical Practice Coach must hold a Clear Special Education Credential or have been an administrator at a school site with special education programs. All have many years of teaching experience and hold Master’s degrees or higher. The role of the University Coach is to support and guide teacher candidates to develop their instructional, management and professional skills. 

University Clinical Practice Coaches conduct eleven on-site visits with each candidate: three triad meetings with master teacher and candidate [initial, mid-term and final triad meetings]; two informal visits, and six formal observations. During the six formal observations of the lessons that were developed and taught by the candidate, the University Coach makes anecdotal and scripted notes that are discussed with the candidate at each debriefing meeting following the formal lesson to improve their next lesson. In addition, coaches verify time logs, review each candidate’s six formal lesson plans in advance of the lesson implementation, read and comment on post-lesson reflections and weekly reflections on learning and provide additional contacts and resources as needed. At the mid and final points of the semester, triad meetings are conducted with the Mentor Teacher, University Coach and candidate to discuss the candidate’s overall performance, provide feedback on strengths and growth areas and to guide the candidate in setting professional goals. The University Coach is the primary means of support in clinical practice. Through classroom visits, informal and formal observations  and feedback sessions, the candidate receives ongoing information and support. 

Mild/Moderate Clinical Practice Hours

Moderate/Severe Clinical Practice Hours

Internship Clinical Practice Hours [taken when above courses are either completed or prior to final student teaching if CSETs are not passed]

Partnerships Table:
Our Education Specialist candidates are placed and employed all over the Central Valley. They are often the only special educator at their school site. Because so many of them are offered special education teaching positions early in their credential program and accept that employment, our candidates can potentially span a one hundred mile range around the valley. Consequently, they are not clustered at school sites, but instead they are placed across thirty districts or county offices of education in over 120 school sites in the four counties surrounding Fresno State: Fresno, Kings, Madera and Tulare Counties. 

Specific School Sites Where Candidates Have Been Placed

Aspect C →