Standard 3 Aspect C

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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Stakeholder Engagement:
Stakeholder partnerships contribute immensely to the quality and effectiveness of the design and implementation of the Single Subject (SS) Teacher Credential Candidate Preparation Program.  Each partnership includes a purposeful dialogue in which all stakeholders contribute to the design of the program and monitor its implementation on a continuous basis.  The partnerships and evidence related to the engagement of stakeholders is listed below:

• Single Subject Advisory Meetings: The Single Subject Advisory meetings are held twice a semester in order to develop program policies and review program policies, design field experiences, and verify teaching competence.  Additionally, Fresno Assessment of Student Teachers (FAST) results are sometimes shared at these meetings. These meetings consist of the Single Subject Program Coordinator, the Academic Subject Matter Advisors, University Coaches, the FAST Coordinator, and the Office of Clinical Placement Coordinator.
• Single Subject Program Faculty Meetings:  The Single Subject Program Faculty meetings occur every month to discuss the development of curriculum, the delivery of instruction, and the assessment and verification of teaching competence. More recently, FAST results have been shared and discussed as well. These meetings consist of the Single Subject Program Coordinator, the Single Subject Program Faculty, and the Initial Student Teaching Seminar instructors.
• Single Subject Initial Student Teaching Meetings:  The Single Subject Initial Student Teaching meetings are held twice each semester in order to discuss the quality, implementation, and assessment of the clinical practice experiences of our candidates. FAST results are sometimes shared at these meetings. These meetings consist of the Single Subject Program Coordinator, the Office of Clinical Practice (OCP) Field Placement Coordinator, Initial Student Teaching University Coaches, and, on occasion, the FAST Coordinator.
• Single Subject Academic Advisors/Final Student Teaching Meetings:  The Single Subject Academic Advisors/Final Student Teaching meetings are held 2-3 times each semester. At these meetings, admission processes, program policies, and clinical practice are discussed and voted on. FAST results are sometimes shared at these meetings. These meetings consist of the Single Subject Program Coordinator, the Academic Subject Matter Area Advisors, final student teaching coaches, and, on occasion, the Office of Clinical Placement and FAST coordinators.
• Credential Coordinator Meeting:  The three credential program coordinators, Multiple Subject, Education Specialist, and Single Subject, along with the Dean as Director of Teacher Education, the Associate Dean, and the Office of Clinical Placement Coordinator meet monthly to discuss California Commission on Teacher Credentialing (CCTC) regulations, recent CCTC  program sponsor alerts, and clinical practice expectations. 
• Credential Admission Advisory Meetings:  The three credential program coordinators Multiple Subject, Education Specialist, and Single Subject, along with the Associate Dean and the Admission Advisors meet monthly to discuss admission standards and procedures.
• The President's Commission on Teacher Education: The Dean as the Director of Education meets twice a year with regional school district superintendents, K-12 district personnel, business and community leaders to get input on district needs relevant to teacher preparation. The Single Subject Coordinator attends and has presented at these meetings.

Examples of Programmatic Changes:

• Single Subject Advisory Council Meetings:  The attendance policy in the Single Subject Teacher Credential program Handbook was reworded as a result of the council’s push to make the policy more equitable in terms of observational classroom periods rather than whole class days.
• Single Subject Faculty Meetings:  One of the major outcomes of engaging with program faculty was the revamping of two courses during the realignment of coursework with the TPE’s.  LEE 157 (Teaching English Learners in Secondary Classroom) was revamped to include translanguaging, the act of using resources from different languages together.  In CI 151  (Social Contexts in Teaching and Learning), the exploration of culture, race, ethnicity, and gender in terms of their impact on school experiences, especially the outcomes of schooling, was retooled to include research and school shadowing. 
• Single Subject Initial & Final Student Teaching Meetings: In Fall 2019, the Single Subject Teacher Credential Program had to wait for buy-in from Academic Subject Matter Area Advisors and Coaches before it could fully adopt TK20, the electronic data management system used in other initial teacher preparation programs.  Due to the complexities of the system and the disarray of the electronic clinical practice portfolio, the Academic Subject Matter Advisors and Final Student Teaching Coaches voted against its use.  However, in Spring 2019, Single Subject Initial Teaching Coaches and initial student teachers were trained so that the following semester, these students and coaches could support the Academic Subject Matter Area Advisors and the Final Student Teaching Coaches in its adoption.
• Single Subject Academic Subject Matter Area Advisor Meetings:  In Spring 2020, as a result of COVID-19, the Academic Subject Matter Area Advisors quickly made the switch to virtual clinical practice engagement.  This transition was done in conjunction with the Office of Clinical Practice.  Another outcome was the vote to prioritize admission applications due to the closing of the testing centers as a result of the pandemic. 
• Credential Coordinators Meetings:  simSchool, an artificial classroom simulation program was adopted by all three initial teaching credential programs to provide opportunities for candidates to gain field experience in a virtual format. 
• Credential Admission Advisory Meetings: The implementation of the Special Circumstance form due to the State’s Executive Order N-66-20. The Special Circumstances form allows Single Subject Credential candidates to apply for admission without having met all the regular admission requirements.
• The President’s Commission Meetings:  A major outcome of the President’s Commission is the networking and fortification of partnerships that occurs. Several administrators in attendance at these meetings have been asked to teach courses in the Single Subject program, strengthening the connections between what happens in the program and our local schools. For example, LEE 157 has been taught by a Fresno Unified Administrator, and SPED 158 and LEE 156 have been taught by Fresno and Clovis Classroom Teachers.

Stakeholder Improvement:
One area where the Single Subject Teacher Credential Program could improve is the evaluation of data within and across the program.  Even though this year the program did start triangulating the FAST results with signature assignments and FAST results have been presented at several stakeholders meetings, this has not been done on a regular basis. However, moving forward, the program intends to work more closely with all stakeholders on the analysis of data collection, including the Mid- and Final-Semester Evaluations and the FAST results. 

Stakeholder Engagement: 

Aspect D →