AAQEP Accreditation 2022
Standard 4 Aspect C
The program is committed to and invests in strengthening and improving the education profession and the P-20 education system. Each program’s context (or multiple contexts) provides particular opportunities to engage the field’s shared challenges and to foster and support innovation. Engagement with critical issues is essential and must be contextualized. Sharing results of contextualized engagement and innovation supports the field’s collective effort to address education’s most pressing challenges through improvement and innovation.
Plans for Future Completer Follow-Up & Support:
Currently, the Single Subject Teacher Credential Program does not engage in a documented
systematic tracking of program completers. Our completers do receive support from
their districts through induction programs. As highlighted in Appendix B, the program does have plans for future follow-up with completers.
Current Support from Districts:
To guide completers through the transition into their first years of teaching, each
candidate works with their field placement coach to prepare an Individual Development
Plan for Induction [IDP]. The completed plan, required by the California Commission
on Teacher Credentialing, provides information from the university to the employing
district to document how completers will meet the California Teacher Performance Expectations
(TPE) and/or what additional support the candidate needs during the first two years
of employment. The form is kept on file with the Office of Clinical Practice for seven
years. Once this form is submitted to the employer by the program completers, the
hiring school district typically creates a plan of action to train and support the
candidate in their identified area of need. However, more follow-up with the IDP on
the part of Fresno State is needed moving forward.
Once completers are hired by a school district, they are required to participate in an accredited induction program, most of which are designed to support our Single Subject Credential Candidates in achieving the identified TPEs listed on the IDP form. As part of the induction program, each Single Subject Credential completer is assigned an Induction Coach or District Support Mentor who supports them during their first two years of employment.
Program Follow-Up
Data Collection:
One way to provide completer support is to know if our credential candidates are staying
in their initial teaching positions, and if they are now, why not. While the state
of California does collect data from our first year teachers, the program itself needs
to implement a more robust follow-up system by sending out our own surveys to our
program completers and creating an internal program completer tracking system. However,
the challenge to this idea is that the Single Subject Teacher Credential program does
not have the manpower to check on the success and/or well-being of our credential
candidates. But this is expected to change with the hiring of our new Assistant Director
of Teacher Education, whose initial charge is to oversee data collection and management
for the Teacher Education Programs.
Professional Connections:
Another plan we would like to put in place is the creation of a follow-up summit featuring
program completers whereby program completers would be invited to return to the university
to share their first-year stories. The program is working to plan a half-day institute
in conjunction with our Teacher Internship Program.
In addition, there needs to be a collective effort to create a post-completer system that supports our candidates once they get employed. This effort could be something as simple as having a post-completer forum with neighboring school districts on what candidates need to keep professional development useful and relevant once they’re in the job.