Standard 11. For candidates seeking an initial professional license, the unit must:

(1) provide a minimum of 100 field experience hours prior to student teaching that includes:

(a) at least 60 field experience hours that are aligned to the scope and content of the licensure field sought;

(b) experience with students who differ in race, ethnicity, home language, and socioeconomic status; and

(c) experience with students with a range of exceptionalities, including students on an individualized education plan;

All UED licensure programs require a minimum of 160 field experience hours that far exceeds the minimum required in this standard. To get admitted to the UED and a specific licensure program, teacher candidates must have at least 40 hours of documented field experience time with diverse, urban youth in any school or community setting.  Between being admitted to the program and student teaching, each candidate must also complete at least 120 hours of field experience aligned to the scope and content of the licensure field sought. Advising documents stating these expectations are located in (and linked to) Section 7 of the UTP Student Handbook which details how urban field experiences are connected to almost all of the UTP courses required for licensure. Table 11.1 summarizes the range of ongoing urban field experiences at different stages of teacher candidacy that provide all candidates opportunities to demonstrate unit dispositions as well as skills and knowledge under parts 8710.2000 to 8710.8080 in EDU 311 and EDU 450.

Table 11.1 Overview of Ongoing Field Experiences Required for Urban Teacher Candidates

To meet the program standard that all teacher candidates have diverse field experiences, the Director of Field Experiences carefully considers each candidate’s previous placements as a basis for making placement decisions. The Director analyzes placement and school demographic data using the database system which is maintained by the Office of Field Experiences. The database shows placements for all teacher candidates as they progress through the program. This placement procedure ensures that during their program of studies, teacher candidates complete field assignments in several different settings working with populations that represent different kinds of diversity including cultural, economic, ethnic, linguistic, and special needs. For a site to be approved, the Director confirms the school meets the UED definition of “what is urban” (i.e., for our students to gain experience with students who differ in race, ethnicity, home language, and socioeconomic status). The Director of Field Experiences ensures that all teacher candidates are placed in schools or institutions that have a student population with at least 50 percent children who qualify for free/reduced lunch, and at least 40 percent students of color. For clinical field experiences/practicums prior to student teaching, candidates document the demographics of their schools and classrooms where they gain field experiences and the Director of Field Experiences verifies the school demographics via the MN Department of Education School Report Card.

To assure candidates have experiences with students with exceptionalities including those who have an IEP, each program requires completion of a course that requires field experiences working with students who have exceptionalities (i.e., Early Childhood Education and Elementary Education teacher candidates complete the Teaching and Assessing Children with Disabilities, Birth-Grade 6 (EDU 484) course, and Secondary candidates complete the Teaching and Assessing Exceptional Urban Learners - Advanced Theory & Practice (EDU 310/610) course. Similarly, all Elementary Education, Secondary Education, and Special Education candidates complete the Teaching and Assessing ELL Students in Content-Advanced Theory & Practice (EDU 435/635) course which has requirements to work with English learners. The Director of Field Experiences also verifies with the site director or through the School Report Card that an Early Childhood Education candidate has at least one pre-student teaching clinical field experience with children whose home language is not English.

The teacher candidate is required to submit through TaskStream, documentation of their field experiences aligned with the scope and content of their licensure field. They also detail the demographics related to IEP-mandated exceptionalities, multilingual learners and gender of the classrooms where they completed field experiences when they complete and submit the Context for Learning form used for the edTPA in Urban Teaching Practicum (EDU 311) and the Advanced Urban Teaching Practicum (EDU 450).