Standard 10. The unit must collaborate with each school partner to ensure that:

(1) each cooperating teacher paired with a candidate during student teaching and practicum:

(a) has at least three years of teaching experience as a teacher of record in the licensure area;

(b) holds a professional license aligned to the assignment;

(c) has completed professional development in coaching strategies for adult learners; and

(d) meets all other requirements in state statute;

The UED Director of Field Experiences collaborates with each school partner to ensure that cooperating teachers meet or exceed the minimum credentials articulated in this standard. The Director of Field Experience communicates the key qualifications of a cooperating teacher to school principals via email. Thereafter, using the PELSB License Lookup tool, the Director of Field Experiences verifies that all school personnel hosting teacher candidates have at least three years teaching experience as teacher of record in the licensure area and they hold a valid MN Tier 3 or 4 license.   

To verify that a cooperating teacher has completed professional development on coaching for adult learners, the Field Experience Director consults a MACTE-managed database record sent to members of the MACTE Field Coordinators listserv each month. The database of the teachers who have completed the course will be searchable by teachers’ file folder number.  Alternatively, teachers will also receive a certificate of completion when they finish either version of the course. Because MACTE will only be updating the completion records once or twice a month, UED Field Director will ask the teacher to share the completion certificate if verification they have completed the course is needed in a more timely manner. 

For those cooperating teachers who have not yet completed such training, the following options are available for accessing this training.

Option 1: For Cooperating Teachers who are members of Education Minnesota: The Adult Coaching Strategies course offered on the Education Minnesota website was co-developed by the Minnesota Association of Colleges for Teacher Education (MACTE) and Education Minnesota to meet this standard.  (online, free for union members)

• Education Minnesota Adult Coaching Strategies Training for Cooperating Teachers

Option 2: For Cooperating Teachers who are not members of Education Minnesota: The Adult Coaching Strategies course is offered on Qualtrics through MACTE. Cooperating Teachers can access the course at this link is the same course listed above but available to non- teacher union members.

• https://umn.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_etFjXTO7ARZwPDU

Option 3: an Adult Coaching Strategies workshop through the MN Department of Education.

• Minnesota Department of Education Peer Coaching and Observation Training Series  

After completing one of these three options, the cooperating teacher then informs the Director of Field Experience that they have completed the training. The evidence provided by the teacher is filed in UED records. If the cooperating teacher doesn’t provide evidence, then the Field Experience Director confirms in the MACTE database that the prospective cooperating teacher has taken the training before assigning teacher candidates. Beginning in the fall of 2022, the Director tracks these various requirements under new rule in TaskStream rather than only a separate spreadsheet.