VCSU

3. Descriptive Information about the Program: Provide a one to two paragraph description to help reviewers understand your program (include information that describes how a student typically moves through the program from entry to exit).

Teacher candidates typically work to complete their general education requirements first. Candidates gradually progress into the introductory coursework in their teaching specialty area and the professional education sequence. EDUC 240 Educating Exceptional Students, EDUC 250 Introduction to Education, and EDUC 283 Understanding Cultural Diversity in Education are courses that provide a foundational knowledge in professional ethics, an awareness of learner differences, and a belief that all students can learn. Teacher candidates develop knowledge and skills to build on those important dispositional attributes.

Teacher candidates pursue admission to the Teacher Education program through the completion of basic skills licensure exams, favorable faculty references, acceptable grades in three key courses, and advisor recommendations. Program admission requires maintenance of a GPA of 2.75 or higher as teacher candidates continue to gain content knowledge in their specialty courses and develop teaching skills through the professional education sequence courses and field experiences. Every academic program has at least one content-specific methods course and candidates have many opportunities to apply professional education sequence activities into the context of their academic area. Candidates participate in at least three field experiences and co-teach as a substitute teacher prior to student teaching. Teacher candidates complete a Praxis II subject matter exam, the principles of learning and teaching pedagogy exam for their grade level, and a rigorous capstone unit during their student teaching experience.

4. Changes in the Program since the Last Review: Please describe any changes since the last review and include the rationale for those changes.

Curriculum and assessment changes since 2015

VCSU conducts data sharing discussions with K-12 partner school representatives each August. The intent is to have VCSU teacher education faculty and supervisors be engaged with K-12 educators to discuss ideas for improving teacher preparation. The data sharing discussions are based on multiple assessments. The collaborative efforts between the Education Preparation Provider (EPP) and P-12 educators from partnering schools have led to curriculum improvements in the following areas: formative assessment, strategies for working with English language learners, differentiated instruction, classroom management, and technology.

• The discussions led to the development of a revised course titled EDUC 450 Trends in Assessment and Educational Issues.
• Classroom Management curriculum changes:
  • The EDUC 351 course on classroom management includes additional practicum time and was established to enhance classroom management learning opportunities for secondary majors.
  • The EDUC 350 practicum course for elementary majors incorporated additional classroom management learning experiences.
  • EDUC 240 changed from a two-credit course to a three-credit course.
    • Survey Data from Exit Surveys (data gathered from student teachers), Transition to Teaching Surveys (from first-year teachers), and Supervisor Surveys (from employers of first-year teachers) identified many program strengths. The data also indicated the need to do more in the area of teacher preparation related to IEPs and 504 plans, as well as instruction for students who are English learners, gifted and talented learners, or those learners who may have mental health needs.
    • VCSU faculty members responded to the data by integrating more opportunities for learning about differentiated instruction across the curriculum; the ratings improved slightly. The data indicated that student teachers and first-year teachers feel they could have benefited from more opportunities to learn about mental health and working with the diverse needs of their learners. The change to add one credit to EDUC 240 was a positive step for the program and the teacher candidates.
    • The change benefits teacher candidates in their preparation as educators and the addition of the third credit benefits VCSU graduates in their pursuit of additional endorsements in the field of special education. The extra course time has allowed for an increase in Trauma Sensitive School (TSS) training to address mental health concerns and also allows for additional field experience time.
    • MATH 277 and MATH 278 moved up in the NDSU Elementary Education curriculum. While Core exam data indicated that NDSU collaborative elementary majors were doing as well or better than other VCSU on-campus or Wyoming elementary majors on the math section, some collaborative students were struggling with the math exam section. Offering MATH 277 and MATH 278 earlier in the curriculum enabled collaborative students in need to build or refresh their math skills to successfully pass the Core exam and gain admission to the Teacher Education program.
    • MATH 277 and MATH 278 were changed to EDUC 277 and EDUC 278. The decision was partly due to budgets and credit hour production, but also gave the Education department even more freedom to coordinate the content with the specific needs of teacher candidates in Elementary Education.
    • EDUC 278 and EDUC 323 were changed from 2 to 3 credit hours. North Dakota changed the Elementary Education licensure from grades 1-6 to 1-8. The decision increases the potential for Elementary Education graduates to teach 7^th and 8^th grade content. VCSU responded by increasing the breadth and depth of curriculum for Elementary Education majors in mathematics and reading.
• Co-teaching and Substitute Teaching - improving classroom management preparation through additional field experiences prior to student teaching
  • VCSU expanded its field experience time for teacher candidates through opportunities for co-teaching and substitute teaching. The substitute teaching program enables pairs of teacher candidates to gain experience in classrooms while VCSU partners with area schools.  The P-12 faculty have time for professional development opportunities.
  • Feedback from teacher candidates have indicated that their substitute teaching experiences have been highly beneficial, especially in gaining classroom management experience.
    • Student teacher final evaluation forms
    • In the fall of 2015, VCSU began its transition from NCATE to Council for the Accreditation of Educator Preparation (CAEP). VCSU representatives attended state CAEP sessions in 2015 and national training sessions in the summer of 2016. VCSU representatives worked collaboratively with North Dakota Association of Colleges for Teacher Education (NDACTE) representatives to create a new student teacher observation tool piloted and tested for reliability and validity in the fall of 2016 and spring of 2017, before beginning implementation in the fall of 2017. Student teachers began self-assessment ratings in the fall of 2018.
      • Improvement of Pre-Student Teaching Field Experience Assessments
      • The 2017-2018 VCSU Assessment Workgroup helped to develop new field experience forms for EDUC 250, EDUC 350, and EDUC 351. The rubrics have actionable descriptors. Pilot and focus group follow-up discussions in the spring of 2018 indicated highly favorable feedback from cooperating teachers. Follow-up focus group feedback provided to the SEGS liaison who communicates regularly with partnering schools was again highly favorable in 2018-2019.
• Improvement of Disposition Assessment Process
  • The EPP participated in a two-year process of developing a dispositional assessment instrument with improved performance indicators and descriptors. A VCSU representative worked with representatives from five other CAEP institutions to establish a valid instrument for assessing dispositions. The Lawshe Method was used to gain feedback from 83 stakeholders who were considered subject matter experts based on their work with student teachers: university supervisors, cooperating teachers, and PK-12 administrators. The stakeholders helped narrow down a potential list of 43 InTASC dispositional items to the 22 most essential items.
  • The instrument was piloted in the fall of 2018 and improved. The revised version was piloted in the spring of 2019 and viewed more favorably. The instrument was implemented in the fall of 2019. The results from the first three semesters were informative and the data will continue to be observed over more semesters.
  • The EPP kept its disposition referral process in place but made changes to its disposition assessment instrument to help identify teacher candidates' growth of professional dispositions as future educators progress through the program.
• Continuation of the NExT Common Metrics efforts, designed in collaboration with 14 institutions, has gone beyond the grant expectations. VCSU continues to stay engaged in the Common Metrics work:
  • Entry Survey (Intro to Education teacher candidates) - instrument was revised in the fall of 2018
  • Exit Survey (Student teachers complete in the final weeks before graduation)
  • Transition to Teaching (1^st-year teacher/Alumni survey)
  • Supervisor Survey (Employer/Administrator survey) - instrument revised for spring of 2019
  • VCSU and NDSU representatives helped to integrate these common assessments throughout the NDACTE.
    • K-12 educators collaborated with VCSU faculty to develop a Teaching for Learning Capstone (TLC) Unit
    • VCSU representatives attended Teacher Performance Assessment (TPA, now called edTPA) workshops and then engaged P-12 educators and VCSU faculty in developing a Teaching for Learning Capstone (TLC) unit for VCSU teacher candidates to complete during their student teaching experience.
    • The TLC unit adds rigor and consistency to the expectations of student teachers in areas planning, implementing, evaluating, and reflecting on a unit of teaching and student learning. The TLC unit provides a way for teacher candidates to thoroughly reflect on their teaching and measure their impact on student learning.
    • Updates were made to the TLC unit rubric in 2017-2018 to increase validity and rater reliability. The Lawshe Method was used to validate the rubric criteria and make the wording more teacher candidate friendly. The TLC rubrics have been assessed on an annual basis and the data are shared to improve teacher preparation and rater reliability. The rater reliability improved between 2017-2018 and 2018-2019.

VCSU Unit and Program Data Sharing

All EPP faculty members who teach methods or professional education sequence courses are part of the Unit.

• Unit faculty members receive access to updated data every August.
• Unit data reports include the final evaluation data for all VCSU student teachers, praxis data, pre-student teaching field experience data, and disposition data as well as completer and employer data. Unit faculty members are able to see the program's strengths and areas that can be improved. Faculty often comment about changes they make in their teaching in order to not only address an area that was not rated highly, but to make sure the area receives greater emphasis and the teacher candidates gain additional opportunities for practice.
• Data are shared annually with P-12 stakeholders, the Teacher Education Committee, and each semester with student teachers. The stakeholders are able to share their personal experiences working with teacher candidates along with seeing data from multiple assessments to gain perspectives from student teachers, cooperating teachers, first-year teachers, and employers of first-year teachers.
  • Program data are shared in September and February.
  • Program reports disaggregate data by academic area, so faculty (shared through the methods teachers) can see GPA, licensure tests, and student teacher final evaluation data for their content area.
  • The data shared with each program in February 2020 included three years of specific data that were helpful for writing state reports.

Often the data indicate areas of strength in which VCSU teacher candidates and graduates have performed well. The intention of the data sharing sessions is to provide awareness and useful information in the decision-making process for continuous improvement. Unit faculty members are involved in the preparation and assessment of our students. VCSU provides release time for an assessment coordinator and has two division assistants in the School of Education and Graduate Studies area.

VCSU has a Central Assessment System and regular calendar for gathering data on teacher candidates for admission to the program, GPA, Praxis tests for licensure, field experiences, and dispositions. Data are also gathered from surveys at the entry and exit level, and later from completers and employers of the completers.

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¹ NCATE has merged with another organization and transformed into the Council for Accreditation of Educator Preparation (CAEP). 

² The 14 member institutions of the NExT initiative include the Valley Partnership (VCSU, NDSU, MSU-Moorhead), University of South Dakota, St. Cloud State, University of Minnesota - Twin Cities, Winona State, Minnesota State Mankato, and a consortium of six private universities in the Twin Cities (Augsburg, Bethel, Concordia St. Paul, St. Catherine's, Hamline, and St. Thomas).

³ Valley City State University, North Dakota State University, and Minnesota State University Moorhead are teamed together in the Bush Grant to form the Valley Partnership.

5. Field & Clinical Experiences: Briefly describe the required field & clinical experiences that are specific to your program including the number of hours for early field experiences and the number of hours/weeks for student teaching or internships.

Clinical and field-based experiences are designed to support the program model, "Teacher as Knowledge-based Decision Maker." Clinical and field-based experiences serve as important building blocks in the teacher education program. Teacher candidates experience opportunities to develop lessons, units, long-range planning, as well as co-teaching, peer teaching, assessment strategies, and a variety of teaching strategies in their preparation for teaching.

The field-based and clinical experiences of teacher candidates have been developed to be sequential during the sophomore, junior, and senior years. All candidates have at least four field experiences. The Introduction to Teacher Education (EDUC 250) course is typically completed as a sophomore. Candidates participate in a 40-hour practicum as part of their introductory experience.

Candidates participate in EDUC 283 Understanding Cultural Diversity to learn teaching and assessment strategies and accompany that learning with EDUC 352, a 25-hour practicum that engages candidates in field experience opportunities with cultural diversity and English Language Learners.

Methods courses are completed during the junior or senior year. The courses are closely aligned with a third field experience through EDUC 351 Secondary Practicum and Classroom Management or EDUC 350 Elementary Practicum and Classroom Management.

Co-teaching strategies are introduced to candidates in the professional education sequence. Candidates make progress from specific observational strategies to becoming more engaged in teaching with the cooperating teacher and students. Application of the co-teaching strategies occurs while junior and senior education majors gain experience as substitute co-teachers. 

VCSU has partnered with the school districts in Valley City, Fargo, and West Fargo to open doors for substitute teaching opportunities. The win-win substitute teaching program enables the K-12 classroom teacher to have time for professional development while two teacher candidates lead students through their daily routines, educational activities, and learning plans. Working as a pair, the teacher candidates are able to connect theory to practice, applying what they are learning in teacher education courses to the practical classroom. A VCSU education professor supervises the university students by providing support, answering questions, and helping the student substitute teachers make connections. This real-world opportunity leads to rich discussions and teachable moments back on campus. Teacher candidate reflections indicate that the greatest benefit they receive is in the area of classroom management.

Student teaching is a twelve-week experience through which candidates are gradually given more responsibility as a co-teacher and ultimately during their times of solo teaching. Student teaching is the apex of the clinical and field-based teacher education program. The experience is the most rigorous in terms of responsibility and the expectations. Candidates complete a Teaching for Learning Capstone (TLC) unit that requires candidates to document their efforts to teach for learning and include evidence of their impact on student learning.

In every type of clinical or field-based involvement, the candidate is provided with instruction and assistance before, during, and after the experience. The EPP's supervision and assessments accompany candidate reflective writing practices to help ensure that all of the experiences are of maximum benefit to candidates. Student teaching forms include formative assessments completed by cooperating teachers at one-third and two-thirds of the way through the experience to ensure that formative feedback occurs to encourage opportunities for improvement before the summative final evaluation. Discussions among the teacher candidates, classroom cooperating teacher, and university supervisor are held regularly, and written responses are frequently given.

All of the clinical and field-based experiences provide opportunities for professional growth in the skills of making sound decisions as candidates develop in the four phases of the teacher decision-making process: planning, implementing, evaluating, and reflecting. Planning for instruction is taught during the sophomore and junior years, but extensively emphasized during the senior year methods courses and student teaching. Co-teaching opportunities that occur on campus and during field experiences enhance the development of implementation skills and strategies. Assessment strategies for learning and the evaluation of instructional activities are experienced to the greatest extent during both the junior and senior years. Reflection is integrated throughout all the courses and field experiences as a way to promote improvement through practice and lifelong learning.