Summarize activities, processes, and outcomes in addressing each of the AFIs cited for the initial and/or advanced program levels under this standard.

Standard 3 AFI (Accreditation Acknowledgement Report, October 2009): School-based faculty are not involved in the design, development, and evaluation of clinical experiences.

From 2010-2011, teachers and administrators from our partner districts of Danbury and Bethel were involved in monthly meetings with the unit to develop a series of embedded clinical experiences for our Elementary Education Interdisciplinary Model (EEIM). The plan was to develop the elementary model, then replicate it with the secondary model.

The EEIM was shelved, along with all new programming, when the new Governor instituted the Connecticut Board of Regents in 2011 and the State Legislature failed to approve the new certification standards. In the Fall 2012, the Connecticut Legislature passed a bill requiring 4 clinical experiences prior to student teaching in traditional teacher education programs. “All candidates must have a sequence of varied, structured, intensive and purposefully supported clinical school experiences that are appropriately staffed by qualified educators to ensure support for success. Experiences must be across the program, coordinated and support the continuum of content and skill development to become an effective educator” [Interim Report of the Educator Preparation Advisory Council (EPAC)].

During spring 2012, unit faculty began a revision of the procedures for initial observations. Rather than have the candidates select the location of their observations, as had been previously done, candidates were assigned the candidates to observations in urban elementary or middle schools. This process was formalized and institutionalized during spring 2013.

Unit faculty are also now directly involved in field supervision. Elementary and Secondary Program Coordinators supervise candidates during the two-week PDS experience. In preparation for the new Connecticut mandates on field and clinical practice in teacher preparation, the department is reorganizing.  A full-time faculty member will be named as the Field and Clinical Experience Coordinator.  Responsibilities of this position will include oversight of the embedded field experiences in ED 206, EPY 203 and 204, and the new clinical experiences proposed in the new Elementary Interdisciplinary Model, as well as the Student Teaching placement process. The Coordinator of Student Teaching will work with the Coordinator of Field and Clinical Practice.