Pre-Service Program

PRE-SERVICE CONSISTS OF FIELD EXPERIENCE, PRACTICUM AND STUDENT TEACHING IN SPPS

About Pre-Service Teaching in SPPS

The SPPS Strong Schools, Strong Communities Strategic Plan outlines clear expectations regarding improving academic achievement and closing the racial disparity gap for students. SPPS partners with institutions of higher education (IHEs) to establish and support a new paradigm for teaching and learning centered on improved teacher effectiveness to close the opportunity gap. In SPPS we adhere to cluster sites and use co-teaching as our model of instruction for pre-service training.

Cluster sites are where practicum and student teacher candidates complete their experience using a co-teaching for student teaching, criteria for cooperating teachers and year-long placements for some licensures. A list of cluster sites are below. To support this work, deep partnerships with schools and higher education institutions are needed.

All student teaching assignments should be approved by cluster sites. When needed, an out of cluster site request should be sent to mary.yang@spps.org. Background checks are required for placements in Saint Paul Public Schools and should be sent to our Human Resources Department prior to the beginning of the placements. All placements must be recorded in the IHE Tracker Master.

For more information, please contact Mary Yang at mary.yang@spps.org.

CO-TEACHING

Co-teaching is defined as two teachers (cooperating teacher and student teacher candidate) working together with groups of students, sharing the planning, organization, delivery and assessment of instruction. Research indicates that co-teaching partnerships increase academic achievement for all students. Cooperating teachers and student teacher candidates are encouraged to participate in two co-teaching professional development trainings:

Foundations Training - provides the philosophy and strategies for co-teaching.
Pairs Training - provides the cooperating teacher and student teacher candidate with tools for how they will successfully work together to support the learning of all students.

Online Foundations and Pairs Training Options:
SPPS is excited to partner with the University of Minnesotas's Teacher Education Redesign Initiative (TERI) to offer online Foundations and Pairs training to cooperating teachers and teacher candidates placed in SPPS. We highly encourage Cooperating Teachers and Student Teachers to take part in these trainings but they are not required as each Institute of Higher Education do implement their own Co-teaching courses but this is a supplemental resource that we are sharing with all. The Foundations training can be completed together or separately. The online pairs training, however, must be completed by the cooperating teacher and the teacher candidate (together).

To complete the online training(s), please click on the Foundations Workshop via University of Minnesota's Public Google Drive: Foundations Training and/or Pairs Training.

INSTITUTES OF HIGHER EDUCATION

PLACEMENT COORDINATOR HANDBOOK

IHE Placement Coordinator Handbook

TEACHER CANDIDATE MASTER TRACKER FORM

Please use this form to document each of your teacher candidate placements.

Link NEW: 2024-2025 Teacher Candidate Master Tracker Form

SPPS CLUSTER SITES

Link: SPPS Cluster sites

PRE-SERVICE CANDIDATE/ COOPERATING TEACHER

PRE-SERVICE TEACHER CANDIDATE INFORMATION

Click the link to view the information packet for teacher candidates.

COOPERATING TEACHER INFORMATION

Click the link to view the Cooperating Teacher handbook.

PRE-SERVICE CANDIDATE FORMS TO COMPLETE

FORMS FOR ALL PLACEMENT

• Placement Data Form

• Exhibit A

- - - A background check link will be provided via email to teacher candidates once BOTH forms have been received and completed by our Human Resource Personnel.

SUBMIT FORMS TO HUMAN RESOURCES

Please submit all forms to the Human Resource Service Associate and address the title to:

Pre-Service Program Documents

preserviceprogram@spps.org

Upcoming Dates

IHE Coordinator Meetings:

FALL-September 25, 2024
SPRING-December 11, 2024
END OF YEAR- May 6, 2025

Pre-Service Candidate Meetings:

SUMMER-Week of August 19th
FALL-October 10, 2024
SPRING-December 10, 2024
END OF YEAR-April 10, 2025

Cooperating Teacher Meetings:

FALL-October 9, 2024
SPRING-December 12, 2024
END OF YEAR- April 8, 2025

Principal/Administrator Meetings:

FALL-October 9, 2024
SPRING-December 11, 2024
END OF YEAR- April 8, 2025

Interview Sessions:

- Please apply online if you are interested.
- SPPS Career Page: https://www.spps.org/about/departments/human-resources/careers

SPPS PRE-SERVICE PROGRAM
Mary Yang
360 Colborne St.
Saint Paul, MN, 55102
651-744-6462
email: mary.yang@spps.org