Student Teaching/Clinical Practice :
Louisiana
Teacher Preparation Policy
Analysis of Louisiana's policies
Cooperating Teacher Requirements:
Beginning July 2019, Louisiana began offering a mentor teacher ancillary certificate. To be eligible for this certificate a teacher must:
- Have a valid Type C, Level 1 or higher teaching certificate;
- Enroll in a mentor training program; and
- Have a passing score on the mentor teacher assessment series.
The new mentor teacher ancillary certificate allows teachers with a Level 1 certificate to obtain this certificate, which means they will not have demonstrated evidence of effectiveness as their Level 2 or 3 colleagues would have.
Recommendations for Louisiana
Ensure that cooperating teachers have demonstrated evidence of effectiveness as measured by student learning.
Louisiana is commended for ensuring that some cooperating teachers have demonstrated effectiveness based in part on student learning;
however, the state should make this assurance for all cooperating
teachers. The state should consider requiring that the current evaluation
ratings for teachers, including those licensed via the new mentor ancillary certificate, are part
of the selection criteria to become a cooperating teacher. Research
indicates that student teachers benefit most when cooperating teachers are
selected by the preparation program rather than by the student teacher or
school district staff.
State response to our analysis
Louisiana was helpful in providing NCTQ with facts that enhanced this analysis. The state also provided the following additional information relative to the mentor teacher role, including information regarding the training and assessments that mentors must undergo and pass in order to serve in this role. Louisiana noted that the assessments assess the teachers' effectiveness in terms of coaching and other key skills.
Role:
Mentor Teachers
- Host an undergraduate resident and co-teach with that resident for the full school year.
- Mentor post-baccalaureate residents who are teaching while earning their initial license or mentor experienced teachers in need of support.
- Provide one-on-one coaching
- Review instructional materials and student work
- Lead frequent observation/feedback cycles
Mentor Teachers will have the knowledge, skills, and resources to provide effective, ongoing one-on-one support to new and current teachers in their schools. To accomplish this, Mentor Teachers receive Nine (9) days of high-quality, content-rich and curriculum-specific trainings which teaches them how to:
- establish a strong relationship and use a coaching cycle to support teachers' growth
- prioritize the needs of residents, new, and/or developing teachers based on teacher preparation competencies
- build deep knowledge of content and content pedagogy in their subject(s)
- gain the knowledge and skills they need to effectively help others use high-quality instructional materials
When designing the Content Leader and Mentor Teacher training much thought and consideration was given to what particular skills and knowledge Mentor Teachers and Content Leaders would need to effectively serve in these roles. The Assessment Series was designed to ensure that teacher leaders serving in these roles had the skills and knowledge they needed to do so effectively. Completion of the assessment series indicates that a participant was not simply a passive participant in the training experience, but that they are able to demonstrate the skills taught in training.
Updated: February 2020
-
Louisiana
Select another topic
Teacher Preparation
- Program Entry
- Teacher Shortages and Surpluses
- Program Performance Measures
- Program Reporting Requirements
- Student Teaching/Clinical Practice
Elementary Teacher Preparation
Secondary Teacher Preparation
- Middle School Content Knowledge
- Middle School Licensure Requirements
- Secondary Content Knowledge
- Secondary Licensure Requirements
Special Education Teacher Preparation
Alternate Routes
Teacher Diversity
Hiring
Teacher and Principal Evaluation
Teacher Compensation
Early Childhood Preparation
Retaining Effective Teachers
How we graded
1E: Student Teaching
- Selection of Cooperating Teachers: The state should require that all student teachers be placed with cooperating teachers for whom there is evidence of effectiveness as measured by an evaluation system that includes objective student growth measures.
The total goal score is earned based on the following:
- Full credit: The state will earn a full point if it selects cooperating teachers based on evidence of effectiveness as measured by an evaluation system that includes objective student growth measures.
- One-half credit: The state will earn one-half of a point if it selects cooperating teachers based on their evaluation ratings, but the state's evaluation system is not based on measures of student growth.
- One-quarter credit: The state may earn one-quarter of a point if it selects cooperating teachers based on factors approaching effectiveness.
Research rationale
The stakes are too high for student teaching requirements to be left to chance.[1] Student teaching is the final clinical experience of teacher preparation, and teacher candidates have only one chance to experience the best possible placement. Student teaching will shape their own performance as teachers and help determine the type of school in which they will choose to teach.[2] A mediocre student teaching experience, let alone a disastrous one, can never be undone.
Central to the quality of the student teaching experience is the classroom teacher who serves as the teacher candidate's mentor, or cooperating teacher.[3] Only strong teachers with evidence of their effectiveness, as assessed by objective measures of student learning and by their principals, should be able to serve as cooperating teachers.[4] Yet placement is much more likely to be the luck of the draw. Reports by NCTQ, including Student Teaching in the United States and the Teacher Prep Review,
found most teacher preparation programs fail to require that cooperating teachers must be effective instructors.[5]
[1] For evidence on the importance of the selection of the cooperating teacher, particularly the benefits of selection by the preparation program as well as the importance of congruence between the student teacher's placement grade and her first teaching assignment, see Boyd, D. J., Grossman, P. L., Lankford, H., Loeb, S., & Wyckoff, J. (2009). Teacher preparation and student achievement. Educational Evaluation and Policy Analysis, 31(4), 416-440. Retrieved from http://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/ED509670.pdf
[2] Further evidence and discussion surrounding the impact of student-teaching on student achievement can be found in NCTQ's report: Greenberg, J., Pomerance, L., & Walsh, K. (2011). Student teaching in the United States. National Council on Teacher Quality. Retrieved from http://www.nctq.org/dmsView/Student_Teaching_United_States_NCTQ_Report; To explore additional studies published in peer-reviewed journals on student teaching, see Anderson, N. A., & Radencich, M. C. (2001). The value of feedback in an early field experience: Peer, teacher, and supervisor coaching. Action in Teacher Education, 23(3), 66-74.; Brink, B., Grisham, D. L., Laguardia, A., Granby, C., & Peck, C. A. (2001). Who needs student teachers? Action in Teacher Education, 23(3), 33-45.; Boyd, D. J., Grossman, P. L., Lankford, H., Loeb, S., & Wyckoff, J. (2009). Teacher preparation and student achievement. Educational Evaluation and Policy Analysis, 31(4), 416-440.; Bullough Jr, R. V., Young, J., Erickson, L., Birrell, J. R., Clark, D. C., Egan, M. W., ... & Smith, G. (2002). Rethinking field experience: Partnership teaching versus single-placement teaching. Journal of Teacher Education, 53(1), 68-80.; Cochran-Smith, M. (1991). Reinventing student teaching. Journal of Teacher Education, 42(2), 104-118.; Connor, K. R., & Killmer, N. (2001). Cohorts, collaboration, and community: Does contextual teacher education really work?. Action in Teacher Education, 23(3), 46-53.; Daane, C. J. (2000). Clinical master teacher program: Teachers' and interns' perceptions of supervision with limited university intervention. Action in Teacher Education, 22(1), 93-100.; Freese, A. R. (1999). The role of reflection on preservice teachers' development in the context of a professional development school. Teaching and Teacher Education, 15(8), 895-909.; Grossman, P., Hammerness, K. M., McDonald, M., & Ronfeldt, M. (2008). Constructing coherence: Structural predictors of perceptions of coherence in NYC teacher education programs. Journal of Teacher Education, 59(4), 273-287.; Hopkins, W. S., Hoffman, S. Q., & Moss, V. D. (1997). Professional development schools and preservice teacher stress. Action in Teacher Education, 18(4), 36-46.; Lesley, M. K., Hamman, D., Olivarez, A., Button, K., & Griffith, R. (2009). "I'm prepared for anything now": Student teacher and cooperating teacher interaction as a critical factor in determining the preparation of "quality" elementary reading teachers. The Teacher Educator, 44(1), 40-55.; Justen III, J. E., McJunkin, M., & Strickland, H. (1999). Supervisory beliefs of cooperating teachers. The Teacher Educator, 34(3), 173-180.; Kent, S. I. (2001). Supervision of student teachers: Practices of cooperating teachers prepared in a clinical supervision course. Journal of Curriculum and Supervision, 16(3), 228-44.; Knight, S. L., Wiseman, D. L., & Cooner, D. (2000). Using collaborative teacher research to determine the impact of professional development school activities on elementary students' math and writing outcomes. Journal of Teacher Education, 51(1), 26-38.; Knoblauch, D., & Hoy, A. W. (2008). "Maybe I can teach those kids": The influence of contextual factors on student teachers' efficacy beliefs. Teaching and Teacher Education, 24(1), 166-179.
[3] For information about the role and importance of quality cooperating teachers, see: Slick, S. K. (1997). Assessing versus assisting: The supervisor's roles in the complex dynamics of the student teaching triad. Teaching and Teacher Education, 13(7), 713-726.; Tellez, K. (2008). What student teachers learn about multicultural education from their cooperating teachers. Teaching and Teacher Education, 24(1), 43-58.; Tillema, H. H. (2009). Assessment for learning to teach: Appraisal of practice teaching lessons by mentors, supervisors, and student teachers. Journal of Teacher Education, 60(2), 155-167.; Valencia, S. W., Martin, S. D., Place, N. A., & Grossman, P. (2009). Complex interactions in student teaching: Lost opportunities for learning. Journal of Teacher Education, 60(3), 304-322.; White, S. (2009). Articulation and re‐articulation: Development of a model for providing quality feedback to pre‐service teachers on practicum. Journal of Education for Teaching, 35(2), 123-132.; See also Levine, A. (2006). Educating school teachers. Education Schools Project. Retrieved from http://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/ED504144.pdf
[4] Houston, W. R. (1990). Handbook of research on teacher education: A project of the association of teacher educators. New York, NY: Macmillan Publishing Co.; For additional information on the impacts of field experience and its role in teacher preparation programs, see: Knudson, R. E., & Turley, S. (2000). University supervisors and at-risk student teachers. Journal of Research and Development in Education, 33(3), 175-186.; Korthagen, F., Loughran, J., & Russell, T. (2006). Developing fundamental principles for teacher education programs and practices. Teaching and Teacher Education, 22(8), 1020-1041.; McNay, M., & Graham, R. (2007). Can cooperating teachers help student teachers develop a vision of education? The Teacher Educator, 42(3), 224-236.; Greenberg, J., Pomerance, L., & Walsh, K. (2011). Student teaching in the United States. National Council on Teacher Quality.
Retrieved from http://www.nctq.org/dmsView/Student_Teaching_United_States_NCTQ_Report; Mewborn, D. S. (2000). Learning to teach elementary mathematics: Ecological elements of a field experience. Journal of Mathematics Teacher Education, 3(1), 27-46.; Mule, L. (2006). Preservice teachers' inquiry in a professional development school context: Implications for the practicum. Teaching and Teacher Education, 22(2), 205-218.; Nguyen, H. T. (2009). An inquiry-based practicum model: What knowledge, practices, and relationships typify empowering teaching and learning experiences for student teachers, cooperating teachers and college supervisors? Teaching and Teacher Education, 25(5), 655-662.; Pence, H. M., & Macgillivray, I. K. (2008). The impact of an international field experience on preservice teachers. Teaching and Teacher Education, 24(1), 14-25.; Peterson, B. E., & Williams, S. R. (2008). Learning mathematics for teaching in the student teaching experience: Two contrasting cases. Journal of Mathematics Teacher Education, 11(6), 459-478.; Putman, S. M. (2009). Grappling with classroom management: The orientations of preservice teachers and impact of student teaching. The Teacher Educator, 44(4), 232-247. ; Richardson-Koehler, V. (1988). Barriers to the effective supervision of student teaching: A field study. Journal of Teacher Education, 39(2), 28-34.; Ridley, D. S., Hurwitz, S., Hackett, M. R. D., & Miller, K. K. (2005). Comparing PDS and campus-based preservice teacher preparation: Is PDS-based preparation really better? Journal of Teacher Education, 56(1), 46-56.; Rodgers, A., & Keil, V. L. (2007). Restructuring a traditional student teacher supervision model: Fostering enhanced professional development and mentoring within a professional development school context. Teaching and Teacher Education, 23(1), 63-80.; McDuffie, A. R. (2004). Mathematics teaching as a deliberate practice: An investigation of elementary pre-service teachers' reflective thinking during student teaching. Journal of Mathematics Teacher Education, 7(1), 33-61.; Sandholtz, J. H., & Wasserman, K. (2001). Student and cooperating teachers: Contrasting experiences in teacher preparation programs. Action in Teacher Education, 23(3), 54-65.
[5] Greenberg, J., Pomerance, L., & Walsh, K. (2011). Student teaching in the United States. National Council on Teacher Quality.
Retrieved from http://www.nctq.org/dmsView/Student_Teaching_United_States_NCTQ_Report; National Council on Teacher Quality. (2017, May). Landscapes in teacher prep: Undergraduate secondary. National Council on Teacher Quality's Teacher Prep Review. Retrieved from http://www.nctq.org/dmsView/Landscapes_-_2017_UG_Secondary