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Elementary Teacher Preparation

Saint Mary's University of Minnesota

Winona, Minnesota

Graduate
Traditional
Enrollment

Admissions

The standards for admission into either the institution or its teacher preparation program should be sufficiently selective to ensure that teacher candidates come from only the top half of the college-going population. In order to ensure that any test used as a screen is able to provide sufficient selectivity, it must be normed to the college-going population.

The program does not meet the standard because it does not exploit the potential for admission requirements (grade point averages, standardized tests commonly used for graduate admission and/or auditions) to provide assurance that teacher candidates have the requisite academic talent.

F

Program Diversity

A diverse teacher workforce benefits all students, particularly students of color. While there has been real progress over the last twenty years in diversifying the teacher workforce,1 these gains have not kept pace with a rapidly diversifying student population. To accelerate progress, strategic recruitment efforts by teacher preparation programs are essential.

  • Teacher prep enrollment: 16 percent candidates of color2
  • Minnesota teacher workforce: 6 percent teachers of color3
  • Local demographics: 9 percent persons of color4
Programs earning an A+ contribute significantly to the diversification of the teacher workforce. Programs earn this grade when the percentage of enrolled candidates of color exceeds the diversity of the state teacher workforce by 10 or more percentage points and also meets or exceeds the diversity of the local population.5

Saint Mary's University of Minnesota is found to be 10.0 percentage points more diverse than the Minnesota teacher workforce and 7.1 percentage points more diverse than the local population.
1 Ingersoll, Richard M.; Merrill, Elizabeth; Stuckey, Daniel; and Collins, Gregory. (2018). Seven Trends: The Transformation of the Teaching Force – Updated October 2018. CPRE Research Reports.
2 Three-year average sourced from Title II National Teacher Preparation Data
3 National Teacher and Principal Survey data (state supplied data substituted for missing values)
4 U.S. Census core-based statistical area (CBSA) data
5 This program is located either in a state with a workforce that is over 90% white or draws from a community that is over 90% white. Programs in areas with an unusually large white population may not appear to be making as significant of a contribution as programs located in more diverse settings, but they have been able to make progress facing this challenge. (Read the full Methodology.)

A+

Knowledge

Reading Foundations

All elementary teacher candidates should learn scientifically based reading instruction, the research-based content and methods to effectively teach all children to read. This content should be clearly evident in a teacher preparation program’s course materials, including class session topics, assignments, practice opportunities, and background materials. The five core components of scientifically based reading instruction evaluated under this standard are: Phonemic Awareness, Phonics, Fluency, Vocabulary, and Comprehension.

An attempt to review EDUC 520 and EDUC 585 could not be completed because the necessary documentation was not provided. As a result, the quality of reading instruction at Saint Mary's University of Minnesota remains unclear and the program earns a "cannot be determined" designation.

For additional information on how cooperative programs are scored, please review the technical report.

CBD

Elementary Mathematics

In order for elementary schools to deliver equitable and effective instruction in mathematics to all students, they need their teachers to have acquired the mathematics content and pedagogical knowledge specified in commonly accepted mathematics education standards. To evaluate that coverage, the Elementary Mathematics standard examines the instructional time allocated to each of the five essential topics in coursework required by teacher preparation programs.

To assess performance under this standard, the distribution of instructional time is estimated using syllabi and course descriptions. Only courses that provide content and pedagogical knowledge related to elementary mathematics are considered.

A review of EDUC 522 found the following coverage:

Numbers & Operations: 0 instructional hours*
Recommended target: 45 hours

Algebraic Thinking: 0 instructional hours*
Recommended target: 20 hours

Geometry & Measurement: 0 instructional hours
Recommended target: 25 hours

Data Analysis & Probability: 0 instructional hours
Recommended target: 15 hours

Mathematics Pedagogy: 30 instructional hours
Recommended target: 45 hours

*Please note that for grading purposes, the hours for Numbers & Operations and Algebraic Thinking are summed and measured against a combined target of 65 hours. Under this measure, 0 instructional hours were found.

Programs earning an F do not provide enough of the content and pedagogical knowledge elementary teachers require for effective mathematics instruction. Programs earn this grade by allocating fewer than 90 hours (out of the 150 target hours) to the five essential topic areas combined, less than 60% of the total target recommendation.

Analysis of the required coursework for elementary teacher candidates at Saint Mary's University of Minnesota found the program to address 20.0% of the total target recommendation.

F

Building Content Knowledge

To be successful, elementary teachers need content knowledge in science and social studies, both to build their students' understanding of the world and their critical thinking skills, and also to support students in becoming strong readers. Becoming a strong reader requires cumulative exposure to content knowledge, cutting across multiple domains and disciplines. The courses aspiring teachers take gives them strong background knowledge in these subjects, and in turn, they give this knowledge to students.

This program was not included in the 2023 Building Content Knowledge analysis.

N/A

Practice

Clinical Practice

Student teaching serves a critical role in preparing teacher candidates to take the reins of their own classroom. This apprenticeship allows candidates to build on coursework by learning directly from an established teacher, and practice and refine essential instructional and management skills.

Student teaching should be at least 10 weeks long in order to offer opportunities for repeated cycles of practice and growth. It should be full- or nearly-full-time, and include several weeks during which the candidate has primary responsibility for teaching the whole class for full days, so that the candidate can experience the full demands of being a teacher.

  • Our review finds that the program includes at least 10 weeks of full- or nearly-full-time student teaching, and exposes candidates to the full responsibilities of a teacher.
In addition, there are two essential steps that programs should take to safeguard the value of the experience:

1. Supply student teachers with sufficient feedback by requiring supervisors to provide student teachers with at least four instances of written feedback based on observations.
  • A review of program policy finds that supervisors are required to provide a minimum of one instance of written feedback based on observations.
2. Establish a structured process for selecting strong cooperating teachers that includes the collection of sufficient information to confirm that cooperating teachers have relevant skills, including ability as a mentor and instructional effectiveness as measured by student learning.
  • Analysis finds that this program does not collect substantive information on cooperating teachers' skills.
Based on the findings above, the program meets only a small part of this standard.

Next Steps
  • Require program supervisors to observe student teachers at least four times during the final semester of clinical experiences and provide written feedback after each observation. Research finds that when student teachers are observed at least five times by university supervisors over the course of the student teaching placement, they are more effective when they have classrooms of their own. While feedback from cooperating teachers is also valuable, no research of comparable strength defines the ideal quantity of feedback from cooperating teachers.
  • To ensure candidates are placed with the best, establish an explicit process with partner districts to gather information on potential cooperating teachers' skills including both their effectiveness (as measured by student achievement) and capacity to mentor. Collecting additional information, such as a teacher's classroom management style or communication skills, can also be valuable, as long as the focus remains on quality and the potential fit as a mentor and not on just collecting basic data, like years of experience. This information should be used to screen cooperating teachers' suitability before placing student teachers with them.
  • Clear requirements for cooperating teachers can help to guide the cooperating teacher selection process. At a minimum, cooperating teachers should be both strong mentors of adults and highly effective instructors. Our review finds that program requirements do not include that cooperating teachers must be strong mentors or effective instructors as defined by student learning.

D

Classroom Management

New teachers and their principals consistently report that classroom management is one of their greatest challenges. Teachers will be better prepared to establish a positive classroom environment if, during their preparation programs, they practice and receive feedback on the five classroom management strategies shown by conclusive research to be useful for all students. These strategies are:

  1. Rules and Routines – Establishing classroom rules and routines that set expectations for behavior;
  2. Learning Time – Maximizing the time that students are engaged in learning by pacing lessons appropriately, managing class materials and the physical setup of the classroom, and teaching interesting lessons;
  3. Praise – Using meaningful praise and other forms of positive reinforcement to encourage appropriate behavior;
  4. Low-profile Redirection – Using unobtrusive means that do not interrupt instruction to prevent and manage minimally disruptive behavior; and
  5. Consequences – Addressing more serious misbehavior with consistent, appropriate consequences.
Student teaching and residency are crucial times for the development and refinement of classroom management skills. The first few months of school are just as critical for candidates in alternative programs who have full responsibility for a classroom of children. Evaluation and observation forms used during these experiences can shape the feedback that participants receive, and are reviewed to determine whether they elicit feedback on all five key classroom management strategies.

No rating for the teacher preparation program could be determined on this standard because the institution refused to provide the information necessary for evaluation.

CBD

Rating Notes

Programs which meet the requirements for an A and also meet additional, related criteria earn an A+.

Scores of "CBD" could not be determined because NCTQ was unable to obtain sufficient data or the information that we obtained was inconclusive.

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