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Part II. Where Will I Be Placed?

In the context of student teaching, while a variety of issues influence the school and teacher assignment process and we cannot guarantee any individual student teacher placement, understanding your specific interests and personal professional needs will help us to better match students, schools, and cooperating teachers. A further understanding of the student teacher application and placement process, described below, will help you in this effort.

Note: many suburban school districts will not accept dual placements (e.g., special education and elementary education). Therefore, please choose your first placement request wisely.

The Urban Education Collaborative and the Student Teaching Placement Process

The Urban Education Collaborative, a developing initiative of the College of Education, is being designed to develop strategic and supportive relationships with schools and districts in the Philadelphia area. The goal of the Collaborative is to improve coordination between school improvement efforts and institutions like the College, and to do so in ways that link research and practice, improve the quality of teaching and learning, and create professional learning communities of college faculty, district leaders and staff, and school-based staff, principals, coaches, and teachers. We hope that the work of the Urban Education Collaborative will encourage more self-reflective and evidence-based behaviors on the part of all involved and that in so doing, the College, district(s), and schools will significantly improve their programs and overall student learning. In particular, the Collaborative is developing partnerships with elementary and secondary schools in the region to provide improved clinical practice opportunities for developing teachers.

Join Your Peers and Build On-going Relationships

Where the College recently placed student teachers individually at schools across the School District of Philadelphia and the region (in more than 40 school districts), we are increasingly trying to place student teachers as cohorts in neighborhood schools in which we have established relationships and specific teacher candidate supports. Likewise, to allow students more continuous and in-depth clinical practice, efforts are being made, where appropriate, to assign student teachers in elementary education to one of the schools in which they completed their required practica. In this model, the notion of cooperating teacher becomes secondary to the concept of a cooperating school, where all teachers and school staff share responsibility for the professional development of new teachers. Students observe and practice in more than one classroomincluding ESL and self-contained special education classes, participate in staff meetings and professional development, become increasingly familiar with the school community and the many demands in the life of an effective urban educator that exist outside of the individual classroom.

The College (through the Urban Education Collaborative) is developing these cooperating school relationships with schools in Philadelphia and also in several surrounding or nearby school districts, including the Norristown and William Penn school districts. Students placed in our cooperating schools and districts are expected to have more focused support and access to additional services and supervision. Consider this enhanced opportunity to learn when you indicate your preferences for the school in which you would like to complete your student teaching.

Indicating Preferences: What Your Choices Mean

As you indicate preferences, please be aware that a set of important College goals will help influence assignments. To the extent that your preferences reflect some or all of these priorities, you will be more likely (although not guaranteed) to be assigned to one of your preferred placement schools and have a successful student teaching experience.

To the extent possible, student teacher placements will:

  1. Provide students with meaningful opportunities to learn about high-quality instruction in the area of certification
    • Is the school one where the candidate will feel safe, comfortable, and welcomed? (Not all teachers fit all schools.)
    • Does the school teach the grade levels and content areas of the teacher candidates target certification (e.g., special education, secondary Spanish, general science, physics)?
    • Are there models of effective and innovative instruction, active teaching and learning? Are these teachers willing and able to mentor candidates?
    • Will candidates have sufficient opportunities to apply what they have learned in their coursework, especially toward meeting the required performance standards?
  2. Ensure that the student teaching experience is carefully and continuously monitored and supported
    • Is this a school to which we can feasibly provide a qualified supervisor?
    • Is this a school with an available, willing and qualified mentor teacher in the field and level needed by the candidate? Are there enough such teachers to support the number of student teachers and practicum teachers in the school?
    • Is this a school where the principal and staff will foster the professional development of new teachers?
  3. Provide a more intensive clinical experience with improved links between research and practice
    • Is this a school in which the candidate has already developed valuable relationships and supports for learning?
    • Will the candidate have had opportunities to practice in more than one school or classroom setting?
  4. Provide students with a cohort of colleagues with whom they can reflect on and learn from their experiences, positive and negative
    • Is this a school to which other students will want to be/are assigned?
    • Does this school promote and support reflective practice?
  5. Support improvement of neighborhood schools, particularly ones in the North and Central regions of the School District of Philadelphia
    • Is this a candidate who is interested in a possible career in urban education?
    • Is this a school where the teacher candidate could significantly contribute to school improvement?
    • Is this a highly-requested school and thus one that might be unlikely to accept many teacher candidates from Temple?

Placing Student Teachers

Though the criteria above are important to the student teacher placement and program improvement processes, they are not the only factors at play. Schools and districts play an active role in the determining which students are assigned to which schools. Based on your input and the College priorities, the Director of Clinical Education in the College makes a formal request to the individual school district of the recommended school. The district, based on its own criteria, then determines whether or not to pursue the request at the school level. There, the principal, based on his/her own criteria and the ability to meet the request (e.g. availability of a master teacher who meets the requirements of the Pennsylvania Department of Education), works with individual teachers at the school to determine which candidates, if any, will be selected to student teach at the school and with which teachers.

Students seeking a placement outside the School District of Philadelphia should understand that, by agreement with the districts, the College sends ALL such applications to the district offices only. (You may not contact schools on your own initiative. You must follow the application procedure(s) established between the College of Education and the surrounding districts.)

It is also important to note that some schools are requested by far more potential student teachers, both here at Temple and from the nearly 20 other teacher preparation programs in the region, than they can accommodate.

Timeline for Notification

Schools and districts vary in the amount of time they take to consider individual student teacher applications and respond to our placement requests. While the College is working to ensure prompt responses and will be in regular contact during the placement process, responses, both acceptances and denials, often take more time than anticipated.

The College, particularly through the Urban Education Collaborative, is developing relationships with several school districts in the area to improve and streamline this process, but it is still complicated -- especially with districts outside of Philadelphia. For this reason, College recommended student teacher placements are considered tentative until final confirmation by the school site and a specific cooperating teacher is named. Students with particularly complicated situations or specific needs or concerns also have opportunities to discuss their placements within specific time limits; however, students may not arrange for a placement on their own.

You will be notified via e-mail as soon as we confirm that you are eligible to student teach and we have confirmation of your placement.

What if I'm Not Happy With My Placement?

Requesting a change in school placement AFTER we have sent your application to a school on your behalf is strongly discouraged. Make your choices carefully and provide as much information as you can.

If you have extraordinary circumstances and need to request a student teaching placement outside our usual network of schools, please consult with Field Placement Coordinator, Bernie McGee, immediately and before completing this application.

To ensure timely and appropriate placements, students should regularly check e-mail and quickly respond to any requests from the Office of Student Teaching. Before you complete the application, if you have questions, please contact:

  • Bernie McGee, Field Placement Coordinator, (215) 204-1520, mcgee@temple.edu or
  • Tonya Thomas, Field Placement Assistant Coordinator, (215) 204-6070, tontom@temple.edu.

And please remember, Temple University cannot guarantee you a student teaching placement in a school of your choice.

Ready to Continue?