Small stipends also will be paid to portfolio readers. At the end of teacher preparation programs, students spend a semester student teaching. This final step in preparing new teachers includes feedback from the supervising classroom teachers, the faculty members in charge of the field experience, and the students themselves. The end result is a decision as to whether the student is prepared to enter the classroom as a full-time classroom teacher or not. At this point the assessment process traditionally has stopped.
Students graduate and get jobs.
They begin teaching. And the College of Education has had only anecdotal information on the actual effectiveness of graduates' preparation. Based on new teacher standards set forth by the State, the survey was developed by a group of education faculty, led by Ted Singletary. The process was supported by the Office of Institutional Assessment, which oversaw the mailing of the surveys and data analysis. Despite negative press about the quality of public schools in general and BSU education graduates in particular, results showed that BSU prepared teachers very well for the classroom.