College of Education and Human Development

Field Service Office

Clinical Practice Information

• Application for Clinical Practice and Teacher Candidate Profile
• Application for Waiver of Clinical Practice
• Forms
• Handbook of Clinical Practice
• Professional Portfolio Guide
• Professional Portfolio Rubric
• Teacher Work Sample & Performance Prompts
• Teacher Work Sample Scoring Rubric

The goal of Clinical Practice is to provide field experiences to help teacher candidates develop and demonstrate the knowledge, skills, and dispositions necessary to help all students learn.  It provides students with a practical real-world teaching experience in which they can practice implementing effective teaching practices, behavior and disposition standards.

This experience is carried out under the close supervision of a mentor teacher and one or more university supervisors from the Department of Teacher Education & Human Deveopment and other departments as appropriate.  This is a critical requirement for licensing and must be successfully completed before professional teaching credentials can be awarded.

We are committed to a high quality student teaching experience that prepares educators for the job market.  We are also committed to promoting and maintaining standards of excellence that meet College, Department, University, State, and National competencies. 

Placement Criteria:

• The school district’s needs and upon having sufficient numbers of mentor teachers and subject/grade availability

• Placement requests for districts that are not identified as cooperating districts will be reviewed on a case-by-case basis.  No placements will be made in such a district unless supervision requirements and arrangements are met.
• Out-of-state application must be completed and discussed with the Field Service Coordinator six months to one year prior to clinical practice .  Applications are located in the Field Service Office OM 202.

• Summer semester placements will be made as long as the following conditions can be met:
• There are schools/districts on year-round schedules that can place teacher candidates.
• Schools and placements under consideration meet state licensure conditions.
• The length of the clinical practice experience is comparable to other semesters.
• Clinical practice supervision is available and meets departmental guidelines.
• Required Clinical Practice days can be completed by the last day of finals for summer semesters.

Beginning Fall 2008 Special Education teacher candidates will be required to complete only 30 days in SPED and 30 days in Elementary or Secondary (dual majors).

Applications must be submitted to the Teacher Education & Human Development Department Chair (OM 212) by the dates specified below.

Fees:

Exceptions are made to the out-of-state fees for Clark County and Lincoln County, Nevada.

Clinical Practice Requirements:

• All course work will be completed prior to clinical practice.
• Secondary applicants must submit evidence of a passing score on an appropriate PRAXIS Content Area test for the content area in which they seek a license (see secondary department for passing scores.
• Elementary Education applicants must provide evidence of a passing score on the PRAXIS Elementary Education Content Area Exercises test (see elementary department for passing scores).
• Applicants must have a cumulative GPA of at least 2.75.
• Criminal background check must be submitted and cleared by the BCI and FBI.
• Teacher candidates must receive a unanimous recommendation from all block professors to proceed to clinical practice.

All Elementary and Secondary teacher candidates will be assigned to their clinical practice placement for 60 days.

Registration of Classes:

The Field Service Office will automatically register all students who are eligible and have a current application on file.  However, students are responsible to make sure they have been registered for the correct semester and the correct classes.

Any teacher candidate withdrawing from Clinical Practice after registration and/or placement has been accepted will be required to withdraw through the Registration Office, will forfeit clinical practice fees, and must contact the Field Service Office.

Exit Interview:

At the end of Clinical Practice, an exit interview will be required for all teacher candidates.  

Teacher candidates MUST make an appointment through Shirley Wilson (435) 586-1950.  

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