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CCSU, A Record of
Preparing Connecticut’s Best Teachers Susan Seider, Chair, Department of Teacher Education. |
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Consider yourself fortunate if you are a parent,
relative or friend of a child who is currently being taught in a public
school classroom by a teacher who graduated from Central Connecticut
State University. Teachers prepared in CCSU programs have excellent
reputations for becoming “leaders for service in diverse communities.”
Rest assured that the CCSU-prepared teacher met rigorous institutional
as well as state and local district requirements. Teacher candidates at CCSU must maintain an overall minimum grade point average of 2.70 or higher to be accepted and remain active in a professional program. The teacher candidate must also demonstrate competence in a concentrated, sometimes interdisciplinary, subject area. Further requirements include passing rigorous writing prompts, oral interviews, state Praxis 1 and 2 general knowledge and subject matter and pedagogy tests, passing extensive practicum requirements in school classrooms, and demonstrating strict adherence to the Connecticut Code of Conduct. |
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CCSU teacher candidates have many opportunities to practice in real classrooms where they are mentored by specially trained classroom teachers and university professors who are themselves master teachers with many years of experience. Many teacher candidates working in professional development schools are mentored by university faculty and school staff in a variety of projects and research at the school site. Teacher candidates in many CCSU programs must also prepare portfolios that demonstrate their growing competence. All senior elementary education majors must prepare an electronic portfolio that showcases their professional beliefs with examples of how these are translated into classroom practice. Many e-portfolios include video clips of actual teaching episodes and digital images of artifacts designed for instruction. An exit portfolio will demonstrate the student teachers’ effect on student learning. Student teachers conduct careful analyses of student abilities and plan and execute lessons to document the development of their learning as measured by data. Faculty in CCSU preparation programs are known for working together to continually evaluate and make necessary changes to ensure that programs remain rigorous, integrated, and that they incorporate the latest in good research practices. Research indicates that it is the teacher who makes the most difference in a child’s learning in the classroom. We ensure that our teacher candidates learn how to communicate and collaborate appropriately with families to benefit the child. Faculty teach using case studies, simulations, reflective teaching role plays, hands-on experiences and observations in real classrooms that facilitate this important aspect of a teacher’s work. In this age of top down testing mandates such as those required through the No Child Left Behind (NCLB) federal mandate, the faculty at CCSU are particularly focused on preparing teacher candidates for the “real” context of today’s classrooms. They are hailed for their deliberate focus on how best to facilitate the particular learning needs of each individual child in the classroom. A child who has a CCSU graduate for a teacher, is indeed, in the most caring and competent hands. |
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