Department Organization & Contact Information

Roles & Responsibilities: 

The Credential Program Coordinator

Coordinates candidates from the initial admission interview period through the final evaluation, to the recommendation of individual candidates for California teaching credentials;

• Liaises with the Placement Coordinator to establish field placements for each candidate;
• Serves as advisor and counselor to candidates. 
• Help candidates who may experience difficulty with a University Supervisor, Instructor, Cooperating Teacher, or site partner and guides them through the situation in a professional manner;
• Help candidates who may experience personal/health problems that may jeopardize their performance in the program. Collaborates with the University Supervisor in evaluating the field work performance of candidates who do not show sufficient progress in meeting the TPEs and assists in establishing an Improvement Plan.
• Confers with University Supervisors to assign credit for each semester of candidate’s fieldwork; and
• Notifies the Credential Student Service Center of situations that may affect a credential candidate’s progress towards the credential completion.
• The program provides initial orientation for preparation program supervisors and cooperating teachers of clinical practice experiences to ensure all individuals understand their role and expectations. The candidate will be observed 6 times per semester by their university supervisor and receive a minimum of 5 hours per week of support and guidance from their cooperating teachers.
• The program provides district employed supervisors a minimum of 10 hours of initial orientation to the program curriculum, about effective supervision approaches such as cognitive coaching, adult learning theory, and current content-specific pedagogy and instructional practices. The program ensures that district employed supervisors remain current in the knowledge and skills for candidate supervision and program expectations.

Placement Coordinator

Candidates do not arrange their own student teaching placements and must not contact school districts/school sites unless directed to do so. This is the job of the Fieldwork Placement Coordinator. The Fieldwork Placement Coordinator works with district office personnel, principals, vice principals, department heads and teachers in arranging field placements each school semester. This requires individual contacts, school visitations, telephone calls, record keeping, and endless hours of coordination between the university and local school sites. Placement considerations are only given to geographic location and documented special needs of candidates.

Coordinators will select placements that demonstrate:

• Commitment to collaborative evidence-based practices and continuous program improvement
• Have partnerships with appropriate other educational, social, and community entities that support teaching and learning
• Place students with disabilities in the Least Restrictive Environment (LRE)
• Provide robust programs and support for English learners
• Reflect to the extent possible socioeconomic and cultural diversity
• Permit video capture for candidate reflection and TPA completion
• Clinical sites should also have a fully qualified site administrator

Through a collaborative process with the district, placement coordinators find cooperating teachers who:

• Hold a Clear Credential in the content area for which they are providing supervision 
• Have a minimum of three years of content area K-12 teaching experience
• Have demonstrated exemplary teaching practices as determined by the employer and the preparation program

University Supervisor

Cal State East Bay will designate a University Supervisor to provide support, mentoring, and supervision to the teacher candidate. This will consist of lesson observations and conferences as well as email and phone support. The University Supervisor will conduct 12 observations and post-observation conferences over the course of the school year. These may be in-person or remote observations.

Cooperating Teachers

Cooperating Teachers provide a minimum of 5 hours per week of support and guidance which includes the following:

• Orient the candidate to school environment.
• Share instructional resources with the candidate. 
• Provide specific reflective and constructive written or oral feedback in a timely manner  at least once each week to develop and improve the candidate's lesson planning, classroom implementation, reflection, and self-assessment skills.
• Supervise the development of short- and long-term planning (lesson plans, unit plans, etc).
• Assist the teacher candidate in developing plans for addressing classroom problems/issues as they arise.
• Provide the teacher candidate with opportunities to implement a variety of teaching strategies.
• Observe the teacher candidate’s classroom teaching performance regularly.
• Support the teacher candidate’s transition to becoming the lead instructor.
• Discuss professional behaviors consistent with excellence in teaching.
• Confer regularly with the University Supervisor to provide feedback on the teacher candidate’s progress.
• At the end of the placement, the Cooperating Teacher participates with the University Supervisor and the candidate in a three-party evaluation conference at which time they share their impressions of the candidate’s growth as a student teacher and potential as a professional educator using the summative evaluation form.

The Cooperating Teacher may recommend that a candidate be suspended from student teaching for any reason.  If the Cooperating Teacher determines that they want the candidate removed from their classroom, they may do so at any time by contacting the University Supervisor and Program Coordinator. 

Collaborating Teachers

In some cases school sites may use Collaborating Teachers. This means that the Cooperating Teacher is also the University Supervisor. Candidates may not request this option. It is only agreed upon between the program and the school district.

Employer Provided Mentor

The employer will appoint a mentor with an English Learner Authorization prior to an intern assuming daily teaching responsibilities. This Employer Provided Mentor (EPM) will provide support that consists of observations, conferences, email and phone calls to the Intern teacher. The EPM will provide 26 hours of support, mentoring and supervision within the school day of the intern teaching in the general education classroom. Additionally, the EPM will provide 10 hours of support and supervision related to English Learners during the school day.

Credential Student Service Center

Credential Student Service Center (CSSC) supports all credential programs at CSU East Bay. It is important to familiarize yourself with CSSC’s main services: Credential Student Service Center

• Advisement regarding credential requirements in all programs
• Initial screening for credential program requirements
• The housing of candidate records
• Monitoring of progress toward credential
• Verification of credential program completion
• Making the official credential recommendation to the Commission on Teacher Credentialing (CTC).
• Official Document Submission email to csscdocuments@csueastbay.edu