Office of Teacher Education

Clinical placements and partnerships

We deepen University-school partnerships to improve preK-12 student learning. Major initiatives include: enhancing clinical placements, co-teaching in student teaching, improving mentoring of teacher candidates, preparing liaisons as teacher leaders, supporting partner school change, coordinating innovative projects, and sustaining a strong partner network.

Clinical placements

• Kathy Byrn (Clinical Partnerships Coordinator, Elementary & Early Childhood) supports clinical partnerships and co-teaching placements for elementary education and early childhood education.
• Amy Jo Lundell (Clinical Partnerships Coordinator, Secondary and K-12) finalizes and tracks clinical/co-teaching placements across the university. Answers questions about clinical placements in partner districts, surveys cooperating teachers and coordinates payment of stipends. Manages the co-teaching professional development for cooperating teachers in partner districts.

District/school site partnerships

• Kelly Meyer (School Partner Network Coordinator) coordinates innovative partnership development projects across partner districts and school sites. Leads the professional development planning and coordinates preparation for clinical supervisors working with network schools.

Licensure support

We support current teacher licensure students throughout their time at the University. Major aspects of our work include: new student orientation, completing the Minnesota state teacher licensing process, and post-graduation job search.

• Shuji Asai (Licensing Officer and Common Content Coordinator) reviews the final applications for licensure and signs off when all is complete. He also works to assure our core course work is in order and scheduled thoughtfully for all candidates.
• Chelsea Kramer (Initial Licensure Program Advisor and Data Manager) provides student licensing advising support, tracks and maintains student records to support ongoing analysis and enrollment reports. Evaluates licensure applications and verifies that all state and college requirements have been met before processing and clearing for licensure recommendation.

Continuous improvement & accountability

From new curriculum projects to program redesign, we work with teacher education programs and the Professional Educator Licensing and Standards Board (PELSB) to make sure state standards are met and exceeded. We collect and disseminate unit level assessment data for internal and external review, with a special focus on using data to improve teacher preparation at the University of Minnesota. Our team ensures the College of Education and Human Development (CEHD) maintains Professional Educator Licensing and Standards Board (PELSB) approval for recommending teacher candidates for licensure.

• Cari Maguire (Continuous Improvement Coordinator) helps programs navigate state accreditation rules and supports program areas throughout the PERCA process. Cari is a contact for Licensure Program Leads to assist in continuous improvement projects, including new or revised program approval processes.
• Jamie Utt Schumacher (Accountability Analyst) ensures CEHD meets all accreditation reporting requirements with the Professional Educator Licensing and Standards Board (PELSB). In addition, he provides data for all external reporting requirements.