Scope of Work Agreements (SOWAs)
In the next few months we’ll be working with elementary school sites who have determined they would like to begin the process of becoming a Professional Development School (PDS) site with the UMN-TC. Kathy Byrn, Elementary Education instructor and placement coordinator, continues to work closely with schools to determine clustered placements of teacher candidates for next fall, 2011. Stacy Ernst is working to capture current agreements in a Scope of Work document regarding placements and professional development needs with each school site. Site team involvement in SOWA development and review is essential as we begin to plan together for some “try outs” of the redesign (e.g., longer placements, co-teaching, performance assessments) next year. Our desire is to have all SOWAs completed and teacher candidates placed by June 15th.
Secondary school sites will have another academic year to discuss developing as a PDS or Clinical Cluster School (CCS) model. We seek collaboration to co-identify professional development needs (at the U and in schools) as we plan for 2012-2013. In the meantime, every effort will be made to begin clustering teacher candidates (student teachers) and build relationships in multiple disciplines that are good matches with each secondary school interested in partnering. Please seek times/dates when we might come and speak with your faculty so that we can inform more people about the potential partnership.
District Memorandum of Understandings (MOUs)
District level MOUs for the Teacher Education Redesign Initiative will need to be renegotiated by August 15th, 2011 in preparation for the 2011-2012 academic year. Please review the current agreement, discuss ideas for next steps, and schedule a meeting for review/revision of our current agreement.