The MSU College of Education is working to reduce barriers and put more student teachers in the community, allowing more students to gain real-world experience and start their careers in local schools.

Students in the college, who can choose to pursue certification in elementary, special, or secondary education, gain deep knowledge of the content areas they will teach, take courses on the most effective teaching practices with a focus on equity and social justice, and experience a guided teaching internship during the last year of their bachelor's degree. This guided internship, also called the Teacher Preparation Program (TPP), places teacher candidates in local schools to gain a full year of classroom experience, learning everything from teaching practices to hallway and recess management.

According to Andrea Kelly, pre-internship elementary program coordinator in the TPP, the program uniquely prepares Spartans to be teachers. “We have them work with the mentor [teacher] to figure out where and when they're going to be there to be able to observe not only the teaching methods, but also things like recess and lunch and getting on the bus. It's about learning with children, as well as how to teach the material that they're being introduced to in their MSU classes. So it's pretty exciting.”

The College of Education recently transitioned its curriculum from a five-year to a four-year program, implementing the TPP during the student's senior undergraduate year. Kelly said a main reason for the transition is to reduce the financial burden on teacher candidates.

Additionally, the change means that students in the TPP are more able to dedicate their time to gaining experience in local schools. During the 2023-2024 school year alone, the college's teacher candidates completed almost 40,000 hours of fieldwork in local classrooms.

The TPP is also finding creative ways to ensure that its students are able to complete the program, no matter their schedule. “It can sometimes be tricky for students to find the time to get there and to be there, but we've started offering courses at odd times, like Friday afternoon, Wednesday evenings, Tuesday evenings,” explained Kelly. “So if someone has a particularly full schedule, they can still maintain the required hours in their fieldwork.”

The program has had a significant impact on local communities, working with 18 school districts, 45 schools, and over 140 teachers in the past year alone. “The impact of this many hours in this many classrooms is remarkable,” Kelly said. “Mentors write to me at the end of the year, telling how wonderful our candidates are and how honored they and the children are to have had them join them in the classroom.”

She added that the TPP benefits not just the students in the program, but also local schools, which often struggle to fill teaching positions. “One of the things we hear from superintendents all the time is when they go to hire teachers, anybody who has come through Michigan State's education program, their resume goes right on top,” Kelly said. “They come in as if they had already been teaching for a year, and that's because they had the full-year internship.” Additionally, “Onboarding is a lot less [complicated] when you have somebody who's already been in a classroom for a full year, co-teaching with an experienced mentor teacher.”