Early Childhood Education Candidate Evaluation of Program
Please rate how well you feel candidates are prepared in
each of these areas
Content area knowledge
Teaching methodology
Planning lessons and units
Delivering lessons to students
Assessing learning
Professional behavior and ethics
Classroom management
Infusing technology
Dealing with issues of diversity
Leadership and collaboration
Please rate your satisfaction with each of these program
components:
200506
3.65
3.91
3.52
3.75
3.61
3.62
4.15
4.31
200506
3.35
4.26
3.74
4.35
4.22
4.21
4.57
4.71
200506
200607
3.35
3.87
3.67
3.79
4.21
4.05
4.33
4.36
200607
3.10
4.08
3.74
4.42
4.49
4.54
4.67
4.82
200607
200708
3.47
4.08
3.69
4.23
4.16
4.18
4.63
4.67
200708
3.20
4.25
3.95
4.54
4.22
4.42
4.69
4.78
200708
201011
3.44
3.88
3.74
4.07
4.33
4.10
4.52
4.58
201011
3.15
4.16
3.78
4.47
4.44
4.45
4.70
4.78
201011
201112
3.52
3.83
3.44
4.16
4.16
3.65
4.31
4.46
201112
2.92
3.93
3.48
4.35
4.29
4.13
4.55
4.63
201112
4.04
3.52
4.00
3.82
3.70
4.45
3.77
3.41
3.70
3.65
200506
3.83
3.76
4.00
3.78
3.53
4.25
3.67
3.22
3.74
3.95
200607
3.99
3.99
4.35
4.15
3.83
4.36
4.37
3.52
3.80
4.06
200708
4.09
4.18
4.47
4.31
3.82
4.41
4.26
3.63
3.93
4.25
201011
3.71
3.91
4.18
3.95
2.96
4.31
4.40
3.11
3.82
4.07
201112
Advising and information from Student Services Center
Advising provided by program faculty members
Quality of teaching in my home program
Quality of teaching outside of my home program
Content of courses in my home program
Content of courses outside of my home program
Program curriculum
2.86
3.27
4.14
3.61
3.86
3.68
3.78
3.47
3.89
4.07
3.64
3.97
3.61
3.85
3.42
3.85
4.08
3.83
4.06
3.91
4.10
3.68
4.09
4.26
4.03
4.16
3.92
4.15
3.21
3.70
3.83
3.57
3.76
3.57
3.65
Pre-student teaching or internship field experiences
Student-teaching or internship
3.87
3.89
4.02
4.36
4.20
4.47
4.32
4.60
3.95
4.33
Please rate the quality of these courses/experiences:
General education courses
Educational studies courses
Content area courses
Professional courses
Preschool practicum
Kindergarten practicum
Primary practicum
Internship
Please rate the relevance of these courses/experiences:
General education courses
Educational studies courses
Content area courses
Professional courses
Preschool practicum
Kindergarten practicum
Primary practicum
Internship
The link between the program courses and the field and
clinical experiences
That the program prepares candidates for career long
learning.
N
3.70
3.93
4.11
4.03
3.56
3.73
23
4.16
105
4.28
81
4.32
68
3.89
55
2011-2012 What are the strengths of your program?
The amount of lead teaching and time spent in actual classrooms.
Primary Practicum/Internship is so long- in a good way! We get to be with the same group from start to
almost finish. Gives us a firm grasp on how students develop over the course of a year.
given a lot of classroom time which is a great experience.
The hands-on learning we did aligned with theory. The authentic learning and assignments along with the
professors' true compassion for learning made it a very enjoyable experience.
Teaching the appropriate content to prepare students for real teaching jobs. The program gave me a lot of
experience in the field of teaching which has proven valuable to me for my future.
Our math and science courses provided us with opportunities to learn multiple activities to use as lessons
in our own classrooms.
The internship is a great experience to help prepare upcoming teachers for their careers.
teaching pedagogy and philosophies of teaching
The strength of the education program is definitely the support given from the professors, and the
constant encouragement from the education faculty.
Having the opportunity to go into the different practicums and get the experience of teaching first hand.
Feel students are very well prepared by the time we are finished without internship.
We took a wide range of teaching contend and methods classes.
The field experiences are great strengths in the program.
The thing that I feel has prepared me the best to be a teacher is the amount of field experiences I have
had. The hands-on experience and the opportunity to observe a mentor teach has been very beneficial to
me as a future educator.
The classroom experiences
At UC I feel like we are well prepared for having an actual teaching job due to the lengths of the
placements.
The three field experiences allow the candidates to ease into management, learning experiences, teaching
responsibilities, and planning. Opening school, primary practicum, and internship were well planned,
beneficial, and a great learning experience.
The preschool practicum was a great experience. It allowed you to build a relationship with the children
as well as gain experience in teaching young children. I really enjoyed this time in the classroom.
Classroom management was the best course in this program. We learned many things that really came to
use in our classroom experiences before we began.
One main the strength in this program was the hands on experience.
I think that the program does a good job preparing us for lead teaching. For each placement, we attain
more and more responsibility which helps us to feel confident when stepping into a lead teaching role.
The program also does a great job finding schools that have the same beliefs as UC.
I think the biggest strength of the program is the small size. I felt like I was more than just a number.
Having a cohort made me feel much closer to my peers and my teachers. I felt that they really cared about
me and my peers.
I liked the amount of work we did in groups with other student teachers. We were able to get ideas from
students who were going through the same issues we may have been going through.
This program truly prepare students for the Praxis II tests. The content on the Praxis II test was all covered
throughout courses. This program has very caring and involved faculty. I felt as if the faculty wanted the
best for us! The amount of time students spend in the classroom is a huge strength. The preschool and
primary placements taught me so much!
I really enjoyed the internship experience. My personal preschool was a disaster but my internship was
awesome. I think that it is great we are able to take over the classroom. however, I do find it difficult to
teach the required lessons we must teach when our assigned schools don’t always teach the content area
every day/week (science and social studies).
Those students get to experience Primary Practicum and Internship at the same school, consecutively.
These experiences really made me feel prepared. Also the many different lesson ideas we received in our
method courses were very beneficial.
I love how involved and in the classroom we are. I learned more teaching in a classroom over the past two
years than I have learned in the coursework. This I do feel is the best aspect of this program!
The strengths of the program was the amount of in classroom experience we received.
The biggest strength of the ECE program are the teachers who teach the content classes. They were
always available to answer questions or offer advice. Their advice left me very well prepared in my field
experiences.
I enjoyed spending Opening School, Primary Practicum and Internship at the same school, class, and with
the same mentor teacher. It was beneficial to watch the transformation from the beginning of the school
year. I also think I gained more from my teaching during internship than I did in all of my other courses
completed at UC combined.
The setup of the preschool practicum and internship was great-we have been given a good amount of
experience through those programs. I had many wonderful teachers, especially Professors Elgas, Ciolino,
Henderson, Kouche, and Plevyak. I felt as though I gained so much knowledge from these professors.
I felt prepared for the Praxis II and I felt more prepared that other students from other Universities in ECE.
The many different field experiences is a fantastic strength to this program.
Experience! The strength in UC's education program is the amount of time that we get to spend in a
school. Although I would have liked to see more diverse classrooms.
The time that we had in the field was very helpful. We have been given several opportunities to have real
word experience teaching in the classroom.
Real life experiences.
Learning about child development, knowledge of all things preschool and kindergarten.
The amount of experience that we receive during the cohort process. The supervisors that I have had
were excellent and willing to help with concerns and teaching.
classroom management, professors are awesome, strong placements, preschool curriculum is great
2011-2012 How could your program be improved?
Consistency and uniformity. No one was ever on the same page and you frequently got different answers
from different people or professors who had no information on assignments, such as the TPAC, or
different opinions on how things should be done (i.e. lesson planning). Ensuring that the methods classes
are teaching us how to teach science.
Place us in schools that reflect the teachings of UC!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Interview mentor teachers... Some
are willing to accept the job for the help, but don't reflect UC... or even adequate classroom management.
more focus on full-time teaching without other assignments during 6 weeks of full time teaching. Take all
methods courses before going into the classroom rather than taking them while student teaching.
NO lecture based classes! There were two classes we took in COHORT that consisted of the teacher
reading directly from slides for an hour and a half! A class on extreme poverty (or integrated with
classroom man.). Many of us were completely blown away once we were in urban districts.
A little less training in preschool, and a little more in Kindergarten and Primary grades.
More focus on teaching content areas, especially teaching reading.
It might be beneficial to look at the sequence of classes in comparison to the field experiences. Not sure
because I really appreciate the entire experience, and I feel like the professors did a great job preparing
us! Thank you!
More time to be spent in the preschool and kindergarten practicums. I also think it’s important to give
students the experience in each grade level, not just choose one grade level for them to do their
internship in.
Coming into preschool and kindergarten halfway through the year and at the end made it difficult to build
relationships that I built in my internship.
Content classes and methods classes could be more at the same time. Courses were designed to relate to
the current classroom experiences, but the workload was not as beneficial as the field experience would
be alone.
What is being taught to us in the classroom and what is actually being presented or used in the "real"
classroom does not alien.
I feel that the Science, Math, and Teaching Reading and Writing classes that I took during my senior year
were inadequate to prepare me to teach these content areas to third graders. The math course was
mostly about the TPA and not so much about teaching us how to teach math. During the science course
we watched several movies that had nothing to do with teaching science. Teaching Reading & Writing II
was a repeat of Teaching Reading & Writing I. I felt better prepared for my preschool and kindergarten
placements than I have felt during my primary practicum and internship experiences.
The program mainly focused on Preschool and Kindergarten, and I felt unprepared to teach in a primary
classroom.
Less time in preschool placement and more focus on primary grade levels.
1. I would have like to see more of a focus on K-3 content areas. I feel that all of the first year of cohort
was spent discussing preschool. It would have been more beneficial to prepare us for primary practicum.
2. There were major differences and expectations amongst supervisors in Pre-K and K practicums. All
students should have the same expectations, work load, etc. 3. More times needs to be spent in a
kindergarten classroom. 4. Avoid using preschools that are "day care based" for preschool practicum. 5.
Incorporate more time in class for TPA discussion and preparation. 6. Science and Math should be taught
before internship so students have been exposed to higher level lessons before opening school in august.
The Kindergarten practicum was hard to get involved. We would attend on Monday, Wednesday, and
Friday. You would just get started on working with the children then you would miss a day and what you
were helping them with would be finished. It was just broken up.
I think the only thing I didn’t like about the internship was spending two and half days at the placement
fall quarter of senior year. We missed so much on the days our and it was difficult to pick back up where
we left off.
The program can be improved by having more hours with Kindergarteners.
I think that some of the work required during student teaching is more busy work than helpful. I would
have liked to just focus on teaching and no other assignments.
More time needs to be spent on how to teach the children the information and less on why we teach it.
That was taught to us in great detail in our first two years of education classes.
I don't feel as prepared about what to do after college. We learned about how to be teachers, but not
enough about what to do if we aren't able to find a job.
The inconsistency with supervisors and supervisor expectations is unfair. Different supervisors make
requirements different. It is unfair that some supervisors require it one way and others require the
assignments to be much harder and stricter, ex: internship notebooks and lesson plans. The kindergarten
placement seemed as if it was a waste of time. The time spent there was not significant. Being there only
three days week for ten weeks made us just seem as passing visitors, not as people who were there to
teach and interact with students. ASSESSMENT! I was totally unprepared for how to assess students in the
primary grades!!!!!!! We took one assessment course, and it was not helpful what so ever. There needs to
be a greater stress on assessment and tacking how to assess.
I feel that the TPAC was a waste of time as well as the CALs. my mentor and I talked every day and
reflected on my teaching and lessons after every day I taught. the CALs we aggravating and a repetition of
what my mentor and I had already discussed and we found them more of a pain than a help.
Preschool Practicum should be the same amount of days as Kindergarten Practicum. Too much time spent
in Preschool.
I felt very unprepared going into primary practicum because we really had not primary content courses
until the fall. I really feel that we should have had these courses, or at least a few of these courses prior to
actually being in a primary classroom. It was very difficult for me to jump from a preschool/kindergarten
mindset and learning about early phonics, and beginner readers, to 3rd grades who have a great deal of
those skills. I am not sure if it would be possible to move a few classes around, but I know that would have
helped me to feel more prepared for primary practicum and internship. I also feel that the assessment
course needs some serious attention. I do not feel that I really gained anything from it, and it was difficult
to try and learn how to give and create effective assessments as I go in the classroom.
I think the consistency of assignments among the supervisors could be improved.
The assignments, especially during internship, felt extremely unorganized despite the attempts. I think
there is just too much due online (the TPA, Educator Impact Rubric, etc.) that we shouldn't have to worry
about when we are trying to successfully plan and implement lessons in our actual classroom setting. It
felt like unneeded stress, and the assignments could have been explained a lot better.
This program could be improved by spending more time in the classroom during Kindergarten Practicum.
Also, it would be helpful for all the different supervisors to be on the same page with expectations,
requirements and deadlines for assignments.
I did not feel as though we had an adequate amount of time in our kindergarten placements. Being there
every other day, for half a day, while not even building up to a lead teaching experience left me feeling
more like an aid than a teacher. I would like to see the program extended, so that student teachers can
have an extended kindergarten experience. Also, I felt as though some of our professors did not have any
knowledge of our program (they were not even aware of what our licensure area was).
Some of the instructors were very unaware of the program and seemed out of sync.
I think it would be nice to be informed of what does allowed/disallowed and expected behaviors for
teachers in a classroom, bordering on school law knowledge....know things you are allowed and not
allowed to do.
This program could be improved by providing teachers who are more effective in their teaching methods. I
also think more effective methods classes would have been helpful. I would have liked to have a class
about reading standards and analyzing exactly what the standards were saying.
Most of the classes we took in the beginning of cohort were about preschool aged children. While they
were helpful, I would prefer to have more classes about k-3 aged children than preschool.
Listening to the student’s opinion, especially when they are not in the correct placement in order to learn
to the best of their ability.
More instruction on assessments and diversity.
More focus on primary, better coordination between supervisors, carrying supervisor all cohort long,
ability to discuss concerns with faculty, better advising by CECH staff
I understand that there was not enough space on main campus for every student. I feel as though I would
have enjoyed it more if I was placed on main campus. I paid the same fees and lived in Clifton. I think that
the program should take into consideration allowing more students to be in the program on main campus.
I think that assessment needs to have a stronger emphasis. In addition, it does not make sense to take
methods classes while we are in the classroom. It would be more beneficial if the methods classes were a
quarter before that placement. In addition, supervisors need to be trained better.
Please consider treating internship more as a co-op. That is truly what it is. Being a quality teacher is
related directly to the amount of time that can be spent focused entirely on the classroom, students,
planning, and assessment. Also, but consider having supervisors and candidates work more closely
together-- this is currently an ambiguous relationship that has so much potential to be of the utmost
benefit to both parties and could improve the program exponentially.