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| NCATE Website Navigation | Standard 4.4 Diverse Students in P-12 Schools Return to Previous Page |
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Diverse Students in P-12 Schools Since the mid-1980's, Initial candidates have been required to complete at least one of their two field placements in a multicultural setting, defined as having at least a 20% non-white student population. When the Initial certification program opened ten years ago in the northern Michigan Traverse City area, which had only a 5.8% multicultural population, economic disadvantage was allowed to substitute for the multicultural requirement. The unit does not define diverse placement experiences for Advanced candidates because of the individualized nature of their programs. Of Advanced candidates with clinical experience in school settings, however, almost 70% do so in districts classified as multicultural or disadvantaged. Furthermore, so many Advanced programs focus on special populations that diverse placements are virtually assured in other settings such as migrant programs, reading clinics, ESL programs, and camps and clinics for students with learning disabilities. (For percentages, see School Diversity in the on-site exhibit room.) The Placement Office in the Student Information and Services Center arranges placements each semester and monitors the multicultural requirement. Over the last several years, however, locating a sufficient number of multicultural placements has become a challenge. Three factors contribute to the difficulty: 1) there are ten institutions within a 70-mile radius of the College, all trying to place candidates; 2) the year-long nature of Graduate Teacher Certification placements restricts the number of possibilities in that program; and 3) districts are placing limitations on accepting student teachers, seemingly due to a belief that annual yearly progress might be impeded. This table shows the percentage of placements from 2001-2005 that met the diverse placement policy using the current definition: 
Some thought has been given to expanding the definition of "diverse" placements to include either economic disadvantage or multicultural population. This table shows what the placement rate would have been if the expanded definition were used: 
As the table above demonstrates, using the expanded definition would improve placement percentages but would not solve the problem. A faculty task force was formed to address the issue of limited multicultural placements and suggest ways that candidates might work with a wider range of diverse populations. During the 2006 winter semester, the task force expects to propose a wider range of options that recognizes both district and school diversity and will ask faculty to revise and update the unit's policy on diverse placements to include diversity of race, ethnicity, language, exceptionality, and socio-economic status. Back to top |
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