WNMUNEA-SP Student Teacher Bill of Rights*

Preamble

We, the members of WNMU-NEA-Student Program, believe that the student teaching experiences as well as all field-based experiences are crucial components of teacher education.

The quality of this experience is significant in shaping the attitudes and building the competencies and understanding of the student teacher, and thus is ultimately an indication of the quality of education in our nation's schools.

Critical faculty, School of Education personnel, school administrators, and student teachers share the responsibility to participate in decisions directed toward accomplishing this objective.

The quality of the student teaching experience is vastly improved when all those who are professionally involved with student teachers are accorded full recognition. Therefore, student teachers should be granted such fundamental human rights as dignity, privacy, and respect, and such basic constitutional rights as freedom of speech, religion, assembly, association, due process and equal protection of the law, and the right to petition for the redress of grievances.

Confident in the validity of these beliefs, we hereby proclaim this Student Teacher Bill of Rights.

As a citizen, a student, and a future member of the teaching profession, the individual student teacher has the following rights :

1. To freedom from unfair discrimination in admission to student teaching and in all aspects of the field-based experiences. Student teachers shall not be denied or removed from assignment because of race, ethnicity, creed, sex, age, national origin, or physical limitations.
2. To the same liability protections as are provided by the school district of regularly employed, certified teachers.
3. To be admitted to student teaching and to remain in the student teaching assignment unless there has been just cause for termination or for transfer through fair and impartial proceedings.
4. To an equitable and orderly means of resolving grievances relating to the student teaching assignment. The university grievance procedure shall incorporate due process guarantees, including the right to be informed, in writing, of reasons for any adverse action regarding assignments, and to appeal any such action. This includes the right to have both student and teacher representation on the committees designated to hear and adjudicate student teacher grievances.
5. To be informed, in advance, of standards of eligibility for student teaching, and of the criteria and procedures for evaluation of classroom performance. In addition to this the student teacher has the right to see, sign, and affix a written response to evaluations of classroom performances.
6. To be consulted in advance, and have effective, voice in decisions regarding assignment, with respect to subject, grade level, school, and clinical faculty.
7. To participate with the clinical faculty and the university supervisor in planning the student teaching schedule to include, in addition to work with the assigned clinical faculty member, attendance at professional meetings, professional development workshops, career days/job fairs, and voluntary involvement, as appropriate, in other extra-curricular activities that will enrich and broaden the range of field-based experience.
8. To carry out the student teaching assignment in an atmosphere conducive to learning, to have authority, under supervision of the clinical faculty member, to use reasonable means to preserve the learning environment, and to protect the health and safety of the students, the student teacher, and others.
9. To be assigned duties that are relevant to the student teacher's learning experience. Student teachers shall not be required to act as substitute teacher or teacher aide, nor handle any non-teaching duties that are not part of the cooperating teacher's duties.
10. To a student teaching environment that encourages creativity and initiative. Student teachers should have the opportunity, under supervision of the critical faculty member, to develop their own techniques of teaching, as appropriate to the maturity of the students and the topic being studied.
11. To influence the development, continuing evaluation, and improvement of the student teacher program. This includes the formulation and systematic review of standards of student eligibility, student criteria, and procedures of student teacher evaluation. Such influence shall be maintained through representation of student teachers, and recent graduates of the student program, on committees established to accomplish these purposes.

*The rights defined in this document are intended to apply to all teacher education students who are engaged in an extended field experiences designed to prepare them for a classroom-teaching experience.