Logic Model

Logic Model for placement
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Logic Model Notes:

The placement program is a new approach to matching teacher candidates and cooperating teachers for the requisite internship during the undergraduate education program.

Inputs for the placement program include money for personnel and development of the website. As this is a new system that makes a much heavier use of technology over the previous offering, many of these costs are new this year for the internship matching process.

Outputs consist primarily of the activities involved with development and deployment of the program website. After that, the new system is advertised to students, teachers, and school division administration.

Outcomes for the program fall into three general streams. First, changes to the existing survey are required, including a shift in focus for the program. Second, the internship matching process and parameters need to reflect the new focus. Finally, increased teacher participation is an important goal of the program.

Evidence suggests that factors contributing to a successful internship were not being addressed with the previous survey. The goal is to shift from a survey collecting simple demographic data to a survey that addresses more comprehensive demographics, interests, personality traits, and skills. This represents not just a more in-depth approach, but also a change in focus for the internship process.

The previous matching process was time-consuming and difficult as it was completed entirely by hand. The placement program aims to improve overall results by automating the internship matching. This required a website to collect the information, and the goal is to leverage the automated system to expand internship opportunities. Possible areas for expansion include interning in pairs, placement in locations where the student has family supports, and tailoring placements to accommodate future employment directions.

These two streams converge in a long-term goal to shift the focus of internship from a necessary step for certification to an opportunity for new teacher induction.

Traditionally, teacher participation in the internship program has often been a struggle. It is not uncommon to have more teacher candidates than cooperating teachers. In those instances, university administrators have to petition teachers to take an intern. A goal of the placement program is to increase teacher participation through both new teacher intake, and repeat teacher participation. The long-term goal is to have a supply of cooperating teachers that outnumbers the demand by teacher candidates.

This program represents a new direction for the university. Furthermore, it represents a direction not currently taken by other institutions. A long-term goal of the program is to license the system to other institutions for tasks such as teacher internship placement, medical internship placement, and facilitating first-year teacher/mentor-teacher relationships in a school division.