Brooklyn College is committed to educating immigrants and first-generation college students from the diverse communities of the borough of Brooklyn and the City of New York. Persons of color comprise approximately 70% of their student body. The Department of Secondary Education is committed to preparing teachers to teach urban youth, who are primarily students of color, economically disadvantaged, and culturally and linguistically diverse.

The program prepares teachers at both the graduate and undergraduate levels in all major academic subjects; English, Mathematics, Modern Languages, Social Studies, the sciences, as well as Physical Education. Each subject area is coordinated by a member of the faculty with a specialization in one of the academic disciplines. As in most secondary education programs, education faculty also work closely with faculty in the liberal arts to prepare teachers in the various content areas. Brooklyn College students must complete a major in both education and a major subject.

The student teaching field experience in secondary education at Brooklyn College has historically been a part-time two-semester experience, with field experiences coordinated by a member of the faculty in each discipline.

Concurrent with their first year with US PREP, the New York State Education Department adopted new guidelines for student teaching requiring the field experience to be one semester of full-time teaching tied to the school calendar. The goal was to use the opportunity presented by this state mandate to re-imagine their student teaching experience.

Through their partnership with US PREP and following the “Process for Transformation” below, Brooklyn College introduced the new role of site coordinator. The program envisioned that the site coordinator would provide a framework for enacting a common vision of student teaching among their diverse field observers and has since made this a reality. This approach has allowed the faculty to continue to draw upon their existing cadre of content area experts while providing a clinical focus on observations that support department-wide priorities and assessment.

Below are the steps that Brooklyn took to pilot, codify, and implement the secondary transformation process. The student teaching revisions are now reflected within the coursework.

Next Steps

Brooklyn College's next steps include the involvement of Mentor Teachers in the planning and delivery of the Clinical Seminar. Formally inducting mentor teachers into the instructional staff of the college will demonstrate the value of their input and expertise and provide a framework for sustaining a community of practice in which the higher education and K-12 communities can continue to expand upon their collaboration in the preparation of the next generation of teachers.