Overview

Your full practicum experience is a semester-long, five day a week field experience designed to meet the Massachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary Education's (DESE) requirements for endorsement from Boston College. Teacher candidates, as a result, should should refer to the district and/or school’s approved academic calendar and adhere to the scheduled holidays, professional development days, and breaks. As is with your early field experience, you are guided by a qualified school-based mentor (Supervising Practitioner) and a university-based mentor (Program Supervisor). During this field experience, you will adhere to your partnership school's academic calendar. Placements begin at the onset of the semester and continue for 14 weeks through the end of the semester. This experience is designed to align with the state-requirements for endorsement from Boston College and licensure in Massachusetts.

All full practicum field placements must be formally approved by the Office of Field Placement and Partnership Outreach to ensure that school site and Supervising Practitioner’s credentials align with the license area being pursued by the teacher candidate and the state-requirements for endorsement from Boston College.

The Field Placement team partners with teacher candidates on the placement process. You will be invited to schedule a one-on-one advising meeting during Placement Week to discuss your professional interests, goals and future field experience. Below you will find a detailed overview of the placement process; you can also download a PDF version of the Full Practicum Placement Overview.

In order to complete a full practicum experience, all undergraduate and graduate teacher candidates, even if employed, must register for the appropriate practicum course and complete an online teacher education application. Please follow the process below:

1. Register through Eagle Apps for the appropriate full practicum course and the co-requisite Inquiry Seminar.

   • Undergraduate students: EDUC4250

   • Graduate students:
     EDUC7420 (Early Childhood/Elementary/Secondary)
     EDUC7610 (Moderate/Severe)
     
     

2. Apply for the full practicum experience through this Full Practicum Teacher Education Application.
   
   

3. Meet with the Field Placement team to discuss your professional goals and full practicum placement. Employed teacher candidates must secure advance approval from the Assistant Dean for Field Placement to ensure that the school-based mentor and setting meet the state requirements for endorsement and licensure.

4. Apply for the full practicum experience through InPlace. You will receive an email from the Office of Field Placement with a direct link to InPlace and the required application. You will be required to provide the following information:

   • Your MEPID (Massachusetts Education Personal ID) assigned to you by the Massachusetts Department of Elementary & Secondary Education. The number is accessible from ELAR.
     
     

5. Formally interview with a potential partnership school and/or school-based mentor and secure approval to complete the full practicum experience on-site.

Please note that the application must be completed by April 15 for a fall placement and by October 23 for a spring placement. 

All teacher candidates who are full time employees (e.g., teacher of record, teacher’s assistant, paraprofessional, intern, teaching fellow, etc.) must submit an online request to the Office of Field Placement and Partnership Outreach and receive approval to verify that the employment environment is suitable to fulfill both the pre/full practicum and licensure requirements. Requests and supporting documentation are due by August 1st for a fall field experience and by December 1st for a spring field experience. Please see the Graduate Students & PK-12 Employment section below for more information. 

The Massachusetts Candidate Assessment of Performance (CAP) is required of all state-approved teacher education programs in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. The CAP is “designed to assess the overall readiness of teacher candidates at the conclusion of their preparation experience. By requiring teacher candidates to demonstrate their readiness, Massachusetts will ensure that new teachers enter classrooms prepared to make an impact with their students on day one” (DESE, 2019).

“CAP’s content and process mirror the experience of educators engaged in the Massachusetts Educator Evaluation Framework with key modifications to ensure that the assessment is appropriate for the context of preparation and is focused on essential elements of practice for novice teachers. The CAP assesses practice on seven essential elements which 'represent observable, high-priority, and high leverage practice for new teachers'" (DESE CAP, 2020). The seven essential elements are highlighted below.

During the course of the semester, the Supervising Practitioner and Program Supervisor will actively partner with the teacher candidate and provide timely, structured feedback to improve classroom practice. The BC-CAP is composed of the following eight steps. To further help teacher candidates, below is an overview of each required element and the associated CAP documentation.

Over the course of the full practicum experience, candidates will be formally rated on the CAP rubric (i.e., Formative and Summative Assessment). The rubric uses the same four performance levels of the Massachusetts Model Teacher Rubric: Exemplary, Proficient, Needs Improvement, Unsatisfactory.

As required by DESE in order to be endorsed by Boston College, teacher candidates must successfully complete the full practicum and “demonstrate Proficiency in Quality for all seven elements at the conclusion of CAP, candidates may be considered Needs Improvement for Consistency and Scope” (DESE, 2019). 

The Office of Field Placement & Partnership Outreach aims to support employed teacher candidates in meeting all of the standards and requirements needed to complete the Lynch School of Education and Human Development’s state-approved educator preparation programs and to earn endorsement for licensure from the Massachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary Education (DESE).

Your pre/full practicum placement must be formally approved by the Office of Field Placement, before the start of the academic semester, to ensure that the school and Supervising Practitioner’s credentials align with the license area that you are pursuing and meet DESE’s requirements for endorsement. You must also secure advance approval from the Assistant Dean for Field Placement to complete a practicum in your place of employment.  The Office of Field Placement must verify that your employment environment is suitable to fulfill the requirements for endorsement from Boston College and licensure in Massachusetts. Requests and supporting documentation are due by August 1st for a fall field experience and by December 1st for a spring field experience. You can submit a request online here.

Your teaching appointment must align with your graduate teacher education program at Boston College and area of intended licensure; please see DESE’s Teacher Fields and Grades for more information about grade levels that correspond with each license. In the event that a teacher candidate is unable to spend significant time in the desired field (or content area) and/or at the appropriate grade level, the proposal will be denied. In order to complete the requirements for graduation and endorsement, teacher candidates may be advised to change their teaching appointment, school site, and/or desired license area.

In addition, the teacher candidate’s place of employment must have a PreK-12 teacher who meets DESE’s requirements to serve as a Supervising Practitioner. According to the state, a Supervising Practitioner needs “at least three full years of experience under an appropriate Initial or Professional license....and a rating of proficient or higher on his/her most recent summative evaluation” (MA DESE Guidelines for Program Approval, 2016). It is important to note that the Supervising Practitioner’s license needs to align with the teacher candidate’s intended area of licensure and the corresponding grade level(s). If you need assistance or clarification, please contact the Office of Field Placement and Partnership Outreach in Campion 102 by phone (617-552-4206) or email (prac@bc.edu).