O&M Cooperating Professional

Role & Responsibilities of the O&M Cooperating Professional

The O&M Cooperating Professional (CP) is a crucial contributor to O&M candidates’ growth and development. CPs model effective instructional practices, plan collaborative instructional activities with O&M candidates, assure that O&M candidates receive extensive experience in planning instruction, assessment, monitoring student/client progress, and communicating with colleagues, administrators, students/clients and parents. 

The O&M CP is finalized through a formal contract relationship between the placement agency or district and the field placement office at PSU. A modest PSU tuition reduction is offered to districts or agencies who participate as cooperating placement sites for candidates based on the number of hours that are offered per term. For more information about the reduced fee privileges for cooperating professionals contact PSU’s field placement office at fieldplacement@pdx.edu.

It is strongly preferred that O&M Cooperating Professionals be certified as COMS by ACVREP and have a minimum of 3 years of experience as a practicing O&M Specialist. Every effort will be made for candidates to be placed with CPs who meet these qualifications through a coordinated effort between the O&M Program Coordinator and PSU’s Field Placement office. In cases where the candidate is working in a rural or remote area where there is limited access to O&M Specialists, certified O&M specialists with less than 3 years experience or uncertified individuals that have at least 5 years of professional experience as O&Ms, have completed O&M university training programs, and provide letters of recommendation will be considered to meet the needs of O&M candidates in rural or remote locations. The appropriate guidelines for Off-Site COMS Supervision will be followed according to ACVREP’s guidelines for ensuring candidates are supervised by COMS (see ACVREP’s COMS Certification Handbook: https://www.acvrep.org/certifications/coms). All CPs are supported by master’s-level University Supervisors, a master’s-level University Instructor, and a doctoral-level Program Coordinator at PSU, who are all COMS.  

Time Expectations

In general, if an O&M candidate is working full-time in another professional role, practicum placements are developed in partnership with O&M Cooperating Professionals based upon their caseloads, the service schedules, and the policies of the cooperating district or agency. An O&M candidate that is working full-time can plan to spend 8-10 hours per week on their practicum. O&M candidates who are placed at schools or agencies for the blind will often be able to earn more practicum hours and may take a higher credit load if they have received administrative permission to work on their practicum experiences.

The O&M Cooperating Professional: 

1. Welcomes the professional candidate to the school(s) or agency through introductions to students and colleagues, providing a desk or other personal workspace (including a space to secure valuables), providing information about procedures and policies, and sharing information about the culture within each setting;   

2. Sets up the practicum student’s schedule to maximize opportunities for him/her to learn to teach and fulfill Required Experiences for the O&M Candidate as listed in the Practicum at a Glance chart. Because the practicum covers 4 university quarters, one practicum site does not need to cover all components.   

• O&M Candidates need to work with a variety of students including, 1) a learner with visual impairments and additional disabilities (cortical visual impairment or CVI; deafblind or DB,); 2) an advanced traveler focusing on travel in a complex environment (e.g. roundabout, complex intersections) 3) students who use both visual and non-visual strategies for street crossings.

3. The O&M Cooperating Professional is supported by PSU to use proven coaching methods to support and augment the practicum student’s application of prior learning and implementation of new learning gained during the practicum. Feedback and self-reflection are the cornerstone of the O&M Candidate’s learning and progress. 

4. The O&M Cooperating Professional maintains open communication with the University Supervisor, reporting the Practicum student’s progress, including hours the student has logged in practice (template provided); and reporting concerns.

5. The O&M Cooperating Professional provides modeling, monitoring, coaching and as much feedback as is required and desired by the individual O&M Candidate through direct and indirect (reflection) methods, taking care to facilitate the O&M Candidate’s confidence and eventual independence. To support this intention, the following guidelines are recommended for role-releasing instruction of students to the O&M Candidate:

   • Give O&M Candidate access to historical and current records, including IEP/ IFSP/IWRP documentation per FERPA and onsite guidelines. Allow O&M Candidate to observe your lesson with the given student a minimum of 2 times before role releasing instruction.  

   • Prior to each lesson observed, discuss your lesson plan, the goals you are working toward, your method of data collection, your instructional strategies—especially why you chose to approach instruction in a particular way; safety supervision concerns and strategies. Post lesson, require O&M Candidate to reflect on how the lesson went, whether or not instructional objectives were met; student issues and performance, and how to report student progress. 

   • Provide proximal co-teaching or observation and monitoring of the practicum student’s lessons at least 3X before allowing O&M Candidate independent lessons with student. In some way, document the fact that you observed and monitored the O&M Candidate’s lesson with the student and determined that the practicum student had the skills to facilitate future lessons independently. 

     1. A template titled: Role Release Readiness Checklist is provided for this process and provides, to the best or our knowledge, a process that would protect the O&M Cooperating Professional from legal liability should the student get hurt while the O&M Candidate is in charge. This is not a legal document, but a best practice process. This is the same form the O&M Candidate will be encouraged to use if/when s/he uses a role release process in the future.

   • Review O&M Candidate’s lesson plan sequence for each student prior to instruction time. Provide feedback.

6. Planned Coaching Observations: A coaching observation is a mechanism that is initiated and crafted by the O&M Candidate based on his/her needs, preferences and desires. The O&M Cooperating Professional provides written feedback on the Observation-Coaching Session Form which includes 2 specific feedback topics beyond the feedback the O&M Candidate has requested. These are the 2 best things seen; and at least 1 stretching point. A minimum of 1 coaching observation is required after the O&M Candidate has taken full teaching responsibility for a student or client. The O&M Candidate submits the completed template to the course instructor in their Google Site ePortfolio.

   • Using the pre-planning portion of the Observation-Coaching Session Form, the O&M Candidate defines the goal of the coaching observation and the role of the O&M Cooperating Professional. Examples of goals include asking the O&M Cooperating Professional to:

1. • • Take data on a student behavior or practicum student effectiveness

     • Video record specific aspects of a lesson for ePortfolio

     • Confirm the appropriateness of an instructional strategy, process, and communication

     • Help problem solve an issue 

     • Share in the joy of a student’s increased learning

     • Observe, am I doing this right? What could I do different? Is there something I’m missing?

In addition to weekly observation and monitoring, formal and informal feedback and using an intentional role release process, the O&M Cooperating Professional:

1. Looks for opportunities to provide Additional Desired Experiences as listed in the Practicum at a Glance chart. This is a form in the Google Site workbook/ePortfolio.

2. Becomes familiar with the Distance Consultation Module the O&M Candidate will be responsible for completing and look for opportunities for them to use the strategies.

3. Communicates with the University Supervisor as needed if issues arise and on a schedule mutually agreed upon by the O&M Cooperating Professional and University Supervisor.

4. Provides opportunities for the O&M candidate to learn about all facets of the job as an O&M instructor including assessment, IEP development, consultation, ordering materials, using assistive technology etc.  The broader the experience, the more skills the O&M Candidate will be able to develop.

5. Facilitates opportunities to attend professional meetings, such as IEPs, with related service providers, parents, paraeducators, and general education teachers as often as possible.

6. Evaluates the O&M Candidate at the end of the university quarter using the provided reflection/evaluation templates by consulting with the university supervisor to reach consensus concerning the final evaluation of the O&M Candidate’s performance and grade. 

7. Writes a letter of recommendation (if appropriate) for the O&M Candidate’s ePortfolio.

8. Makes specific recommendations for practice, experiences or protocols the O&M Candidate should seek out in subsequent practicum placements.  For instance, if there was no opportunity to perform a monocular evaluation, that would be suggested for future placements.

9. Provides resources and suggests readings on topics related to the O&M Candidate’s needs and performance.

Recognition for Cooperating Professionals:

Practicum Hours Report Form

Students should submit this form when they have completed their 400 hours of practicum. This form allows us to calculate what benefit their mentoring professional has earned for their work with them. 

Mentor benefits are as follows: 

90 hours = 3 credit voucher 

200 hours = 3 credit voucher + $110 stipend

400 hours = 5 credit vouchers + $220 stipend 

Instructions for Mentoring Professionals/Cooperating Teachers on using their credit vouchers (aka reduced fee enrollment)

Mentors will, upon request, also receive formal letters from the Portland State University O&M Program Coordinator that documents their mentoring hours on official letterhead that they may use as documentation for ACVREP re-certification or other types of professional service documentation.