Initial Teacher Education

Diversity in Field Placements

To help ensure that all candidates have diverse field experiences, each candidate’s previous placements are considered when making placement decisions. The Office of Field and Clinical Experiences staff consider students’ placement requests and school demographic data using the database system which is maintained by the Office of Field and Clinical Experiences. The database shows field and clinical placements for all candidates as they progress through the program. This placement procedure ensures that during their program of studies, candidates complete field assignments in different settings working with populations that represent different kinds of diversity including cultural, economic, ethnic, linguistic, and special needs.

Placement Policy

These guidelines have been developed to provide students with diverse field experiences.

1. Students will provide three choices of schools to which they would like to complete their observation/practicum experiences. Once students have completed the request for field placement and uploaded all required documents to Foliotek, the Office of Field and Clinical Experiences will process the requests by sending out the requests in order of students’ choice to the appropriate school personnel.
2. Students must complete ALL observation/practicum hours in order to earn a passing grade (C or better) in EDU courses that require a field component. This is to ensure that students meet DESE field experience hour requirements.
3. The initial field placement for all programs is EDU 11100 School Observation / EDU 11110 Orientation to the Educational Experience with Field Experience or EDU 50000 Foundations of K-12 Education (MAT). This field experience includes 30 hours of observation, per DESE requirements, and does not include a teaching component. The school must be one included on the school list.
4. The field placement for EDU 380000 Pre-Student Teaching Practicum / EDU 34310/EDU 34410 Differentiation and Classroom Management and EDU 54310/EDU 54410 Differentiation and Classroom Management is a 45 hour practicum, per DESE requirements, and includes a teaching component.
5. The following rules will apply for placements in the program.
6. Students may not be placed in the same school or district for EDU 11100/EDU 11110 and EDU 380000/EDU 34310/EDU 34410 (EDU 50000 and EDU 54310/54410 for MAT.)
7. Students may not be placed in the same school for EDU 38000/EDU 34310/EDU 34410/EDU 54310/EDU 54410 and student teaching. They may be placed in the same district, but not the same school.
8. At least one placement for each student (EDU 11100/EDU 11110/EDU 38000/EDU 34310/EDU 34410/EDU 50000/EDU 54310/EDU 54410) must be in a public school setting.
9. Every effort will be made to vary student placements among different grade levels that are appropriate for their content areas.
10. Requests for any exceptions to any or all of the above should be submitted in writing on the Appeal to Field Placement Policy form to the Director of Field and Clinical Experiences and are subject to approval by the Field Experience Review Committee.

All applications for field placement and student teaching must be completed and submitted through Foliotek. No experiences may begin until confirmation from the Office of Field and Clinical Experiences is received.

Placement Process

1. The Office of Field and Clinical Experiences staff will request placement for the student through the school representative. This representative will send the request to the chosen school administration and subsequently to the requested teacher (if designated). The request will either be accepted or denied. This information is submitted back to the school administration and then back to Lindenwood University. The Office of Field and Clinical Experiences staff will try his/her best to place the student in the indicated field and location of choice; however, due to circumstances beyond his/her control, this is sometimes not possible.  If the request is denied, the staff member will send a request out to the next choice of schools made by the student.
2. Once the placement has been arranged, the Office of Field and Clinical staff will send a confirmation email with the placement assignment to the student. For observation/practicum, the staff member will also send a copy of observation/practicum requirements for both host teachers and students to the host teacher.
3. Upon receiving the placement assignment confirmation, the student is then ready to begin the observation/practicum/student teaching.  At this time, he/she should contact his/her assigned teacher to set up the initial meeting. Students may NOT begin field placement until notified by the Office of Field and Clinical Experiences.
4. Students should take a copy of their TB results and FCSR results with them during the first observation/field experience to give to the appropriate school personnel.

Field Placement Request Documentation

The following is a list of the documentation that must be included in each field placement request through Foliotek.

1. Request for Student Field Placement
2. Family Care Safety Registry (background check results)*
3. TB test results*
4. Confidentiality Agreement
5. Travel Waiver
6. COVID Waiver

* Expires after one year and must be valid for the entire semester in which the field experience will be completed.

Student Teaching Application Documentation

A list of the documentation and components required for the student teaching application can be found on the student teaching application process page.

• Student Teaching Application Process
• Student Teacher as Teacher of Record

Additional information about field experiences in initial teacher education can be found in the Initial Teacher Education Field Experience handbook.

Advanced Teacher Education Field Experiences

Students in Advanced Teacher Education programs (MA in Special Reading, MA in Gifted Education, MA in Educational Technology, MA in Early Interventions) must purchase Foliotek. 

Field Placement Request Documentation

The following is a list of the documentation that must be included in each field placement request through Foliotek.

1. Request for Student Field Placement
2. Family Care Safety Registry (background check results)*
3. TB test results*
4. Confidentiality Agreement
5. Travel Waiver
6. COVID Waiver

* Expires after one year and must be valid for the entire semester in which the field experience will be completed.

Placement Process

The placement process is the same as the process for initial teacher education programs.