Admission Retention & Exit Requirements

The chair will notify you in writing of one of the following levels of action for admission to Teacher Education.

• Full Admission: This will allow you to enroll in professional education courses.
• Provisional Admission (one semester): In this case, you may not have met one or more of the requirements for full admission to the program. If you're granted provisional admission, you may enroll in professional education courses. However, you only have one semester to meet all conditions for full admission. Failure to meet all admission requirements after the one term will result in dismissal from the program.
• Denied Admission: You are not admitted to the teacher education program and may not enroll in professional education courses.
• If you have twice been denied admission to the DSU Teacher Education program, you will not be allowed to reapply.

NOTE: The School of Education reserves the right to place a continuance on provisional admission for those students making progress toward the goal of overcoming deficiencies.

Following admission to Teacher Education, your good standing will be reviewed each semester by the Teacher Education Council. You may be placed on probation or removed from the program if you:

• Fail to exhibit professional behavior in all courses, field experiences, and interactions with peers and faculty.
• Violate the student code of conduct or criminal law.
• Earn a grade less than C in any course of the professional education sequence or major requirements.
• Allow your GPA to fall below 2.75.
• Display unsatisfactory knowledge, skills, and dispositions as determined by program faculty.

If you are placed on probation, you have one semester in which to rectify the condition resulting in probation. If the condition is not removed at the end of the probationary semester, you will be dismissed from the program.

You are permitted to retake only one major or professional education course while in the program.

Once admitted into the Teacher Education program, you must take at least one major course each fall and spring semester. If you fail to take a major course in more than one fall or spring semester without first notifying the SoE, you will be removed from the program and must reapply to be reinstated.

You can apply for readmission only once.

All education candidates must complete a full-time, 12-week student teaching experience. Completed applications for student teaching are due at the SoE office on the following dates:

Spring student teachers:

• Applications due Oct. 1

Fall student teachers:

• Applications due February 1

Admission requirements for Student Teaching include:

• 2.75 cumulative GPA.
• 2.75 GPA in major (for elementary education GPA calculations, the major is defined as all courses listed under the major except BIOL 111/111L).
• 2.50 GPA in minor (for those with double majors, one may be treated as a minor for GPA purposes). 
• Completion of all major and professional education courses with a C or better (or S for S/U courses) by end of application term.
• Recommendation by the Dean of your major.
• Students must take the appropriate Praxis II tests (both the “Principles of Learning and Teaching” and Content area test) for their major and report their scores to the School of Education office.  Students must pass the appropriate Praxis II tests to receive their ND teaching license.
• Proof of liability insurance.
• Fingerprint background check.
• Successful portfolio defense.

The Teacher Education Council (TEC) will make final decisions regarding admission to Student Teaching. In cases where the TEC must refuse you admission, assistance will be given for developing other career plans.

You can request up to three schools/districts in which to complete the student teaching experience; however, you are not guaranteed placement in your preferred sites. Factors included in the placement decision-making process include variation of your early field experiences, as well as the needs of the cooperating school/district. Additionally, you cannot complete your student teaching experience in the same high school from which you graduated nor with a cooperating teacher who was once your teacher in a K-12 setting. Under no circumstances should you attempt to secure your own placements. All arrangements for student teaching are handled through the director of field experiences.

You will be placed within an 80-mile radius of your base campus. If you wish to complete your student teaching beyond this radius, the following conditions must be met:

(1) you must have a 3.0 cumulative and content-specific GPA;
(2) you must have the recommendation from both a Teacher Education faculty member and, if secondary, a content area faculty member; and
(3) approval from the SoE chair.

If the conditions have been met, the director of field experiences will attempt to secure an out-of-area placement. Such placements incur additional fees for university supervisor travel and/or contract payment. Depending on the distance from campus, the chair may assign a DSU faculty member to serve as university supervisor. In those cases, you are responsible for paying additional travel expenses beyond the 80-mile radius. In cases where a DSU faculty member cannot serve as university supervisor, a supervisor closer to the placement site will need to be hired. You will be responsible for paying the full supervision fee, which varies regionally within the range of $350 to $3000. Fees associated with out-of-area placements will be added to your DSU bill for the student teaching term.

Candidates who earn an S (satisfactory) grade for student teaching and have completed all program requirements may successfully exit the program. You cannot successfully complete student teaching without having completed all required assignments as detailed in the Student Teaching Handbook. Additionally, the Unit Plan and Impact on Student Learning project must be completed with a score of proficient (3) or better on each criterion; otherwise, you will need to revise and resubmit. You must score at emergent (2) or above (with no more than three emergent scores) on all criteria in the final evaluation rubric.

If you successfully complete all the requirements of the Teacher Education program, you will be recommended to ESPB for initial teacher licensure in the state of North Dakota by the chair of the Department of Education. If you are interested in becoming licensed/certified in another state, you should contact that state’s Department of Education to determine guidelines for reciprocity.

All initial licenses shall be valid for two consecutive years. Teachers may apply for a five-year license after having completed a total of 18 months of successful teaching in North Dakota on a valid North Dakota license.

You may appeal decisions made about your admission, retention, or exit of the Teacher Education program. To request an appeal from the School of Education (SoE) dean, you must, within 10 business days, write a letter explaining the desired outcome and providing a solid rationale for a revised decision. The SoE dean will send written notification of the appeal decision to you and to the Teacher Education Council.

If you are not satisfied with the decision of the dean, you may appeal to the provost in writing within 10 business days of the dean’s decision. The provost will provide a response within 10 business days. The provost is the last level of appeal, and this decision is final.