Cooperating Teacher Orientation

Guidelines for the Cooperating Teacher

  1. Provide guidance and support as the teacher candidate progresses through the student teaching experience and completes the required MoPTA (Missouri Pre-Service Teacher Assessment) state assessment.
  2. Serve as a professional role model and mentor by demonstrating best teaching practices while allowing the teacher candidate to experience the teaching profession in a real-world setting.
  3. Participate in a collaborative partnership with the university supervisor and the teacher candidate.
  4. Provide continuous evaluation of the teacher candidate’s progress through planned conferences, weekly evaluations, and final evaluation. A formative and summative evaluation of the teacher candidate will be completed using the Missouri Educator Evaluation System (MEES) forms.
  5. Provide a carefully directed student teaching experience based on the unique abilities of the teacher candidate. Conditions for success must be built into the experience.

Please take approximately thirty minutes to view the DESE MEES training video and the MoPTA overview in the links below. This information will provide valuable content for ensuring a successful experience with your teacher candidate and will assist in the understanding of the DESE MEES evaluation forms and the required state assessment (MoPTA).

On behalf of the College of Education, we would like to thank you for sharing your teaching skills, strategies, and techniques with our students by serving as a cooperating teacher. You provide an invaluable service to us, to the teacher candidate and to the profession. It is the hope of MSU that the cooperating teacher and the teacher candidate have a mutually beneficial and rewarding experience.

Review the DESE Missouri Educator Evaluation System (MEES) training video for cooperating teachers.

Learn more about the Missouri Pre-Service Teacher Assessment(MoPTA) – this is an extensive assessment containing 4 Tasks which the teacher candidate must complete during student teaching and is required for certification. Review additional MoPTA information.