Secondary Education Teacher Preparation - Teacher Education

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Substitute Teaching Policy

Approved by the Teacher Preparation APPC, 2/15/96  (Revised 10/7/97)

Because MSU's interns have earned bachelor's degrees and have completed 21 semester hours of professional education by the time they enter the internship, they are qualified to work as substitute teachers under Michigan's current administrative rules.  Appointing substitute teachers is the function and responsibility of school districts.

Substitute teaching can be consistent with interns' responsibilities and progress in the teacher preparation program, but only if certain conditions are met.  This policy states when MSU interns may work as substitute teachers without jeopardizing their standing in the program.  Questions regarding the policy should be directed first to the leaders of MSU's teacher preparation teams. Before any substitute teaching is approved, the Intern Substitute Teaching Report must be complete.

Interns are novices, and they face an elevated risk of mishaps in practice.  For the sole purpose of educating interns, MSU takes responsibility for such internship-related mishaps through its indemnification agreements with school districts. When school districts employ interns as substitute teachers, other purposes are served, and the school districts assume responsibility for the interns as their employees.

The internship requires good working relationships among the intern, the mentor teacher, MSU's field instructor and school liaison, and the principal of the school.  Protecting those relationships is a primary consideration in applying the following policy.

  1. The program for MSU interns is designed to occupy them fully during school hours from the first day that mentor teachers report to their schools at the beginning of their academic year to the last day of MSU's academic year.  That is the time frame to which this policy applies.

  2. There are times when a mentor teacher reasonably may decide to leave an intern alone in charge of students for one or two hours, either to provide the intern that experience or to do other work in the school. The intern should not expect pay on those occasions; they are not instances of substitute teaching.

  3. When a mentor teacher attends a meeting sponsored by MSU's teacher preparation program, the mentor teacher may leave the intern in charge of the mentor teacher's classes; such meetings are an integral element of the teacher preparation program and the liability for the intern's practice on these occasions is covered under MSU's indemnification agreements with school districts.

  4. An MSU intern may serve as a substitute teacher only for the mentor teacher with whom the intern is placed, and for a maximum of the equivalent of 15 days (i.e., 15 full days, 30 half days, or 90 one-hour periods) during the period defined in point 1, above, provided that the following conditions are met:

    • The intern judges that he or she is prepared to accept the responsibility of serving as a substitute teacher, and freely chooses to do so each time s/he is asked.

    • The mentor teacher determines that the interests of his or her pupils will be served.

    • MSU's field instructor and school liaison determine that the intern is making satisfactory progress in the internship, including the required coursework, and so should benefit from the experience.

    • The intern has been qualified and accepted as a substitute teacher in accordance with the school district's policies and procedures, and the district thus takes responsibility for the intern's practice when the intern works as a substitute teacher.

    • The substitute teaching does not interfere with the intern's attendance at the MSU courses in which s/he is enrolled or with completion of assigned work in or related to those courses.  Course instructors should not be asked to make exceptions to this condition; it is firm.

    • The mentor teacher's principal is informed in advance that the intern may or will serve as substitute.

  5. After an intern has been approved to substitute teach for the first time, that approval remains in force only if the conditions listed above continue to be met on each occasion that the intern substitute teaches.

  6. Interns are responsible for using the Intern Substitute Teaching Report to inform their teacher preparation teams.  Teams will define their procedures for routing and filing the Reports.