Teacher Certification Information and Education Advisement

Office of Student Services

Office: E259 Thompson Hall

(716) 673-4768

Diane Sercu, Coordinator

The Office of Student Services provides undergraduate academic student services for the College of Education. This office strives to offer a user-friendly, all-purpose student response structure that guides Fredonia's New York State Certification candidates along the path to becoming responsive, well-rounded, and marketable educators.

For more information on the Office of Student Services, please see their web page at http://home.fredonia.edu/coe/student-services.

Certification Information (based on New York State Department of Education requirements)

Requirements for All Certification Programs

Candidates in the College of Education - Professional Education Unit are regularly monitored and evaluated throughout the program via program-specific Assessment Models. The Assessment Models present an organized series of performance based checkpoints, or transition points, that document candidates' competencies and positive impact on learners. Specific requirements, deadlines, and minimal satisfactory performance levels (including grade point average requirements) are detailed in the models. All candidates should obtain a copy of the appropriate Assessment Model from an academic advisor and become familiar with the requirements established therein.

NOTE: Candidates transferring into a certification program (both internally and externally) must pass through each of the aforementioned transition points regardless of the candidate's academic standing at the time of transfer.

Professional Dispositions for All Certification Programs

Candidates in professional education are expected to demonstrate a set of values and attitudes consistent with the highest professional standards. These values and attitudes must be demonstrated in concrete ways in candidates' interactions with members of the faculty, school personnel, and with students. Information regarding the professional dispositions is available from academic advisors from the College of Education Office of Student Services, and online, through the College of Education website. Inappropriate behavior may warrant remediation, probation, or dismissal from the program.

Special Requirements for All Certification Programs

In light of the statutory requirements found in the Commissioner's Regulations subdivision 52.21(b), ALL candidates for New York State certification must complete required training in Child Abuse Detection and Reporting; Abduction Prevention; Alcohol, Tobacco and Drug Abuse Prevention; Fire Safety; Schools Against Violence in Education (SAVE); and Dignity for All Students Act (DASA) legislation. In the College of Education, candidates participate in a series of two 1-credit-hour courses (EDU 303 and EDU 304) to fulfill these New York State requirements. In addition, New York State legislation effective July 1, 2001, requires that all applicants for initial certification and all new school employees be cleared through FBI fingerprinting and criminal background check. The candidate incurs the costs for the fingerprinting and the background check. Current forms and regulations are available at http://www.highered.nysed.gov/tcert/. Candidates for Initial teacher certification on or after May 1, 2014 must successfully complete the following New York State Teacher Certification Examinations: the Academic Literacy Skills Test (ALST), the Educating All Students Test (EAS), the appropriate Content Area Specialty Test for the area of certification, and the Education Teacher Performance Assessment (edTPA) for the area of certification. These certification exams must be completed successfully in order to obtain New York State certification. Further information on New York State Teacher Examinations is available at http://www.nystce.nesinc.com and at http://www.edtpa.com.

Foreign Language requirement

Candidates in all education programs are required to demonstrate competence in a foreign language. Proficiency requirement met by the following:

Fredonia Placement Exam determination of Fredonia Foundations courses 100 and
110 in the same World Language or course 110 (or higher) in World Language.
Proficiency may also be fulfilled by qualifying AP, IB, CLEP Exam scores or
transferred courses of Elem I and Elem II of same language, as verified by
Registrar’s Office.

The General Education foreign language requirement differs from the certification requirement and must be satisfied for degree conferral.