Diversity

The Ohio Northern University Center for Teacher Education endeavors to provide field experiences that include observation, practice, and evaluation of individual teaching skills. Each candidate in a licensure program will participate in field experiences in diverse settings.

The Ohio Northern University Center for Teacher Education has chosen to define diversity as:

The Ohio Northern University Center for Teacher Education endeavors to provide field experiences that include observation, practice, and evaluation of individual teaching skills. Each candidate in a licensure program will participate in field experiences in diverse settings.

The Ohio Northern University Center for Teacher Education has chosen to define diversity as:

"Differences among groups of people and individuals based on ethnicity, race, socio-economic status, gender, exceptionalities, language, religion, sexual orientation, and geographical area."

This definition was taken from Professional Standards for the Accreditation of Schools, Colleges, and Departments of Education [2002 Edition] published by the National Council for Accreditation of Teacher Education.

A Diversity Data Collection Form and online resources are used to collect raw data related to the diverse composition of the schools. Each school's raw data is converted to percentage of total enrollment for each category on the form. In the categories of racial diversity and cultural diversity, ten percent will be considered a diverse setting, although larger percentages are desirable.

All candidates will complete a minimum of three diverse experiences. The candidates are to complete the EDUC 115 Culture and Schooling course and EDUC 150 Five-Day Field Experience during their freshman year. This field experience component is to be completed in a diverse school setting. The second and third diverse experiences may be met through any of the additional field experiences.

Candidates completing field experience need to meet the following requirements for assurance of diverse experiences:

* One experience in a setting that includes students with exceptionalities. This is defined as

• A field placement in which the teacher candidate works with at least one student with a disability.

* One experience in a school that is at least 10% racially/ethnically diverse.
* One experience in a school that is otherwise culturally diverse, that is, at least 10% of students have differences that meet at least one of the following criteria of cultural diversity: differences among groups of people and individuals based on

• socioeconomic status
• gender
• language
• religion
• sexual orientation
• geographical area

The Director of Teacher Education will work with the Executive Education Placement Specialist to assure that all candidates are placed in the appropriate settings for the designated courses. The Executive Education Placement Specialist can help candidates identify schools which the department feels meet the qualifications for the above three areas of diversity.