Office of Field Experience

School Districts for Student Teaching

There are forty school districts student teachers can choose from for their field experience placements.  The following is a list of all school districts that are currently members of the Sam Houston Innovative Partnerships with Schools (SHIPS):

Interactive Map of all the Districts

* requires TB test for student teachers (TB policy verified August 2006)

You will choose FOUR school districts where you are willing and able to student teach. There are many more requests for Huntsville, Bryan, and College Station than there are placements available. All four districts that you choose are equally considered and equally likely to be your placement.  In other words, the Office of Field Experience does not consider first, second, third, or fourth choice of districts.  After all applications are submitted, they are forwarded to the school districts.  The school district personnel place as many student teachers as they can accommodate, based on various factors including such as teaching fields, campus proximity, and their pool of qualified Classroom Mentor Teachers. Unless a placement would prevent a student from being certified, the Office of Field Experience is reluctant to request a placement change once the applications have been forwarded to the school districts.

The placement of student teachers is a lengthy process that is subject to change due to district and OFE needs. Students may check the progress of their placement at the Student Teaching Assignment web-page after the job fair in the middle of the semester (see the F.E. Calendar). Students can initially access information about which school district they will be placed in, but may not know the specific campus, Classroom Mentor Teacher, or University Supervisor assigned to them until the beginning of the semester.  It takes a great deal of planning and coordination for these schools to place each student teacher with two separate Classroom Mentor Teachers. The Sam Houston Innovative Partnerships with Schools (SHIPS) typically coordinates well over 1,000 student teachers and Classroom Mentor Teachers every year. Student teachers are asked not to request changes to their placements after submitting their applications