MU/MPER Teacher Release Program

MU/MPER Teacher Release Program

Program Description

The MU/MPER Teacher Release Program provides teachers in Partner Districts/Schools with the assurance that when they are out of the classroom working on professional development activities, their students will be working with someone who can provide quality educational experiences. Selected MU education majors and eligible community college education majors from Moberly Area Community College and State Fair Community College are each paired with a teacher in a partner school. The student participant spends the first scheduled release day learning about the classroom, the teacher's instructional models and plans, and the classroom management plan. Then the student participant takes over the partner teacher's classroom for all or part of the day in scheduled weeks to follow (2-7) while the teacher participates in professional development and other work. The student participant returns to the partner teacher's classroom on the same day for approximately two to seven weeks after the "orientation" week.

Student participants are paid a stipend of $80 for their participation in the program. The school or district can apply to MPER for full or partial assistance with the stipends (see application form).

Student participants selected for the program complete a screening process through the MPER office. Each student submits an application, brief resume with references, and DESE profile page showing substitute certificate issuance. Student participants with at least 60 college credit hours go through the Identix FBI fingerprinting process and apply for a substitute certificate through DESE's web application process.


Application Process

Partner Schools or Districts must submit an electronic application form requesting participation in the MU/MPER Teacher Release Program.

In order to provide the Teacher Release Program student participants with a variety of experiences, priority for placement will be as follows:

  • Schools who do not participate in one semester will have priority in the next semester;
  • Schools in Tier III, then Tier II, then Tier I;
  • Schools who are not participating in Senior Year On-Site Program (SYOSP) or Teaching Fellowship Program
 

 

Application Instructions

  1. In order to provide teacher release for as many schools/districts as possible, your request should not exceed 8 student participants for any one day.
  2. You must request the same day of the week each time because student participants typically have only 1 full or half day per week that they do not have MU classes scheduled. For example, some student participants have every Tuesday free while others have every Friday free. It varies from student to student ,and we match these with your requests.
  3. Student participants are available on the following basis:

Fall Semester - after late September with experiences ending by the 2nd week of December. (MU students have the entire week of Thanksgiving off for break)

Spring Semester - after the 1st week of February with experiences ending by the 1st week of May (MU students have off during Spring Break which occurs closer to the end of March) The scheduled weeks do not have to be consecutive weeks. Weeks that are not consecutive are preferred for placing more students in multiple schools.

  1. Make sure that you have not requested student participants for days that your school is not in session (i.e., President's holiday, parent-teacher conference days, make-up snow days). In the event of unplanned school cancellations (i.e., snow day), we will work with you to re-schedule the day.
  2. NEW SCHOOL REQUIREMENT IF APPROVED TO PARTICIPATE.                        
    Time Verification by Building: The University has implemented a new time module for paying MU employees. Because of this new process, more documentation is required from the participating buildings. At the end of each scheduled release day, the building administrator (or designee) must send an email to     MPER@missouri.edu listing the names of each participant who showed up for the day as well as if each participant stayed for a full-day or a half-day. Participants can not be paid unless the MPER office has received the TIme Verification email.
  3. We will send your involved teachers a follow-up evaluation to compete on the students.
  4. Special note for schools/districts beyond a 60 mile radius of Columbia: students will be available for the release program from approximately 10:30 a.m. on. They must be allowed some travel time and cannot be expected to report to a school several hours away from Columbia by 8:00 a.m. Stipend rates of $80 per day still apply.

Application Due Dates:

For Fall Semester, applications must be e-mailed by September 1st.
For Spring Semester, applications must be e-mailed by December 1st.

You can download:

MPER Teacher Release School Application Form in 'doc' format

Teacher Release Timeline for Community Colleges in 'doc' format


MU Student Teacher Release Application form in 'doc' format
Step-by-Step Substitute Teaching Application Process in 'pdf' format
Community College Student Teacher Release Application form in 'doc' format