The 1960s
Early Experimentation with the Preparation of Teachers

Dean John Ivey, like Clifford Erickson, would enjoy a decade of growth that would permit him, with the support of President John Hannah, to add top-quality faculty in order to keep pace with the baby boom population. However, beyond the sheer growth in terms of students, another change was taking place in the college. The 1960s may well be remembered as the start of a period of intense experimentation in teacher preparation that remained an important characteristic of the college throughout the rest of the century.

That experimentation had a clear beginning in the form of the Student Teacher Experimental Program (step). In essence, step sought to tie teacher education more closely to communities through partnerships with junior colleges in rural areas. The program was initiated in an effort to alleviate the teacher shortage in rural areas, which, in the early 1960s, was about to become even more acute given the decision by the state Board of Education and the Michigan legislature to close all county normal schools by 1961. Only students who had successfully completed two years of junior college were eligible for the three-year program, which was funded by a $585,000 grant from the Ford Foundation. It marked the first major grant for the college.

Initiation involved a summer session at MSU “taking work primarily in liberal arts,” Noll wrote. Students then spent the following school year in the classroom in a community near the junior college they had attended. A “supervising teacher” guided the students’ work and slowly increased responsibilities so that in spring the “pre-interns” could teach full time. In addition to the work in the classroom, the students took courses in education in or near the community colleges. The courses were taught by College of Education faculty.

The second summer meant another session at MSU. At the end of that session, students were eligible for a provisional certificate. Students then began a two-year paid internship as classroom teachers. The “intern consultant” was an experienced and successful teacher who provided assistance and guidance. The new teachers also took a course each term taught by College of Education faculty in their communities.

The culminating experience was a third summer session at MSU after which the student “would receive a B.A. degree and an Elementary Provisional Certificate,” Noll wrote.

The program was different, demanding, and met a need.

As part of the program, the College of Education established two centers and appointed two full-time faculty members as resident coordinators at the locations.

The program began in 1960 with 18 students, and grew quickly. By 1963, there were 421 students in the program, and eight centers throughout the state.

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In 1968, when Noll wrote his history, he could write of step: “That the experiment was deemed a success is attested by the fact that it has been continued and has grown without outside financial support and that those who have worked in it from its beginning believe that it has great potential value for teacher education at all levels and in all areas.”

With step, the college had delved into the concept of internship, of moving beyond the traditional student teaching in favor of immersing prospective teachers in the culture and day-to-day experiences of the classroom. The lessons learned from step and the other alternative programs that came later would powerfully shape teacher preparation at MSU.

One of the goals was to institutionalize step within the College of Education, and have it thrive on its own without Ford Foundation funding. That became a reality when the foundation money ran out in 1964, and step essentially became the Elementary Intern Program (EIP).

EIP was the next logical step in experimenting with an internship. Although MSU was by no means the only university experimenting with the idea of internships at the time, the program developed at the college was becoming a national model. Professor Leland Dean, who had been instrumental in developing step and who would remain an ardent supporter of the teaching internship concept throughout his distinguished career, wrote in a 1960s report to the Ford Foundation that some institutions regarded the internship “simply as an alternative route toward state certification,” and in a few states “internship is merely a new label for full-time student teaching” or for “classifying all field and laboratory work not included in student teaching.” That was not the case at MSU.

EIP institutionalized step in the sense that it became available not only to those students who had completed two years at a junior college, but also to students who had completed their undergraduate work on campus. From 1964 onward and throughout much of the 1970s, elementary education students would have the option of the traditional student teaching or going through EIP.

When step evolved into EIP, some changes were made. Most notably, the internship requirement was reduced from two years to one. In the fourth year, the student intern was given responsibility for a classroom and was supervised by an intern consultant, the resident faculty member, and the school principal. The intern was paid a stipend of about $3,500.

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EIP flourished, peaking in the late 1960s and early 1970s. At its high point, EIP had more than eight centers in heavily populated areas like Grand Rapids and Macomb County and in rural locations such as Alpena and Bay City–Saginaw. In Ingham County, thirteen school districts were part of EIP. In terms of enrollment numbers, it was a viable alternative for students to traditional student teaching. By 1970, about 300 students a year were graduating from the program. “This represented about one-fourth of all students completing certification requirements for elementary school teaching at the time,” wrote Dean in his history.