Support services linked to private institutions over public and female directors over male: A statistical analysis of support services provided by colleges of education in America

This article reports the findings of an extensive United States-wide statis tical study on support services provided to student teachers in preservice and teacher education programs. In particular, the purpose of the study was two-fold: first, to explore and describe the extent to which support servi ces are provided to student/preservice teachers by offices of field placeme nt in universities and colleges of education in the United States. Second, to examine whether relationships exist between the extent of support servic es provided (an aggregate variable consisting of thirty-three support servi ces identified in a survey questionnaire) and four variables: extent/intens ity of early field experiences, gender of the director of field placement, size of institution, and institution type (public or private). The main res ults indicate private institutions provide more support services to student teachers than do public institutions. In addition, institutions with femal e directors of student placement/field experiences provide more support ser vices than institutions with male directors. Moreover, supplementary findin gs reveal significant differences between the mean provision of support ser vices and the hours required for early field experiences.