We, the students of the UNT Dallas School of Education feel our rights as students and future educators have been infringed upon by our institution.

We came to the school with the expectation of it being affordable and us being able to complete our program in a timely manner. However the last few years have been filled with misinformation that has cost us money as well as time we cannot get back. Requirements and expectations that we agreed to when entering this program have changed and we feel like we have been misled. One of our biggest concerns is the requirement of completing not only our representative exams before entering into our student teaching, but we are now having to complete the real exams prior to being allowed to move forward to student teaching. Mind you, this is not a requirement of TEA. What they do require is that within a year of working as an educator that certifications are completed. While they require students to go through an education program if they are not doing an alternative certification, they do not require that education program to force their students to take the practice exams, nor do they require them to force their students to complete the real exams before graduation, let alone before moving into student teaching. This requirement is costly, and with the institution frowning on students working during their clinical semesters of the education program, it makes completing these practice exams and real exams very difficult. We have an incredible amount of pressure on us just with coursework and observation placement, and feel that this requirement is not realistic or just. However, we understand that the institution cares a great deal about their image. They want to be able to show the amount of students who graduate as certified teachers from their program, which is understandable. We just do not believe that their image should have a negative impact on us financially or add undue pressure for us to complete these exams while still trying to maintain good grades, which in turn ends up having an impact on those grades. We might be understanding if we were allowed until the end of student teaching to have our representative exams completed. We might even be willing to understand if we had until the end of student teaching to complete our real exams. At least during that point we might have time to do so, however it is unrealistic to expect us to complete all of these requirements on top of our coursework. As far as the financial aspect of things is concerned, for our students, clinical one lasts anywhere between one to two semesters. During this time the education department has made it very clear that they do not want you working. Many of the students in this program are breadwinners of their household, they have children to support, mortgages to pay and more. Many of us have no choice but to still work during these semesters, although, for the most part there is no way that we are able to work full time due to class schedules and coursework. Therefore many of us are already going through financial hardship, which again brings me back to the cost of these exams, the time we have to take off of work to take them, as well as the gas for those that have to be taken on campus as many of us do not live close to the institution. To top it off, the school has decided they will no longer accept practice exam scores through a third party, which is something that was previously allowed when most of us began at this institution. No, we are forced to take their exams, which are not the cheapest or best alternative for its students. There are not enough available time slots, they have not been offered on the weekends until recently and that is only for a few of them. Even more egregious is the fact that one of the exams is missing part of many of the questions causing it to be confusing, and the students taking it are having difficulty passing. Forcing them to retake and pay for the exam again. If we were allowed to take the exams from the party of our choosing, the students would be be fine with that. Also, if these exam deadlines were pushed to the completion of student teaching, that would not only allow us more time and breathing room to focus on coursework, it would also allow many of us the opportunity to afford them. We are asking that the School of Education review their requirements and expectations of their students, have a heart and understanding, put yourself in our shoes. Instead of worrying about numbers, worry about the success of your students by giving them more options than you are currently giving them. We also ask that you work diligently to get all of your staff on the same page. All of us have suffered continuous misinformation over the years, where one staff member tells us one thing, another tells us another and so on to the point where we've lost so much time and oftentimes spent more money than needed because numerous people told us something different. We understand that you guys have been experiencing your own changes to the department, however that should not have negatively impacted us as much as it has. Whether it requires more training or meetings on your part, we don't care, we just need everyone to be on the same page and respond timely and efficiently to our questions. This is not to say that all staff members are inefficient, there are several staff members who respond quickly and with the right information, but that cannot be said for the whole. We the students are tired. We the students are overworked and not getting paid or allowed to work in the way we need to. We the students are confused about what is required of us. We the students want change, but most of all we just want to be allowed to graduate.