The early field experience, referred to as the Teaching Assistantship program, is designed to place math and science students into classrooms while still at the undergraduate level. There are two major goals of this early placement. The first goal is to provide comprehensive and realistic training so that these future secondary math and science teachers are prepared to fully assume the responsibilities of either a teaching internship or student teaching position. The second goal is to prevent early resignation from the teaching profession by providing comprehensive and realistic training as they assume their full responsibilities as a secondary math or science teacher. All FCEPT undergraduate students are required to participate in this program and are placed in science or math classrooms. This a structured program sponsored by the Fresno Unified School District. Our Mentor Teachers have been selected by the Fresno Unified School District Science and Math office to facilitate this experience for our students. Our presentation will focus on the student?s placement process, classroom experiences, workshops, clinical interviews, mini-conferences, and Mentor Teacher meetings. We will also focus on data that has been collected from students pertaining to their knowledge of key elements, such as standards (national, state, district, and content) pedagogy, curriculum, learning environment, assessment, equity and a representation of the philosophy of teaching that our students hold.