MEMORANDUM
TO: EPPC Committee
FROM: Marilyn Sheerer, Dean
DATE: February 15, 2002
SUBJECT: Proposal to Move Secondary Programs to the School of Education
A thorough review of institutions of higher education that support the preparation of education professionals would reveal that no one model is prevalent. At some institutions, all teacher education programs are housed in schools or colleges of education; in others, they are all part of a liberal arts and sciences college, and a teacher licensure office has been created. As institutions have grown and changed over time, moving from regional to research universities, there have often been internal shifts of programs to accommodate and parallel these changes.
Here at East Carolina University, history documents the shift from a teacher training college to a multi-faceted university. This change created a separate College of Arts and Sciences and a number of professional schools. Consequently, the School of Education was formed, and a number of teacher education programs moved to this new unit. At the same time, other teacher education programs remained in specific departments.
From my perspective, one of the key questions to be asked with respect to the location of particular programs relates to the mission of the unit in which various programs are housed. Faculty in the School of Education are clear that their primary mission is to prepare professional educators who can meet the needs of K-12 students in public schools. In addition, we as professional educators are also asked to assist the schools in the continuing professional development of in-service teachers; the recruitment and retention of teachers (particularly, in our case, for rural schools in the region); applied research on best practices for implementation in schools; and the preparation and professional development of school administrators, counselors and other specialists.
Meeting the needs of K-12 students requires that we immerse our students in the clinical setting in which they will eventually practice. This model parallels that of medical education with its teaching hospital. Therefore, accreditation agencies like NCATE and the State Department of Public Instruction look closely at the range of developmental clinical experiences for our students. During on-site visits, students are
asked if their preparation programs provide these in-depth field experiences and whether their classes focus on the application of knowledge in the school setting with K-12 students.
At the same time, professional education programs are being held accountable in the state of North Carolina for the recruitment and retention of teachers and administrators. This means that program areas must look closely at ways they are working with public schools to support lateral entry processes, the recruitment of minority teachers, and the improvement of the work environment to support retention. On the Higher Education Performance Report, teacher education programs are scored on their work in these arenas.
With respect to research, the NC State Legislature and the State Board of Education have called for teacher education programs to address such issues as the minority achievement gap, English as a second language, the creation of alternative licensure programs, and on-line delivery for easy access. Again, on the Higher Education Performance Report, we are held accountable for our research and service in these areas.
As I review the emphasis of the secondary programs that are currently housed in the College of Arts and Sciences, it is my assessment that they do not meet the goals put before teacher preparation programs by accrediting agencies or the State of North Carolina. I do not see these programs involved in proactive ways in the recruitment and retention of teachers, applied research relative to school practices, or in-depth clinical experiences in which content pedagogy becomes the explicit focus of the pre-service teacher’s experience. Rather, I see these programs more involved with the mission of the department in which they are housed; and I don’t see these departments speaking clearly and forcefully on behalf of teacher education.
As Dean of Education, I receive a variety of student complaints throughout an academic year. I also review very carefully the student feedback forms that we receive relative to teacher education across the campus. The complaints have been rather consistent over time and attest to some of the points I have made above:
1) Students in secondary programs do not feel they have enough clinical experience in the schools; they do not feel that their preparation programs are closely connected to their clinical experiences.
2) Secondary students, particularly in math education, complain that they do not see their faculty involved in public school issues or in research that is designed to illuminate and improve the work of teachers in schools and schools themselves. Rather, the research conducted by math educators appears to focus on the teaching and learning of math in higher education. (Yet, I question what impact this research has actually had on the teaching of pure math courses.)
3) Elementary students have noted consistently (graduate feedback forms) that they are not prepared to teach math in elementary schools. They complain about the lack of connection between course content and the challenges they face in real classrooms. We have received a number of signed complaints about the quality of teaching these students feel they experience.
4) Students pursuing alternative licensure programs (a much-needed route for recruitment of teachers given the critical shortage in the State) feel inadequate support from the secondary programs.
5) Students often have difficulty finding courses available at night or on-line, particularly in math education.
We have also received input on our secondary programs from other sources. Superintendents from many different school systems, in a meeting with the former Chancellor and the Dean of Education, spoke to their concern about 1) the extremely low number of secondary students being graduated by our secondary programs each year; 2) the lack of a wide array of teaching strategies used by secondary graduates (most used a lecture format); and 3) the lack of demonstrated technology by graduates.
Shifting the secondary programs to the School of Education would insure, from my perspective, an alignment with the mission of teacher education at East Carolina University. It would also allow the Dean of Education, who is responsible for seeing that this mission is carried out, to better monitor the overall picture. When NCATE last visited the campus, for example, I was very concerned that I would not be able to explain why our secondary programs did not have embedded clinical experiences throughout their programs, a best practice according to our accrediting agencies. I was also concerned that I had no direct input into the hiring and retention of faculty. The question addressed to me was, “Are you involved in tenure decisions for all teacher education faculty on this campus?” Of course, my answer was “no.” The only informal avenue open to the Dean of Education is a chance to talk to faculty when they are brought to campus for a job interview. Yet, I am frequently put in the position, when I am visiting a school system for example, of defending why a particular professor in a secondary area is retained when that person from the school’s perspective has no knowledge of public schools or the challenges facing new teachers.
With respect to curriculum revision, I have been particularly concerned. As we have seen with SACS, it is very important to constantly review and monitor the quality of our programs. Two years ago, when I reviewed the data received from our teacher education graduates, I observed a very consistent complaint pattern regarding MATH 2127 and 2129. I compiled this data in a memo and sent it to the Math Ed Coordinator. His comment to me, upon receiving it, was, “Why do you always comment on the negative things about our program?” Obviously, I would have preferred a signal to join his faculty to review these complaints and discuss what revisions might be made.
Finally, I have also been concerned about tenure and promotion of teacher education faculty who reside in other units. Over the past four years, I have had at least 5 faculty come to see me about their anxiety in relation to this issue. One faculty member had just received notice that she did not receive a positive tenure vote; yet, from her perspective, she had met her goals as the department chair had defined them. Two others expressed frustration over their department not validating articles they had published in education journals. These faculty are professional education faculty, not content specialists. They should be reviewed for promotion and tenure according to guidelines in line with their terminal degrees – all in education. We indeed value publications in journals read by practitioners. Our faculty evaluation rubrics also reward work in public schools and applied research done in those settings. If teacher education faculty are evaluated according to Arts and Sciences criteria, they should be touting Ph.D’s in the content areas, and I suggest that they are not.
If the secondary programs are moved to the School of Education, I plan to create a new Department of Mathematics and Science Education to which will be attached the Center for Science, Math and Technology Education and Summer Ventures, a summer experience for talented high schools students in math and science. These entities together will create a unit that will be in a good position to pull down grant money, design new and better ways to work with schools systems, and conduct research in line with national agendas. I have just recently visited NC State where this model is operational, and I was impressed with the grant activity and research being conducted. Across the nation, there are many other examples of this kind of integration.
Please know that I am available to attend a meeting to further discuss the points I have made in this memo.
cc: Dr. Bob Thompson
Dr. Keats Sparrow
Dr. Parmalee Hawk
