EPPC would appreciate your responding to this document (via email or email attachment) as you think appropriate by 5:00PM, Thursday, February 28th.
EPPC would like to have more information in support of what is stated in the VCAA’s proposal and in Dean Sheerer’s memo. EPPC would like to have more support for the claims made against the proposal in the document from the History faculty. (The Mathematics faculty did provide supporting evidence to address the issues they were asked to address by EPPC. Since there may be some additional issues in the following material that they want to relate to their existing material or address separately, they should review the issues raised below and respond as they see fit.)
Please provide supporting material for your response to the following where you believe it is appropriate for you to do so. This can be new material, a specific reference to something in material already provided, or merely an assertion that the answer and its supporting material are in the material already provided. (That is, you are not being asked to restate material already provided or even identify its location, just to affirm that it was provided in any case where this fits and this saves you time.) Some items in the following seem primarily addressed to one side on this issue. But you all are encouraged to respond as you find appropriate so that EPPC will have the best basis you can provide for its recommendation.
EPPC believes that the most important concern is “what is in the best interest of ECU’s students?” This ultimately is a concern with quality. This concern with quality can be expressed in a large variety of ways. Some of these are: What action will result in ECU’s students having the best education we can provide? What action best prepares ECU’s students to teach in the public schools? What action is best for the quality and growth of ECU’s education programs and for the development of new education programs? EPPC accepts that everything covered in the following bears directly or indirectly on our making a reasonable recommendation about what is in the best interest of our students.
EPPC would appreciate having information that supports your answers to the questions raised below. It is hoped that EPPC can get supporting material for answers to the general issues raised below, area by area. It is not expected that anyone attempt to provide an answer to each question in each area or to provide support for each such answer.
Questions involving NCATE Standards:
Standard 2. Assessment System and Unit Evaluation.
What is the School of Education’s involvement in assessment of education programs?
What department’s involvement in assessment of education programs?
Does the School of Education oversee modifications made by College departments in response to assessment outcomes?
Does the College department or School of Education keeps abreast of changes of assessment technology and in professional standards?
II. Unit Capacity, Standard 3. Field Experiences and Clinical Practice.
Are both the department and school-based faculty involved in designing, implementing and evaluating the School of Education’s conceptual framework(s) and the school program?
Do both the department and school-based faculty participate in the unit’s and the school partner’s professional development activities and instructional programs for candidates and for children?
In field experience, do degree candidates collect data on student learning, analyze them, reflect on their work, and develop strategies for improving learning?
Standard 6. Unit Governance and resources.
Does the School of Education provide leadership for effectively coordinating all programs at the institution designed to prepare education professionals to work in public schools?
Do education faculty collaborate with school practitioners in program design, delivery, and evaluation of the department and its program?
Is the School of Education recognized as a leader by educational faculty in College departments?
Does the School of Education provide professional development on effective teaching for education faculty in the College departments?
Do the department’s workload policies and practices permit and encourage faculty not only to be engaged in a wide range of professional activities, including teaching, scholarship, assessment, advisement, work in schools, and service, but also to professionally contribute on a community, state, regional or national basis? (The assumption is that since the School of Education is required ensure this for all education programs, education programs in College departments also are required to do this.)
Is the School of Education responsible for the quality of all school personnel prepared at the institution regardless of where the program is administratively located within the institution?
Since a large number of NCATE approved Schools of Education use programs housed outside Schools of Education, and since ECU is not proposing to move all education programs into its School of education, it is clear that ECU recognizes that none of the standards presented above require locating all of ECU’s education programs in the School of Education. This being the case, why does meeting these standards require ECU to move the programs in History, English Literature, and Mathematics?
As noted earlier, EPPC would appreciate having information that supports your answers to the questions raised here. In many cases in the materials already supplied to EPPC, the same general issue is raised is a number of different ways. These different ways of expressing a given concern are reflected in the following by locating each under its respective category. It is hoped that EPPC can get supporting material for answers to the general issues raised below category by category. It is not expected that anyone attempt to provide an answer to each question in each category or to provide support for each such answer.
Questions involving the current strength of and the strengthening of existing teacher education programs and the development of new programs.
1. Faculty knowledge of the actual demands on teachers in the public school classroom: What can be provided to support or to refute the view that faculty in the relevant secondary education programs in the college have no knowledge of public schools or of the actual classroom challenges facing new teachers? How well are College programs preparing students to teach in elementary schools in their graduate programs? How do College programs ensure that course content is connected with the challenges students face in the elementary classroom?
2. Program Quality: What is the quality of the programs currently housed in the college? How does this compare with programs currently housed in the School of Education?
3. Clinical Experience: Do College programs immerse students in the clinical setting in which they will eventually practice? How much clinical experience do College programs provide in the schools, and why is this enough? What is the range of developmental clinical experiences College programs provide for thier students? Does your program provide in-depth field experiences? Are College programs involved in proactive ways in in-depth clinical experiences in which content pedagogy becomes the explicit focus of the pre-service teacher’s experience? How close is each College program’s content connected with student’s clinical experiences, and why is this enough?
4. Recruitment, professional development, retention: How do College programs address the recruitment and retention of teachers (particularly, in our case, for rural schools in the region)? How do College programs address the continuing professional development of in-service teachers? What do College programs do about recruitment and retention of administrators? Do College programs program support lateral entry processes? Do College programs support the recruitment of minority teachers? How do College programs address the preparation and professional development of school administrators, counselors and other specialists? How did College programs score on the Higher Education Performance Report in the above areas?
5. Research: How do College programs address applied research on best practices for implementation in schools? Are College programs involved in proactive ways in applied research relative to school practices? How involved are the faculty in College programs in public school issues or in research that is designed to illuminate and improve the work of teachers in schools and schools themselves, and why is this enough? Is the research conducted in College programs primarily on the teaching and learning of the content area in higher education, rather than the content area that will be taught in the public schools?
6. Curriculum: Do classes in College programs focus on the application of knowledge in the school setting with the appropriate (of K-12) students? Do College programs 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? Do College secondary education programs provide students with a wide array of teaching strategies (in addition to a lecture format)? How and to what degree do College programs support alternative licensure programs in their secondary education programs? How is the use of technology involved in College programs? Do College programs work for the improvement of the public school work environment? What courses in College programs are available at night? What courses in College programs are available online? How do College programs score on the Higher Education Performance Report in the above areas, in comparison with programs in the School of Education? Will curriculum development be optimized if programs are moved to the School of Education? How would the move impact on the diversity and quality of courses that are offered in the College departments that currently house the programs?
Questions involving faculty roles, evaluation, rewards, and such.
7. Personnel Matters: Are procedures in place that give the dean of the School of Education input in hiring, reappointment, tenure and promotion of faculty in College programs? To what extent is the Dean of the School of Education involved in tenure decisions for all teacher education faculty in College programs? Are education faculty in College programs evaluated in terms of what they were hired to do, not relative to what non-education faculty in the same department are required to do, when these differ? Do evaluations of education faculty in College programs take into account work in public schools and applied research done in those settings? Has improvement been realized in education programs previously moved to the School of Education from the College?
Questions involving missions:
Mission: Is each College program’s primary mission to prepare professional educators who can meet the needs of students in public schools? Are College programs more involved with the mission of the department in which they are housed than with the above? To what extent does each College programs mission align with the School of Education’s mission? How well are education faculty and education programs integrated into each of the College department’s that currently house these programs. How well would these programs be integrated with School of Education departments if moved?
Questions involving School of Education Administrative Oversight of Education Programs:
General Administrative Oversight by the Dean of the School of Education: What role does the Dean of Education play in monitoring education programs in the College? Are procedures in place that allow the Dean of the School of Education to raise and resolve concerns with the faculty in education programs, such as the concern expressed in the Dean Sheerer’s memo about MATH 2127 and 2129? Do existing policies and procedures enhance communication and the resolution of perceived issues? What location best serves the overall administrative needs of each program?
Questions involving Growth, Program Development and Grants:
1. Program Growth and Development: Why will existing programs improve most if moved (or if not moved)? Why will moving existing programs enhance (or detract from) developing new programs? What is best for developing new doctorial programs? How will the move impact on the number of majors at the undergraduate and graduate levels?
2. Grants: Where are these programs most likely to generate the most grant dollars?
3. How will the move impact on the ability to maintain the needed number of highly qualified education faculty?
Questions about Collaboration:
What collaboration currently occurs between the education and the non-education faculty in each of the three College departments, and between both groups in a given department and the faculty and administration in the School of Education? How would the move change this? (The issue of collaboration with public schools is addressed in an earlier section, above.)
Other Questions:
1. How will the move impact on the quality and growth of the undergraduate and graduate programs remaining in the relevant College departments (English Literature, Mathematics and History)? How will the move impact on the development of new graduate programs in these departments?
2. Why are we not graduating more education majors in secondary education programs in the College departments? Would the School of Education graduate more majors?
3. Will a combined department of Mathematics and Science Education enhance the quality of mathematics education?
4. How will the move impact on the availability and use of necessary facilities (labs. Etc.)?
EPPC does not assume that the above is perfect. It is the best I can do in the time available. If you think something major is being overlooked, please let me know ASAP.
- George Bailey
- Chair
- EPPC
