2007-08 Teacher Education Committee Minutes

October 16, 2007 - Minutes

Present:

• Jim Carlson, Teacher Education Committee Chair, Division of Humanities – Music
• Xiaosheng Li, Division of Math & Science –Math
• Katherine Benson, Division of Social Science – Psychology
• Huck Brock – Student
• Gwen Rudney, Division of Education – Acting Division Chair and Elementary Education, ex-officio
• Jana Koehler, Division of Education – Executive Office & Administrative Specialist

Not Present:

• Heather Pennie, Division of Education – Wellness & Sport Science

Roster Listing had Kristin Bennett and Christopher Merrigan as student representatives.

Teacher Education Committee Function - Adjunct committee of Curriculum Committee & Bylaws state:

Membership
The Teacher Education Committee consists of seven members, including four faculty members, with representation from each division, two students, and the chair of the Division of Education or representative, who serves ex officio and without vote.

Duties and Responsibilities
The Teacher Education Committee reviews the teacher education programs. The Division of Education consults with the Teacher Education Committee as a means of assisting that division in its task of keeping programs current with respect to the needs of elementary and secondary students and licensure requirements.

Overview of UMM Education Programs

• Teacher Ed programs are accredited both at the state and national level.
• ElEd students receive their license for K-6 and a specialty level (math, communication arts & literature, social studies, science, and world languages) and SeEd offers 14 licensure areas but German is phasing out as the placements in schools are not available.
• State Accreditation is done with the Minnesota Department of Education’s Board of Teaching and Professional Education Program Evaluation Report (PEPER).  This involved participation from our colleagues across campus. Michelle Page led this process. The documents were submitted October 1st so we are in the review stage.  Part two will come next Fall for a joint site visit with NCATE.
• National Accreditation is completed with National Council for Accreditation of Teacher Education (NCATE).  There are six unit standards that we will be addressing and the site visit is next Fall in November.  We gather the data in preparation for the visit, our last visit was in 2001 and during that time it was semester conversion and the state replaced the licensure laws.  We have been collecting data for all of these years but they only want the last 2 or 3 years.  We used to go through this process every 5 years and now they are on a 7 year cycle.  If you don’t pass then you have to do certain things.
• Questions and Concerns: Jim is glad that we are in a better place this time with NCATE. 
  We need minutes of meetings to show that we have met and have discussed teacher education issues. Kathy asked about state requirements – they are online and they are enforced thru legislation. NCATE has done an exceptional job alerting institutions as to what we need to do. This is very political and the state can make changes at any point. Students have to pass Praxis I – reading, writing, and math. This requirement has been around for a long time.  They have changed the cutoff scores in the past and some have passed with one requirement and not the other so the license is not granted.  Our students also have to pass Praxis II – pedagogical test and content test in their subject matter.
• New Initiatives: We center our work around getting better, taking what we do well and doing even better. Gwen and Carol met colleagues from Chicago State and they are working on a project with them as we work with Chicago quite frequently.  Our students will meet with their students this fall and they have a team of students coming this spring to work in a rural setting. Pam Solvie has done a lot of work with TREC and has started a branch in Willmar. Our first Teacher Education Alumni Conference was held this fall over Homecoming.  We had a great speaker and alumni presented to our students. SeEd will be conducting a search for a new colleague to replace Craig Kissock, hoping to have candidates come in February.
• Teacher Education Advisory Council Meeting:  This is the council that the accrediting agencies are looking for that include our school based colleagues (superintendents, principals, and cooperating teachers) and this committee is invited as well.  We are looking at the last week in November or the first week in December.  We might focus the topic on our students’ analysis of student learning assessment (shows what our students know, think, and do with our data).  We will forward the details to you when we have them worked out.

Discuss Committee Plans for the Year

• Attending the Teacher Education Advisory Council that will be held in November or December.
• Gwen suggested meeting once a month or every 6 weeks just to provide an update and keep prepared for our visit.  Under the new constitution this committee is not present.  The kind of committee that is needed for the duties and responsibilities can not be done with this committee as we need our school based people but we would like to include campus people so we can show what we have done so far.
• Another initiative is a new building as we have inadequate facilities.  We need to be updated and would like demonstration classrooms.  Gwen has drawn a sketch of how she would like to see it.  They are working on Community Services, Green Dorm, and then Blakely (which according to Gwen “has Education written all over it”).  The plan includes two demonstration classrooms (early elementary and older elementary) and a third can include content and these would have an observation window and it also includes a curriculum library (all in one place) with a lab.
• Next meeting would be November 13th:
  Jim would like to look at the data (Praxis results) and the escalation of hourly involvement with education programs over the years and where does it end (example would be student teaching would be one quarter and now it is one semester. Teacher education requires that students are gone from other academic options for an entire year. Now adding teacher education may require 5 years for secondary candidates. Is this trend going to continue? There is a paper trail of what used to be required of students and what it is now – 150 hours in the fall).
  State accreditation requirements - short brief description of what is being worked on.
  Special education and how it is incorporated into our programs.  Our students don’t have any required time in a special ed classroom but they take a course on special ed.  We don’t have a special ed program here but we make a strong case on how to work in a classroom that includes special ed students. According to Huck, research shows that most teachers aren’t prepared to work with special ed kids.
  A special ed program would require two new faculty, and we would have to have placements for this as well.  Other areas of interest include a high need for reading specialists and English language learners.  We are always seeking to improve, and we are always learning.
• Another meeting this fall would be the Teacher Education Advisory Council meeting in Nov. or Dec.

Next Meeting – November 13, 2007 from 8:30 – 9:30 am in Ed 211
Prepared By ~ Jana Koehler

November 13, 2007 - Minutes

Present: Jim Carlson, Xiaosheng Li, Huck Brock, Christopher Merrigan, Gwen Rudney

NCATE Unit Standards

• Gwen explained the unit standards along with a handout.
• Conceptual Framework:  The UMM Teacher Ed conceptual framework is immersed in the liberal arts. It is a living document. We changed the language. We need to match what we say with what we do. Our students focus on praxis—the joining of theory and practice. Student learning is the heart of our program.
• Standards 1 and 2 are candidate performance. The assessment piece is really huge. UMM collects and uses a lot of data.
• Standards 3-6 refer to unit capacity. Unit refers to teacher education.
• Standard 3 Field Experience and Clinical Practice: We consider student teaching to be clinical practice.
• Standard 4 Diversity:  This includes cooperating teachers with different backgrounds and also UMM diversity. In ElEd the students are mostly white women. Education program lags behind UMM data regarding diversity (about 10% students of color in programs currently). We have a new affiliation with Chicago State University. All ElEd students spent a week in Chicago schools.
• Standard 5 Faculty: How well do we do?
• Standard 6 Governance: We lag with the building aspect. The Ed building is not accessible. Faculty should have teaching lab.
• The NCATE report which is due early fall is limited to 100 pages.

Assessment Report

• Students take Praxis II, the licensure exam. PLT (Principles of Learning and Teaching) pass rate is 100%. State pass rate is 98%. Subject area pass rates vary.  Spanish and Social Studies area tests produce lower scores from students.

Next Meeting – Spring Semester 2008
Prepared By ~ Jim Carlson and Gwen Rudney

April 7, 2008 - Minutes

Present: Jim Carlson, Katherine Benson, Christopher Merrigan, Xiaosheng Li, Judy Kuechle
Not Present: Heather Pennie

Updates

• November 13 approval of minutes:  Motion was made by Kathy Benson and seconded by Chris Merrigan to approve the November 13th minutes.  All were in favor.
• Jim received an email from the Faculty Development Committee asking for suggestions for the Fall 2008 Faculty Retreat.  Several topic ideas were discussed (Jana will forward to Linda Pederson in the Faculty Center):
  National recognition for excellence in academic programs could be achieved through external review or accreditations.  Consideration of reviews for all majors or programs.
  Technology driven information would be helpful.  Graduation Planner and how it can be used when advising would be beneficial for both new and current faculty.  NetFiles and the benefits and disadvantages of using this option could be discussed.
  Teaching courses to the textbook during class time instead of supplemental materials.  Some faculty may think that teaching to the textbook is inefficient.  Student evaluations of faculty may vary depending on if they are teaching the textbook or lecturing on additional information.  If faculty salary is dependent on student evaluations then faculty would focus on what the student wants.
  It appears that our culture is switching from print to visual media.  The ways that students learn and the way that faculty teach may be switching.  To what extent do we want to preserve the print media?  Can the visual media substitute for print media?  What’s the place of print in a media culture?  What print is essential?  The experience of language is unique in itself and you more than likely miss it in a movie.  Are people losing the creativity or the interpretation? 
• Teacher Education Committee update regarding the constitution.  Recommendation is to remove the Teacher Education Committee from the Constitution.  This committee was necessary for the teacher education program in earlier years, but focus and evaluation of teacher preparation has changed.  A new committee, composed of students, faculty, area teachers and school administrators has been formed to inform, advise and evaluate teacher preparation at this institution.

NCATE and BOT Update

• BOT – Minnesota Board of Teaching enacts laws that have been put into place by our legislature.  Every seven years the content of our licensure areas is reviewed.  We have provided documentation to support how we meet all standards in each licensure area.  This is an extensive external process with documents currently under review.  Two reviews, General Science and Communication Arts and Literature (CAL), have been returned.  Most standards in 5-8 General Science were met with the exception of standards relating to the solar system, stars and planets.  Teacher Ed passed an astronomy type course (Phys 1052 or 1053) requirement for the General Science license.  We have responded to any weakness cited in General Science.  The CAL review has only been recently reviewed and some standards will need further explanation.  Speech has made a few course changes which means teacher preparation and license area changes as well.  By fall all of our programs will be approved so we will be able to focus on the BOT and NCATE review. 
• NCATE – will be completing a review of the teacher preparation programs from November 15-19.  This is a very rigorous review entailing reading documents, interviewing people, and writing a document of findings.  NCATE will recommend reaccreditation on the conclusion of a positive visit and review. We have had continuous accreditation since the start of UMM and fully expect to meet all standards for accreditation next fall..  Some institutions choose not to be nationally accredited and some are put on probationary accreditation if they do not meet standards.
• Education Division is currently working on the budget for our fall accreditation visit.  UMM covers cost of the NCATE visitors but not the BOT.  NCATE is a separate entity associated with AACTE.

Other

• Teacher Education Update:
  State legislature passes laws and regulations that govern teacher ed.  Recently reading and methods of teaching reading have been criticized by a group of parents who felt that teachers are not properly trained to teach reading.  A parent group proposed the addition of another test for reading, which would have required changes in both ElEd and SeEd programs.  Teacher educators lobbied against adding another exam.  At this point the proposed bill includes reading in the PRAXIS exam. 
  RTI – Response to Intervention, mainly associated with reading and special education, assists all learners to gain competence.  Math is also now being incorporated and behavior is linked to the program as well.  The school district and special ed coop have asked UMM to partner with them on RTI for intervention with k-12 students who are not progressing academically.
  TREC program has also expanded and we currently have a Morris and Willmar program in place.  Morris program runs during the school year and the Willmar program for a short period during the summer.  We would like to expand to other geographical areas if funding were available.
• Other:  Question regarding BOT and NCATE technology requirements for instruction and teacher preparation.  Some of our students come back from field experiences and are amazed that some schools have very little technology and some have it all.  We have technology standards in teacher education.  The state currently lists the tech standards within communication.  There are national standards and we have a technology competence form to track students as they gain appropriate levels of competence.

Prepared By ~ Jana Koehler