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Fourth Annual Report May 31, 2002 University of Georgia Section 1A Responsibility for teacher education May 2001 rating = 3 Expected May 2002 rating = 3 Nothing has changed from last year. The University of Georgia Advisory Council for Educator Preparation (ACEP) continues to function. No changes in its structure or authority have occurred. In order to move to a rating of 4 the UGA College of Education would have to relinquish authority over its programs. The UGA plan allows ACEP to be an advisory and coordinating mechanism and the College to be the control mechanism for its programs. This arrangement allows UGA to "provide a mechanism to facilitate collaboration between unit faculty and faculty in other units of the institution involved in the preparation of professional educators" and to "provide the leadership for effectively coordinating all programs at the institution..." (NCATE Standards, p. 38) Section 1B Stronger content preparation-Early childhood teachers May 2001 rating = 4 Expected May 2002 rating = 4 Nothing has changed from last year. Students complete 12-15 semester hour concentrations, 9 hours at junior-senior level, with mathematics courses taught by Arts & Sciences faculty and reading courses taught by reading faculty. In addition, students are encouraged to take PRAXIS II prior to graduation as an assessment of their content area knowledge. Passage rate of early childhood education program completers at UGA on PRAXIS II is 100%. 1C Stronger content preparation-Middle grades teachers May 2001 rating = 4 Expected May 2002 rating = 4 Nothing has changed from last year. Students complete two 12-15 semester hour concentrations, 9 hours at junior-senior level, with courses taught by Arts & Sciences faculty or Education faculty who have credentials to be on the Arts & Sciences faculty. All students take one reading course and one writing across the curriculum course to ensure that they are able to teach reading and writing to all 4-8 students. In addition, all students are encouraged to take PRAXIS II prior to graduation as an assessment of their content area knowledge. Passage rate of middle school education program completers at UGA on PRAXIS II is 91%. 1D (1) Stronger content preparation-High school teachers and those teaching all grades (for May 2002 graduates) May 2001 rating = 4 Expected May 2002 rating = 4 Students meet requirements for a major in Arts & Sciences for each subject. English: High school English Education majors have the equivalent of an English major. One content course ELAN 4410--Adolescent Literature--is now taught in the Language Education Department, but it is a critically valuable body of literature for English teachers that is not taught in our A&S College. In addition, all students are encouraged to take PRAXIS II prior to graduation as an assessment of their content knowledge. Passage rate of English Education program completers at UGA on PRAXIS II is 100%. Mathematics Education: High School Mathematics Education majors meet and in some respects surpass the requirements for mathematics students. Mathematics Education students need 27 hours of content whereas Mathematics students need only 24. Also, Mathematics Education majors need an overall GPA of 2.5 in order to enter and graduate from the program. No minimum GPA is listed for Mathematics students. In addition, all students are encouraged to take PRAXIS II prior to graduation as an assessment of their content area knowledge. Passage rate of Mathematics Education program completers at UGA on PRAXIS II is 100%. Science: Science Education majors exceed the content requirements for science majors (i.e., biology major is 32 hours; chemistry major is 36 hours; physics major is 28 hours). High school science education single-field majors are required to have a 35-hour concentration in one disciplinary area as well as 8 hours of lower-level physics and 8 hours of lower-level chemistry to fulfill core curriculum requirements. Total number of content hours for the single field is 51 hours. Broad field certification is no longer offered. In addition, all students are encouraged to take PRAXIS II prior to graduation as an assessment of their content area knowledge. Passage rate of Science Education program completers at UGA on PRAXIS II is 100%. Social Science: High School Social Science Education majors complete as many or more content hours as required for a major in a discipline. All single-field programs meet or exceed the 1998 Principles requirements. Secondary Social Science Education students take at least 9 hours of lower-level history, geography, political science, or economics courses to fulfill core curriculum requirements. Single-field students are also required to have a 24-hour concentration in one disciplinary area as well as sub-concentrations in 3 areas (12 hours). The total number of social science hours, single field is at least 45 hours. Broad field certification is no longer offered. In addition, all students are encouraged to take PRAXIS II prior to graduation as an assessment of their content area knowledge. Passage rate of Social Science Education program completers at UGA on PRAXIS II is 93%. Foreign Language: Students either meet or exceed the foreign language requirements for a major in French, Spanish, German, or Latin. In addition, all students are encouraged to take Praxis II prior to graduation as an assessment of their content area knowledge. Passage rate of Foreign Language Education program completers at UGA on PRAXIS II is 100%. 1D (2) Stronger content preparation-High school teachers and those teaching all grades (for entering students fall 2002) May 2001 rating = None Expected May 2002 rating = 4 The University of Georgia will not transfer its secondary teaching degrees to the College of Arts and Science. As explained on several occasions, many of the College of Education faculty in content departments (e.g., science education) have substantial graduate work in their discipline. Many have taught and continue to teach arts and sciences courses. In addition, the dean of the College of Arts and Sciences supports our contention that the degrees are better housed in the COE (see attached letter). Given the strength of our faculty, the fact that all secondary disciplines have the equivalent (or greater) of a major in arts and sciences, and the near perfect passage rate of secondary majors on Praxis II, the intent of this indicator-strong content preparation-is clearly met. We respectfully request a waiver from the specific wording of this requirement. IE Stronger content preparation-graduate programs for teachers (for new programs approved since April 2001) May 2001 rating = None Expected May 2002 rating = NA The University of Georgia has no new graduate programs approved since April of 2001. IF Field-Experiences-Equivalent of one full academic year-Early childhood May 2001 rating = 3 Expected May 2002 rating = 4 With changes in our early childhood program all majors now complete 970-1100 clock hours of field experiences. IF Field-Experiences-Equivalent of one full academic year-Middle Grades May 2001 rating = 2 Expected May 2002 rating = 2 Middle grades education majors complete 700-800 clock hours of field experiences. We would like to add additional field experiences but doing so is difficult under the 120-hour limit on programs. Through the GSTEP grant our early experiences committee has developed a plan to increase school and community experiences early in prospective teachers' programs. The intent is to ensure that our students have a broad understanding of the communities in which schools are situated. To date we have worked with community and school agencies to generate sites in which students might volunteer. These range from after school programs, to camps, boys and girls clubs, and certain social agencies. We are in the midst of creating a web site for students so that they may select opportunities to round out their experiences. We have also created, refined, and piloted a self-reflection instrument for students to use during their community experience. At present all programs require at least 50 hours of such work. Our goal is that the work of this group will allow programs to increase these hours to 100-200 or even more. We will begin implementing this program in the coming year. IH Field-Experiences-Equivalent of one full academic year-High school September 2000 rating = 2 Expected May 2001 rating = 2 Teacher candidates in high school programs average 700-1000 clock hours of field experiences. We would like to add additional field experiences but doing so is difficult under the 120-hour limit on programs. We are exploring ways to increase the hours, however. Through the GSTEP grant our early experiences committee has developed a plan to increase school and community experiences early in prospective teachers' programs. The intent is to ensure that our students have a broad understanding of the communities in which schools are situated. To date we have worked with community and school agencies to generate sites in which students might volunteer. These range from after school programs, to camps, boys and girls clubs, and certain social agencies. We are in the midst of creating a web site for students so that they may select opportunities to round out their experiences. We have also created, refined, and piloted a self-reflection instrument for students to use during their community experience. At present all programs require at least 50 hours of such work. Our goal is that the work of this group will allow programs to increase these hours to 100-200 or even more. We will begin implementing this program in the coming year. II Admission requirements May 2001 rating = 4 Expected May 2002 rating = 4 Nothing has changed from last year. Last year we stated the following. Minimum of 2.5 GPA-All programs require a minimum of 2.5 for admission. Some programs have substantially higher GPA requirements including Early Childhood (2.75) and Middle Grades (2.75). Regents Test-All programs require passing of the Regent's test for admission. Praxis I/SAT-All programs at UGA require an appropriate SAT score or passage of the Praxis I. Because of the strict admission requirements to UGA (In fall 2001 the average SAT for entering freshman was over 1200), few students are admitted who do NOT have the minimum SAT score. II A (1) Institutions guarantee their graduates and provide additional training when needed May 2001 rating = 4 Expected May 2002 rating = 4 Nothing has changed from last year. As we reported last year, the UGA guarantee passed (and submitted with last year's report) by the University of Georgia Advisory Council for Educator Preparation meets the following BOR quality assurance requirements.
In addition, the UGA guarantee contains specific procedures for invoking the guarantee (part II), for diagnosis of problems (part III), and for suggestions about types of additional training (part III). All cost will be borne by UGA. The last section of the guarantee specifies conditions under which it can be invoked. II A (2) Institutions increase the number, raise the caliber, and expand the diversity of teacher candidates and balance teacher supply and demand. May 2001 rating = 2 Expected May 2002 rating = 4 The College hired two recruitment coordinators in 2001 to organize our efforts. One coordinator works with all programs in the college and the other is hired under our Business to Teaching grant. The Business to Teaching (B2T) program has made excellent progress in recruiting students because the program has been existent for two years, while general College recruitment has just begun and activity has focused on planning with some implementation. In B2T, UGA has created technology-based teacher education programs for the high need areas of science, mathematics, occupational studies, ESOL, and special education. The B2T coordinator has taken specific steps to publicize the programs involved in B2T as well as our regular teacher education programs. She has developed a plan with strategies to improve teacher recruitment, which include creating and disseminating resources on certification (e.g., a program brochure, programs fact sheets, and brochures on various routes to certification), creating and monitoring B2T and departmental web sites, recruiting at job fairs (to date about 20 job fairs), keeping contact with school districts regarding their needs for teachers, responding to inquiries from potential students, and facilitating the evaluation of student transcripts by academic departments. Once initial contact is made and transcripts analyzed, academic departments counsel potential students regarding their best options. During the 2001-2 academic year, we graduated 64 individuals as certified special education teachers, 20 in Occupational Studies, 1 in mathematics, 27 in science, and 45 in ESOL. During summer 2002, we anticipate having new cohorts of students in the programs (120 in Special Education, 50 in Occupational Studies, 22 in Science, 55 in ESOL, and 18 in mathematics). Last year we expanded the program to social science education and elementary education. As a result of these efforts, we began a new post baccalaureate early childhood education program with 21 students during Maymester of 2002 (over 100 students applied). We expect the new social science program to be up and running in the coming year. On a second front, we acquired funding from the Georgia legislature this past year to hire a second individual to expand our recruitment efforts to all programs. To date this individual has worked with COE and A&S advisors, GSTEP personnel, and individual departments to establish a plan for recruitment. Like the B2T recruiter, she has worked with departments to create and disseminate resources on certification, worked to modify College and departmental web sites, recruited at job fairs, spoken to numerous groups of incoming freshman and transfer students, and begun long term planning to recruit among the vast number of A&S students on UGA's campus. We are also presently in the planning stages of writing a recruitment grant to the USDE and are working in collaboration with Trish Patterson in this effort. The B2T and COE recruiting coordinators have worked together to set targets for quality and quantity by demographic groups and have tied these to specific strategies. Both targets and strategies are constantly being modified. We are assessing progress by comparing how well program enrolment matches targets. In terms of business to teaching, our numbers have far exceeded targets and expectations. In related activity, the COE just received news that it will be getting a $3.5 M award from the Goizueta Foundation to begin activity on several Hispanic initiatives. We will be creating a center for Hispanic Educational Achievement to work with partner schools and offering both graduate and undergraduate fellowships/scholarships to Hispanic students. We anticipate our efforts will result in an increased interest from the Hispanic community in teacher education. II A (3) Institutions increase by 10% the number of students with HOPE Promise scholarships. May 2001 rating = 5 Expected May 2002 rating = 4 Nothing has changed from last year. UGA has a history of having a very high number of HOPE Promise scholarships. This past year the number was 307. II A (4) Dual certification N/A II A (5) In collaboration with the schools, institutions provide support, assistance, and professional development to all graduates during their first two years of teaching. May 2001 rating = 4 Expected May 2002 rating = 4 Since September 2000, UGA has been improving its teacher education programs through the Georgia Systemic Teacher Education Program (GSTEP), which is a comprehensive partnership among three Universities, numerous school systems, RESAs, and state agencies. The main purpose of GSTEP is to create a program that "begins at initial recruitment, is modeled consistently during all years of preservice teacher education, continues through induction, and provides professional development for all in the system." One of our specific goals was to "create and implement an induction program that connects each graduate with an in-school mentor and to resources and individuals in higher education." Objective 3 of the grant focuses directly on induction. It states: "GSTEP will create an induction network for supporting BTs (beginning teachers) as they move from being students to reflective practitioners." Specific activities related to induction that we envisioned when writing the proposal are delineated and these have been updated just recently. Subsequent to writing the proposal we applied for and received a grant from the BOR to do additional work on the Induction Framework. The Framework, now finished, is being used to create a complex technology based resource for all undergraduate and new teachers. During the past academic year, the COE, through GSTEP, constituted a committee of local administrators from each six local school districts (Clarke, Oconee, Oglethorpe, Madison, Jackson, and Barrow Counties) that host the preponderance of our students' school experiences. The purpose of the committee is two-fold: to establish a mechanism for generating and sharing induction plans and to improve the quality of field experiences of UGA students. On June 4, 2002 we will hold a meeting of administrators and university personnel (as this is written, we expect attendance to be approximately 100+ individuals) to focus on issues of mentoring new teachers (including student teachers) and on improving the ability of local teachers to provide mentoring services. Each attending team will create an action plan to begin or extend its induction efforts. In addition, we are working with the same six partner school systems to collect data on why new teachers are leaving the profession, so that we can better attend to any problems of which the districts are unaware. To reach our goal of providing induction services for every graduate of the University of Georgia and for every new teacher in our partner schools, will require considerable professional development of teachers from our partner schools. This professional development is being provided as a part of GSTEP services related to goal 7, which seeks to "support the continuing communication among and professional growth of all participants." The first step in this process will be our conference on June 4th for teams of local administrators. In addition, we are developing a new and updated version of the Teacher Support Specialist (TSS) courses, which stresses content specific support for new teachers. To date, pilot versions of this course have been offered two times in the subject area of science by faculty from GSTEP institutions. II A (6) Institutions focus partner schools on the following:
May 2001 rating = N/A Expected May 2002 rating = 4 Partner schools are being focused on student achievement (bullet #1) through several mechanisms. The first is the Clarke County (our largest partner) -UGA project to "adopt" two elementary schools (see item IIID). Working with two schools with 70% or greater minority population, our goal is to improve student achievement of all students. The project, if successful, is likely to extend to the feeder middle schools and will provide a model for all schools in the district. Relative to bullets #2, 3 and 4, and as reported in item II (A) 5 (above), we constituted a committee of local administrators from each six local school districts, which host the preponderance of our student school experiences. One purpose of the committee was to establish a mechanism for generating and sharing induction plans and to improve the quality of field experiences of UGA students. On June 4, 2002 we will hold a meeting of administrators and university personnel with an expected attendance of approximately 100+ individuals to focus on issues of mentoring new teachers (including student teachers) and on improving the ability of local teachers to provide mentoring services. The meeting will also deal with issues related to collaboration in the preparation and development of teachers. Lastly, relative to bullet #5, as reported in items II (A) 5 and IIIB, we are focusing partner districts on school-based research. We are working with our six partner school systems to collect data on issues related to induction by collecting data on how many new teachers are leaving the profession and why they do so. This data will be helpful in planning how to target induction resources. Our federally funded Contextual Teaching and Learning grant is following program graduates during their first year of teaching. We are producing eight case studies of their successes, trials, and tribulations. These case studies will document the degree to which the novice teachers use strategies that help students make meaning by connecting school to the real world and bring students to high levels of learning by doing so. In GSTEP, we are conducting telephone surveys of a sample of first year teachers who graduated from UGA last year and are now in their first year teaching. Of those surveyed, four have been chosen for in depth case studies. This information will be used as baseline data to ascertain how well new teachers function in their first year and will be used as a comparison to teachers graduating from GSTEP-enhanced teacher education programs in four to five years. Lastly, we are completing two studies in which we are collecting data through focus group methodology from university and P-12 teachers. One study is related to the purposes and methods of induction and the other to the philosophies and practices of teacher education. Both of these efforts will give us an understanding of barriers we will have to overcome as we progress in our GSTEP reform efforts. II A (7) Institutions have at least 80% pass rate on PRAXIS II for all reportable demographic groups May 2001 rating = N/A Expected May 2002 rating = 4 All UGA programs have an 80% or better overall pass rate, with most posting 100% rates. The overall UGA pass rate is about 97%. Only two of our programs, Early Childhood (100% pass rate-100 graduates) and Middle Grades (91% pass rate-43 graduates), are large enough to have 10 undergraduates from minority groups. However, neither meets the minimum of 10 students from any reportable group. In addition, none of our secondary or P-12 programs have reportable groups that exceed 10. II A (8) Institutions support and recognize the work of teacher preparation faculty in reward system May 2001 rating = 3 Expected May 2002 rating = 4 UGA has several initiatives that are attempting to encourage and support teacher preparation faculty. As part of the GSTEP grant we are "designing, revising, and implementing policy that facilitates sustaining the GSTEP program and associated activities." Through GSTEP we "have established policy development teams to identify and examine policies, practices, expectations, barriers, and reward systems inherent in each university and P-12 district." Both Dean Castenell (Education) and Dean Anderson (Arts and Sciences) promised as part of grant activities to convene such groups. In the COE, a special teaching advisory board was convened and is meeting to discuss and plan next steps, including recommendations. To date we have studied patterns of promotion and tenure success and compared faculty involved in teacher preparation with faculty performing more traditional duties. We have identified no cases in which faculty that are deeply involved in teacher preparation and who are productive scholars have not been rewarded, promoted or tenured. For example, 2 years ago Dr. Sally Hudson Ross was promoted to full professor largely on her work in teacher preparation. Likewise Dr. Peg Graham was promoted largely on her work with the UGA English Education program and supporting National Board certification for teachers. However, it should be understood that the University for Georgia, as a Research I institution, has high scholarship requirements for P&T. This will not and, we believe, should not change. However, the University has a quite broad definition of the kinds of scholarship it will accept for promotion and tenure. For example, the P&T guidelines state that the following are acceptable forms: development of courses, curriculum, and instructional methods; effectiveness shown by peer evaluation of expertise in instruction; publication activities related to teaching' grants related to instruction; and obtaining grants related to research and creative activities. To date, it is the shared opinion of all that, if there is a problem, it is not the procedures or materials related to promotion and tenure that are impediments to implementing a more teaching friendly policy. Instead, it is the prevailing attitude among some faculty that research is the only thing that counts. A change in attitude among those faculty, especially those who might populate important P&T committees, will be critical to a transformation. We do not expect a quick or radical solution to the issue, but rather an evolution over time as we work with faculty to ensure teaching and work with P-12 schools is rewarded in both colleges. On another front, the UGA Deans Forum has played an important part in our efforts. The Deans Forum is a collaborative group of leaders (both tenured faculty and deans) from both colleges who meet thrice yearly and conduct ongoing projects to study issues related to teaching and collaboration between the colleges. This group was the primary agent in all of our STEP activity over the last few years and many members are involved in GSTEP. One of four presently functioning study groups is researching the evaluation of teaching and looking for ways that this can be better measured and thus rewarded on campus. It intends to present recommendations to the faculty senate for consideration during the upcoming year. II B (1) Teacher candidates-sufficient content knowledge in all subjects included under certification May 2001 rating = 4 Expected May 2002 rating = 4 Nothing has changed from last year. UGA graduates pass the Praxis II examination at a 96.7% rate (Professional Standards Commission report for Fall, 1999 through Spring, 2000); therefore it is a moot point as to whether coursework prepares graduates for this exam. Such a high pass rate indicates UGA students are well prepared in their content fields. In addition, the work done on STEP and GSTEP as outlined in II A (5) above indicates that courses and other experiences of preservice students match that which content teachers are expected to teach. At present, every content department and program has aligned their coursework in teacher education with the appropriate national standards and the QCC. Every department with a teacher education program has created an assessment plan to monitor preservice students' content and pedagogical knowledge and all plans are tied to student learning. [For details of specific department assessment plans, please go to the web site http://ncate.coe.uga.edu/programs. Select a particular program and review its assessment plan.] Each program requires that students create and teach at least one full unit, 7-10 days in length during student teaching. Student teachers must assess achievement gains of P-12 students, either through pre/post testing or some other means. Results of P-12 student achievement are included in the portfolios of student teachers and are used to determine whether they pass student teaching or need remediation. The University of Georgia participated in a national survey of graduates of colleges of education during the school year 1999-2000, which was conducted by Educational Benchmarking, Inc (EBI). Five questions from the survey were relevant to II (B) 1. These are listed below along with the average ranking of all 544 UGA students who completed the survey and data from fifteen institutions in our Carnegie class. Please note that UGA consistently scored higher than its comparator institutions. To what degree does your education course work enhance your ability to teach children from diverse ethnic backgrounds?
To what degree does your education course work enhance your ability to teach areas in your content field?
To what degree does your education course work enhance your ability to formally assess student learning?
To what degree does your education course work enhance your ability to informally assess student learning?
To what degree does your education course work address assessment of student learning?
To what degree does your education course work enhance your ability to foster the intellectual development of students?
In addition, departments regularly use data from studies like that performed by EBI and from the performance of its student teachers to modify their programs and practices. All this evidence, taken together, indicates that UGA deserves a ranking of 5 on this item. II B (2) Teacher candidates set high learning standards for all students May 2001 rating = N/A Expected May 2002 rating = 4 During their pre-student teaching and student teaching placements, all teacher education candidates are assessed on their performance in using high learning standards for all students and organize curriculum, instruction and assessment around the standards. The QCC and the standards of discipline-specific learned societies are used to guide the learning objectives in the teacher candidates' daily, weekly, and unit plans. Teacher candidates typically receive above average ratings (3.5 out of 4) on the teaching evaluations from supervising teachers, as well as university supervisors. II B (3) Teacher candidates customize instruction for individual students May 2001 rating = N/A Expected May 2002 rating = 4 During pre-student teaching and student teaching placements, all teacher education candidates are assessed on their performance in customizing instruction for individual students or groups of students that reflect students' own experiences, learning styles, interests, cultures and special needs. This customized instruction is assessed during formal observations of the teacher candidates as well as during the assessment of their daily, weekly, and unit plans. Teacher candidates typically receive above average ratings (3.5 out of 4) on the teaching evaluations from supervising teachers, as well as university supervisors. II B (4) Teacher candidates in early childhood education are able to diagnose difficulties in reading and mathematics and know what to do about them. May 2001 rating = 5 Expected May 2002 rating = 4 Nothing has changed from our reply of last year. Because of the wide array course and school experiences, all early childhood majors are able to diagnose reading and mathematics problems and to implement appropriate instructional strategies to deal with them. II B (5) Teacher candidates use data on student learning and achievement May 2001 rating = N/A Expected May 2002 rating = 4 During pre-student teaching and student teaching placements, teacher candidates collect pre- and post- assessment data on student knowledge of the content. These data are used to guide the development and implementation of the teacher candidates' lessons. A discussion of the comparison of the pre- and post assessment data is a component of the teacher candidates' unit plans during student teaching and is used as one criterion to assess the teacher candidate. In addition, during pre-student teaching and student teaching placements teacher candidates have opportunities to demonstrate that they can use data on student learning and achievement to monitor student progress toward meeting benchmarks. Teacher candidates typically receive above average ratings (3.5 out of 4) on the teaching evaluations from supervising teachers, as well as university supervisors. II B (6) Teacher candidates are able to use technology effectively May 2001 rating = 4 Expected May 2002 rating = 4 Nothing has changed from last year. All programs except Mathematics Education require a specific technology course. Some departments use the college-wide courses EDIT 2000 or EDIT 2010 (e.g., Early Childhood and Middle Grades); others have created their own courses (e.g., Science-ESCI 4480-Technological capabilities for science teachers, Social Science-ESOC 2380 Using computers in social science education). Typically these courses are offered at the beginning of programs so that technological skills may be reinforced and practiced throughout the programs. Mathematics Education, perhaps our most technologically advanced program, infuses technology throughout each and every course in its program, using it as both a learning and teaching tool. Student competence in using technology is monitored within courses throughout the program. Students must use technology to prepare projects (word processing), give presentations (Power Point), create teaching units (employment of various kinds of software), and search for information for class projects (use of the Internet). In addition, students are required to use technology in their various practica and student teaching. These performance assessments, which come at various times during preparation programs, as well as new developments in hardware and software guide the continuous revision of program requirements. II B (7) Teacher candidates are able to manage classrooms effectively May 2001 rating = 4 Expected May 2002 rating = 4 UGA uses data of two types to guide changes in teaching of classroom management. First information gleaned from student teaching and other practica are constantly gathered, analyzed and used for program change. In addition to data from university supervisors, departments regularly meet with supervising teachers and administrators, both individually and in groups, to obtain feedback on how well our students are prepared. Secondly, data from our EBI conducted study indicate how well students believe they were prepared for classroom management tasks. The following items are relevant. Please note that UGA consistently scored higher than comparator institutions. To what degree does your education course work address classroom management?
To what degree does your education course work enhance your ability to manage behavior of students?
To what degree does your education course work enhance your ability to encourage positive social interaction among students?
To what degree does your education course work enhance your ability to encourage self-motivation in students?
To what degree does your education course work enhance your ability to actively engage students in the learning process?
III A Teacher candidates are accomplished in helping P-12 students from diverse groups to learn at high levels. May 2001 rating = 2 Expected May 2002 rating = 4 At UGA all departments were required to create and implement diversity plans related to all programs several years ago in order to meet the UGA diversity requirement. A campus-wide committee approved all COE program plans. As a result, teacher candidates have multiple experiences related to diversity infused throughout their programs. Teacher candidates are also placed in a variety of diverse settings during field experiences and student teaching during which they design and implement lesson plans and unit plans that meet the needs of the diverse learners in their classrooms. Our primary school partner is Clarke County, which is approximately 70% minority; work with other partners allows students to experience rural school settings. During field experiences and student teaching, teacher candidates design and use assessments to measure the learning of the diverse students in their classrooms. Observations and conferences with teacher candidates during their field experiences and student teaching, and seminars during and after student teaching focus on teacher candidates' abilities to help students from diverse groups learn at high levels. A variety of other mechanisms, such as exit interviews with and surveys of teacher candidates [see EBI data in II B (1) and II B (7)] as well as teacher candidate portfolios and reflective journals provide evidence of their ability to help students from diverse groups achieve at high levels. Data from all of these sources are consistently used to guide changes in teacher preparation programs. III B After 2 years of teaching, program graduates show advanced levels of accomplishment in bringing P-12 students to high levels of learning. May 2001 rating = N/A Expected May 2002 rating = 4 Our reply to II (A) 5 outlines our efforts in creating an induction program for all graduates of UGA and all new teachers in our partner schools as well as training of mentor teachers. We have two ongoing efforts to obtain the kinds of data to make a judgment on this principle, both related to grant activity. Our federally funded Contextual Teaching and Learning grant is now following program graduates during their first year of teaching. We are producing eight case studies of their successes, trials, and tribulations. These case studies will document the degree to which the novice teachers use strategies that help students make meaning by connecting school to the real world and bring students to high levels of learning by doing so. In GSTEP, we are conducting telephone surveys of a sample of first year teachers who graduated from UGA last year and are now in their first year teaching. Of those surveyed, four have been chosen for in depth case studies. This information will be used as baseline data to ascertain how well new teachers function in their first year and will be used as a comparison to teachers graduating from GSTEP-enhanced teacher education programs in four to five years. We will conduct the same survey next year with both first and second year teachers. Through GSTEP, we will also be monitoring the achievement of P-12 students in our partner schools to ensure that it is improving. Specifically, we will attempt to determine the achievement levels of students of a sample of second year teachers to determine whether they are growing in their ability to bring learners to high levels of learning. III C Experienced teachers completing graduate programs are accomplished in all five principles of the National Board for Professional Teaching Standards. May 2001 rating = 2 Expected May 2002 rating = 4 All five NBPTS principles-commitment to students and their learning, subject matter knowledge, assessing student learning, reflective teaching practices, and membership in learning communities-are reflected in individual program curriculum. All graduate students take coursework that focuses on these five principles. Data from a variety of assessments, including course projects and exams, portfolios, reflective journals, and oral and written comprehensive exams provide evidence of the extent to which graduate program completers are accomplished in all five principles. All specialist and doctoral program completers must write a thesis and must pass an oral examination based both on the thesis as well as their knowledge of subject matter. While not all masters' degree program completers write a thesis, many, if not most, complete a terminal project that is used to evaluate progress during the degree program. All of these data are used consistently to guide changes in graduate programs for teachers. In addition, two courses, which have been approved by the COE Graduate Courses and Programs Committee and are awaiting university approval, will be offered beginning summer of 2002. The purposes of the courses are to provide an awareness of National Board certification and to mentor teachers through the process. They can be counted in students program of study, focus on the NBPTS principles, and are part of the UGA effort to provide support for teachers seeking NBPTS certification. III D Through partner schools P-12 students from diverse groups are learning at high levels. May 2001 rating = 3 Expected May 2002 rating = 4 Through the GSTEP grant we have created a full network of partner schools with six school districts (Clarke, Oconee, Madison, Jackson, Winder-Barrow, and Oglethorpe). Through GSTEP, we are monitoring the achievement of P-12 students from various demographic groups in our partner schools to ensure that it is improving. We are specifically looking for improvement in achievement attributable to the Clarke County-UGA partnership and the new efforts related to the Hispanic Educational Achievement Center, both described below. We are also continuing our intensive partnership with the Clarke County Public Schools in which we are "adopting" two elementary schools and helping them to become model sites for both P-12 and teacher education students. The end result must be the improvement of student achievement in the two schools. We have been involved in this process for almost two years and the University of Georgia has dedicated $250,000 to this effort over the next 2 years. To date we have selected schools, worked with community and school leaders, and created planning teams composed of school system, community and university personnel. Through the work of these teams, we will begin implementing an extended year plan in each of the schools beginning in August 2002. Each school has recruited a new staff dedicated to the principle of having all students achieve at the highest level. University faculty from both education and arts and sciences will work with the school during the coming years. Initial professional development for the teachers, administrators and university faculty will take place this summer, with a three day intensive session planned for May 28-30. For the upcoming school year, these sites will be among those in which we place student interns and teachers. Lastly, as part of our recent award for $3.5 M award from the Goizueta Foundation, we will be creating a center for Hispanic Educational Achievement to work with partner schools that have high Hispanic populations. In addition, through our GSTEP efforts we are monitoring student achievement in the six school districts to determine changes that could be attributed to the extra efforts now in place. This will not be an easy set of changes to make. |