STANDARD 6
Std 6 Printable PDF File
UNIT GOVERNANCE AND RESOURCES
The unit has the leadership, authority, budget, personnel, facilities, and resources, including information technology resources, for the preparation of candidates to meet professional, state, and institutional standards.
1. How does the unit’s governance system and resources contribute to adequately preparing candidates to meet professional, state, and institutional standards?
The College of Education is one of four academic colleges within the university. Unit governance is constituted in the university’s governance document as follows: “The chief academic officer of a college shall be the Dean, who shall supervise all the schools and programs therein”(Policy Manual –1.4.1.2.3.2 Subsection 2 – Responsibilities of Deans). The responsibility of preparing teachers, principals, and school guidance counselors is a shared responsibility of the university through collaboration across the College of Education and appropriate colleges and schools in the university. The university, however, recognizes the College of Education as the primary unit charged with responsibility for and authority to plan, to deliver, and to operate all initial and advanced professional education programs.
The dean’s office provides executive and managerial support and direction to the instructional and service programs within the unit as well as the student services support program. In essence, the dean’s office has three major responsibilities: academic, administrative, and student services. Administrative personnel in the Dean’s Office include: the associate dean, director of initial certification programs, director of the alternative certification program and certification officer, director of field experiences and clinical practice, director of the school guidance counselor program, director of the principal preparation program, and the director of the leadership education program (The EDD Program is not a part of the self-study process). An organizational chart is documented as an exhibit.
The dean of the college is a member of the Deans’ Group at Spalding University. Members of the unit’s faculty serve on both major standing committees of the university and ad hoc. Standing and ad hoc committees of the university include: Faculty Senate, Curriculum Committee, Faculty Development Committee, Graduate Committee, Research, Honors Board, Research Ethics, Undergraduate Admissions Committee, University Rank, Tenure and Sabbatical Committee (elected), Campus Health and Wellness, Ad hoc Task Force, and Green Initiative, among others. As university-wide committees, Non-COE members on these committees are also members of units on campus that prepare candidates. In addition, the unit faculty members are highly regarded as valuable members of various activities on campus.
The broader professional community participates in program design, implementation, and evaluation. Members of the community, some of whom include retired teachers who have served as clinical supervisors, are regularly invited to participate in round-table discussions about our programs and performance of our teacher candidates and program completers. Almost all of our part-time faculty are active members (non-retired) of the professional community and participate in program evaluation and review as program faculty.
Unit Budget: At Spalding University, the budget is centrally controlled by the director of finance. The budgeting process consists of annual budget requests which are submitted early each spring. The dean solicits requests and input from program director prior to compiling a unit wide budget. The completed budget request for the unit is sent to the office of the provost. The provost reviews the completed requests with the dean and the director of finance (formally vice president for finance). Final budget decisions are made at the cabinet level and approved by the Board of Trustees. The College of Education budgets for both the undergraduate and graduate programs have remained stable for the past five years, reflecting the college’s desire to maintain a balanced budget and invest in academic and nonacademic areas targeted for enhancement in unit’s annual ScoreCard.
The Dean of the College of Education has the responsibility and control of budgetary allocation and human resources within the unit based on program and unit operation needs. mentioned previously, the budgeting process provides the dean opportunities for identification of financial needs. The dean prioritizes the requests and forwards them to the university provost. She has an opportunity to discuss and review all budget requests and justify the need based on program data. Once budgetary allocations are approved, the Dean of the College of Education has the authority and full control in its management and its prioritization. Refilling faculty vacancies and requesting new faculty lines occurs in the same manner.
The use of part-time faculty continues to be a purposeful resource to the unit in strengthening candidates’ opportunities to learn from diverse faculty who have contemporary P-12 school experience. The unit has implement workload policies and practices that not only permit and encourage faculty be engaged in a wide range of professional activities, including teaching, scholarship, and service to the unit and the university, but also to professionally contribute on a community, state, regional, or national basis. Policies governing teaching loads are established by the Board of Trustees. Faculty workload policies are explicated in the university’s Faculty Handbook as follows:
The Senior Vice President for Academic Affairs determines the workload for full and proportionate-time faculty, in consultation with the relevant dean and chair. Full-time faculty members, who have no administrative release, are normally responsible for 12 semester hours of instruction or its equivalent, as determined by the Senior Vice President for Academic Affairs. A Faculty Work Load Plan will be submitted by each full-time faculty member as a part of the annual evaluation; once approved by the School chair/dean and Senior Vice President for Academic Affairs, any significant change in a faculty member’s work plan will require consultation and re-approval by the School chair/dean. Faculty Handbook, p.36)
The official workload policy for faculty is 12 hours (undergraduate) or adjusted to nine credits (graduate) for each semester or a total of 24 credit hours of teaching or its equivalence if administrative responsibilities are assigned. Full-time faculty who have field supervision responsibilities are given course reductions. Clinical faculty members are included in the unit as valued colleagues in preparing educators and supervise no more than 18 candidates per semester. The unit employs and supervises three support personnel who significantly enhances the effectiveness of faculty in their teaching and service to candidates and other constituencies of the university. Unit faculty value candidates’ learning and are available for individualized instruction and consultation. Faculty are accessible to students beyond regular office hours through special appointments (see posted office hours on office doors of Dr. Karen Dunnagan and Dr. Jacqueline Johnson) and also through e-mail and home telephone numbers. Faculty members are expected to advise students in their choice of academic course work. In doing so, faculty members help students clarify their values and goals, help students understand the nature of higher education, provide accurate information about educational choices, assist students in planning an educational program, and integrate the resources of the University to meet educational needs and aspirations of our students (see the Faculty Handbook, p.13). Final responsibility for planning a course of study rests with each student. However, anyone providing advising services should get to know and develop rapport with the advisee, know and understand both the University policies and the courses/teachers with which the student will come in contact, exercise judgment in guiding and motivating the student, and finally, be available and easy to contact when on campus. Faculty coordinate their advising responsibilities with the university’s Academic Advising Center. Faculty and staff members are assigned student advising functions by their immediate supervisors in accordance with current university policy.
Program coherence and coordination between full time and part-time faculty is led by the dean with assistance from program directors. These part-time faculty members meet with program directors to go over the syllabi and ensure they understand the purpose of the course, the specific objectives that need to be covered and appropriate assignments/assessments. These periodic meetings with part-time faculty are conducted to promote program coherence and alignment of course learning outcomes to the unit’s conceptual framework.
All teacher preparation programs are centrally coordinated by the director of initial programs. The director corresponds with part-time faculty corresponds over the course of the semester to answer questions. Part-time faculty members are evaluated at the end of each semester and those course evaluations. Each of the advance programs in the unit is coordinated by a program director. These directors serve as point persons in program implementation, development, advisement, and data collection. The director of field experiences and clinical practice is responsible for securing candidate field placements, cultivating and maintaining effective relationships with area school personnel, coordinating student teaching processes, teaching the capstone seminar course and has oversight over the processing of non-AltCert candidate licensure materials to ensure that each Candidate meets all of the state requirements.
The unit also has a director of the alternative certification program who serves as the contact person for the licensure application process for teacher candidates. In this role she coordinates candidate background checks and finger printing. In addition she maintains close contact with school districts and state agencies. The coordination of the unit’s data collection and management is the responsibility of the associate dean. On a continuing and systematic manner, all unit data are forwarded to the associate dean’s office for aggregation, disaggregation, and analysis, as well as summarizing and redistribution to programs and the unit. The unit has given release time to a faculty member who serves as LiveText coordinator with the primary responsibility of managing the system, supporting faculty, staff, and candidates, and offering periodic workshops and seminars for all constituencies. The registrar’s office assists in scheduling of courses and processing transcripts. In addition to the college supports, the university provides candidates with computer support through the information technology department.
Support personnel for the unit consist of three administrative assistants. They provide clerical, office filing duties, scheduling, reception and general office services. For example, support personnel maintain applications, forms and support faculty in ensuring that advising folders are kept up-to-date with document necessary to candidates in meeting degree deadlines and requirements. To assist faculty, clerical staff maintains student files by updating courses completed and Praxis test results. They may also be called on to assist in the preparation of workshops, dinners, etc.
Adequate opportunities and support for professional development are available to faculty. Professional development travel support has remained stable at a base budget while complemented with increases through the number of grants and other awards that are also available through the university’s office of academic affairs. Over the last two years, the standard base support has risen from $750.00 per faculty member to $1,000.00. Professional development activities for faculty continues to be a priority of the unit as indicated in various planning documents including the annual planning ScoreCard.
Unit Facilities: The unit has sufficient facilities available to faculty, staff, and candidates in both the initial and advanced program. These facilities are on campus and are of high quality. Except for Mansion West 304 and 307, the College of Education, as all other colleges and schools on campus, does not have solely designated classrooms set aside for just the College of Education. In addition, technology enhanced instructional facilities continue to be a priority for investment within the unit as modeling the use of technology by faculty members is an expectation. Program directors solicit request from faculty and present those request to the registrar one semester in advance for room allocation. Spalding University has numerous technology-enhanced classrooms containing LCD projectors, document cameras, external computer connections, and internet access. The university made significant levels of investment to provide a rich and reliable technological infrastructure on campus. The university has several general use computer laboratories accessible to the candidates and the university’s general student population. Collectively, these facilities allow faculty to model the use of technology as well as offer candidates opportunities to practice its use for instructional purposes.
The administrative and faculty offices of the College of Education are located in the Tompkins-Buchanan-Rankin Mansion. The Mansion is located at 851 South Fourth Street. Completely furnished faculty offices are located on both the first floor and garden level floor. Each faculty member is assigned his or her own key-secured office space, furnished with upgraded and modest desks, cabinets, and adequate book shelves sufficient to support faculty research and teaching. Desktop computers for all faculty are upgraded on a rotating basis. Site licenses are also provided for the most frequently used software such as Microsoft Office Suite, Adobe, and SPSS. Faculty also have access to laptops and LCD projectors that they may check out either through the dean’s office or the Spalding University Library.
A majority of our faculty equitably share a high speed printer/copier/scanner unit located just outside their offices in the common area. These facilities afford each faculty member not only a high resolution printed outputs but also adequate and comfortable space to engage in preparation for teaching, student advisement, and scholarly productivity.
Unit Resources including Technology: The unit allocates resources across programs to ensure candidates meet standards in their field of study. Upon arrival at Spalding University, pre-education students are assigned to an advisor in the university’s Academic Advising Center. The Spalding University Advising Center advisors assist pre-education students in scheduling courses and adjusting to college expectations. Advisors across programs in the College of Education collaborate with those in the University Advising Center to ensure that teacher education candidates receive accurate information about the teacher education program requirements. Upon admission to the teacher education program, each candidate is assigned a professional education advisor who is a full time faculty member in the students program.
Information Technology Resources: The unit has adequate and up-to-date technology resources for faculty and candidates. Candidates, faculty, and staff use WebAdvisor management system for routine operations such as registering for classes, checking grades, advising, and entering grades. Online directories on the web and other resources provide instant access to important unit and university information. Faculty and staff enjoy the redundancy of Datatel as an integrated university-wide student management software that supports candidates’ records, transcript records, advising information, course catalog, and semester offerings for each course. DataTel integrates with other systems on campus (including WebAdvisor and LiveText) giving faculty and staff a complete 360-degree view of candidates’ experiences and profiles. The admissions office and the College of Education Web pages provide prospective and current candidates with the most up-to-date information about programs.
The unit has, at its disposition the use of LiveText, a data management system that organizes the unit’s data collection process from the classroom level to the unit level. It is complimented by the systematic analysis and reporting system that is extremely useful the unit in rapid data analysis of both initial and advanced data. Spalding University’s candidates are required to maintain an electronic portfolio for submission of standards-based assignments and to showcase their work. The unit uses the LiveText portfolio platform to give students maximum access and flexibility in designing the portfolio. LiveText is also used extensively in all field experiences.
2. Please respond to 2a if this is the standard on which the unit is moving to the Target Level.
a. Standard on which the unit is moving to the Target Level
Unit has not selected Standard 6: Unit Resources including Technology as a standard to focus in moving to the Target Level during this cycle.
b. Continuous Improvement
The unit has placed significant effort to remove the AFIs cited in the previous NCATE visit. Spalding University continues to have both a physical and a virtual presence through the library’s web site. More than 50 PCs, are available in the library’s first floor. Through collaboration agreement with Metro-varsity, Spalding University’s students, faculty, and staff have access to the neighboring university’s libraries. The University of Louisville has more than two million volumes and approximately 16,000 current journal subscriptions. Kornhauser Health Science Library alone houses 250,000 specialized health related volumes to which Spalding University students have full access. All purchases are made collaboratively with the Library Committee, consisting of faculty members from each program on campus. The library collection at University of Louisville also supports terminal degrees in areas that students at Spalding University find useful including business, social work, nursing, art, psychology, education, the sciences, and liberal studies.
The university collaborates with other institution in sharing resources. Sharing between libraries is conducted in two ways: 1) interlibrary loan via a daily courier and 2) walk-up privileges. Users at each library may request materials from any of the full or provisional institutions via their local interlibrary loan services. Materials are then transported via the daily courier to the Spalding University Library. Or, if the user chooses, borrowing may be requested in person at any of the full member institutions. Questions raised by candidates or faculty (borrowers) are addressed immediately with a telephone call when directed to Spalding University’s home library. There are exceptions to the in-person borrowing at each of the three provisional institutions (the public libraries) because of local funding requirements. Like all borrowers candidates and faculty produce a borrower’s card from either Spalding University or another specific public library. Borrowing from the public libraries is still available via interlibrary loan. The Metroversity does provide the ability to search all member catalogs simultaneously. While Metroversity does not provide shared electronic access, bibliographic databases users may use those resources by visiting the library in person. During the 2007-2008, a total of 3,006 transactions (up from 1,267 in 2006-2007) were filled. These transactions were initiated by both faculty and students. These collections and resources are sufficient to support all its educational research, and public service programs.