The College of Education Executive Committee met on Friday, April 18, 1997, at 8:30 a.m. in the Conference Room in the Education Center with Dean Toth presiding. Members present were: Drs. Swank, Ducharme, Ramsey, Gunter, Gibbs (for Morgan), T. Reed, Cotton, M. Reed (proxy for Price), Bauer, Monroe, Dorminey, and Ms. Roberts. Guests: Drs. Foster and Dodd.

The programs for semester conversion considered for approval at today's meeting were from the Departments of Modern Foreign Languages and Early Childhood and Reading Education. Endorsements considered were from the Departments of Special Education and Communication Disorders; Psychology Counseling and Guidance; and Educational Leadership.

Dr. Bauer moved approval of the Pupil Personnel Endorsement; seconded by Dr. Ducharme. Dr. Gunter asked for clarification about the required internship. Dr. M. Reed commended Dr. Bauer for collaboration with Social Work and Educational Leadership. The motion to approve the Pupil Personnel Endorsement was unanimously approved.

Dr. Cotton moved approval of the M.Ed. in Spanish Education; seconded by Dr. Swank.

The motion to approve the M.Ed. in Spanish Education was unanimously approved.

Dr. Bauer asked to be excused from the meeting for an appointment and gave his vote by proxy to Dr. T. Reed.

Dr. Gibbs moved approval of the Director of Instructional Support Endorsement; seconded by Dr. Ramsey. The motion to approve the Director of Instructional Support Endorsement was passed by a vote of 11 in favor, 2 against.

Dr. Gunter moved approval of the Director of Special Education Endorsement; seconded by Dr. Ramsey. The motion to approve the Director of Special Education Endorsement was unanimously approved.

Dr. Monroe asked to present the ECRE Ed.S. program first (to be presented by Dr. Dodd), the master's program second (to be presented by Dr. Foster), and the undergraduate program last. Dr. Toth agreed to this sequence but indicated that it may cause some difficulty and confusion.

Dr. Monroe moved approval of the Ed. S. in Early Childhood Education; Dr. Swank seconded. After a presentation by Dr. Dodd on how the program was developed, the discussion of the proposal included the following:

1. changing the name of the capstone experience to Applied Research Project

2. adding a technology elective

3. ECE 8200 course description should not duplicate the PSY course

4. ECE 8230 is more than a skill development course and includes how to mentor

5. there should be one special topics course listed with a general special topics course description

The motion to approve the Ed. S. in Early Childhood Education was passed by a vote of 9 in favor, 1 against, with no abstentions.

Dr. Monroe moved approval of the M.Ed. in Early Childhood P-3 Option; seconded by Dr. Ducharme. After a presentation by Dr. Foster, the discussion concerning the P-3 Option included the following:

1. BVE 7400 was added to the core so there would be 3 hours of electives instead of 6

2. strands for technology, diversity, and research should be represented by outcome statements

3. make sure that all appropriate course descriptions are included in the proposals

(some reading course descriptions were missing)

4. it could not be determined if the curriculum course was a repeat of content at the undergraduate level because the undergraduate program had not been presented

5. the department should review the content in ECE 7320, ECE 7330, and ECE 7410

The motion to approve the M. Ed. in Early Childhood Education P-3 Option was passed by a vote of 9 in favor, 0 against, with 1 abstention.

Dr. Monroe moved approval of the M.Ed. in Early Childhood Content Option; seconded by Dr. Ramsey. After a presentation by Dr. Foster, the discussion concerning the Content Option included the following:

1. BVE 7400 should be part of the core

2. the 18 hours in program area concentration must be delineated as 12 hours in Arts and Sciences content courses (3 hours in each of the following areas; math, science, social studies, and English) and 6 hours of guided electives (from any dept. within the COE or additional Arts and Sciences courses)

3. the ECRE Dept. should collaborate with the MGE Dept. when revising the Content Option

4. a question was raised about the necessity of including the curriculum course

The motion to approve the M.Ed. in Early Childhood Content Option was withdrawn by Dr. Monroe.

Dr. Monroe moved approval of the B.Ed. in Early Childhood Education; seconded by Dr. Ramsey. Considerable discussion followed and the motion was withdrawn.

The issues discussed by the Executive Committee members concerning the B.S.Ed. in Early Childhood Education were e-mailed to members of the Early Childhood and Reading Education Department. The text of the e-mail follows:

Last Thursday and Friday, Dr. Monroe and a number of Early Childhood faculty members presented their new programs for approval to the Executive Committee. The committee supported both the M.Ed. and Ed.S. Reading programs and the ECE Ed.S. programs with minor modifications. They also viewed the separation of the M.Ed. in Early Childhood into a P-3 and Content M.Ed. as not only appropriate, but also applauded that distinction with the P-3 option being approved. The B.S.Ed and M.Ed. content ECE programs were not approved, either on the first presentation on Thursday or the second presentation of the programs on Friday. The concerns both days centered on the need for content courses in the programs. The program presented on Thursday had no content courses in the upper division courses and on Friday only a Mathematics content course was added. Content is defined here as courses taught by the Arts and Science faculty with one of their prefixes designating the course. The two programs were approved unanimously on Monday with the BSEd program having four content courses (12 semester hours) in the upper division and the M.Ed. program having six content courses (18 semester hours). I would like to share with you why we as an Executive Committee stressed the need for content (Arts and Sciences courses) in the two programs.

1) The Chancellor has been very emphatic that the semester conversion process be more that a mathematical conversion from 5 quarter to 3 semester hours. Both Vice Chancellor Muyskens and Assistant Vice Chancellor Kettlewell have stressed the need for teacher education programs to be significantly reformed. This change has been communicated as more content courses. Since both the Secondary Education and Middle Grades programs have significant content (Arts and Sciences) courses in the upper division, the program that they will be examining for change (and more content courses) will be the Early Childhood program. It has been shared with people around Atlanta that the Chancellor's office is going to look closely at our programs and if they do not have significant change (and increased content courses) they are going to the legislature seeking major teacher education reform in the state. It has even been suggested that it may be recommended to the state legislature that Georgia adopt the Texas model, with only 18 semester hours in education courses (including student teaching!) and no education majors at the undergraduate level. The Executive Committee was asking for a compromise from no content courses to one content course in each discipline (Math, Science, Social Science, and English). Without the compromise (and maybe even with it), those reviewing our conversion process may not consider the changes as substantial.

2) Vice Chancellor Kettlewell is a major proponent of educational reform, particularly of teacher education reform. She stresses the need for teacher education to include COE and A&S faculty as well as public school teachers and administrators. She spends a great deal of her time and energy supporting this principle of collective responsibility, that when the President of a University is asked how the teacher education faculty are, that all three groups will be identified. Therefore, we in the College of Education need to include A&S faculty in our programs, not only in teaching courses (K-12), but also in other decision-making responsibilities such as what outcomes our students should have, how these outcomes will be assessed, and how to evaluate the effectiveness of the program. We need to include the A&S faculty in our programs: development, implementation, and evaluation. Dean Dasher supports this collaboration and will work with his department heads to make sure that we are providing the best programs possible for our preservice and inservice teachers.

3) We must first meet the standards of NCATE and PSC as they provide our accreditation and program approval process. Without this accreditation (NCATE) and program approval (PSC), we cannot offer the programs to our students and cannot recommend them for Georgia certification. Some of the ECRE faculty complain that the BSEd and M.Ed. programs with content courses do not meet the NAEYC standards. While these standards are important to us, we do not have to be approved by this Learned Society and still be approved by PSC and accredited by NCATE. The NAEYC standards have a focus toward younger children and the PSC approval is a P-5 approval. If we met the NAEYC standards, we may negatively affect our PSC status.

I know that many of you have questioned the results of the semester conversion process as approved by the Executive Committee. The departmental faculty still need to approve the BSEd and M.Ed. programs as revised, otherwise the programs will be withdrawn from the Academic Committee agenda. I wanted to share why the Executive Committee supported the changes in the BSEd and M.Ed.-content ECE programs. We respect the faculty's expertise in each department. However, external influences that not all faculty have the opportunity to know impact decisions such as those made on the ECE programs. I view the new program as an opportunity for us all to grow and take advantage of new collaborations with Arts and Sciences faculty. If we can bring faculty, as well as our public school partners, to the table and work together to provide the best programs for our students within the context of the present political climate, we can demonstrate why I consider VSU as one of the finest teacher training institutions in the Southeast.

The revisions to the Early Childhood and Reading Education programs approved at this meeting will be reviewed and the remaining ECRE programs will be reviewed for initial approval at the 4/21 meeting.

There being no further business, the meeting was adjourned at 10:47 a.m.

Respectfully submitted,