MINUTES OF THE MEETINGCOLLEGE OF EDUCATIONEXECUTIVE COMMITTEE

The College of Education Executive Committee met on Thursday, March 21, 2002, at 8:30 a.m. in the Conference Room in the Education Center with Dr. T. Reed presiding. Members present were: Drs. McGahee, Ducharme, Hertzog, Swank, Lee (for Gunter), Tullos (for Gibbs), Siegrist, Atterbom, Bauer, Myers-Jennings, M. Reed, Mr. Pearce, Mr. Moss, and Ms. Roberts.

Dr. Swank noted that he had sent a memo to department heads about the Opening School Experience (OSE); part of the memo dealt with how the portfolios completed by students should be evaluated. He asked department heads to send him feedback.Dr. Atterbom raised the issue of grading the student teaching experience. Currently, a system of "S" or "U" is used; Dr. Atterbom suggested that the COE adopt the regular letter grade system (A,B,C). A lengthy discussion about this suggestion followed. Some of the comments included: there are different levels of performance in student teaching; there are advantages and disadvantages to both grading systems; what should be considered in the grading procedure for student teachers; how should the dispositions of student teachers be evaluated; how can we show that our student teachers affect student learning; there are a variety of factors to be considered in grading student teachers, such as knowledge of content, assessment ability, classroom management, etc.; what assessment instrument should be used. After the discussion, Dr. T. Reed asked that department heads discuss this issue with their departmental faculty. It was also suggested that the college supervisors could "poll" the mentor teachers being used this semester to get their opinions about changing the grading system.Dr. T. Reed asked that the departments report at future meetings about how they currently grade student teachers. At the April 11 meeting, Dr. McGahee, Dr. Ducharme, Dr. Atterbom, and Mr. Moss will report. At the April 25 meeting, Mr. Pearce, Dr. Gunter, and Dr. Gibbs will report.Dr. T. Reed stated that Dr. David Monetti and Ms. Vicki Burt will attend the Executive Committee meeting on April 4 to report on field experiences.Dr. M. Reed noted that the general test of the Graduate Record Examination (GRE) will be changed October, 2002. The analytical section will be replaced by an "analytical writing" section. The verbal and quantitative sections will not be changed.There being no further business, the meeting was adjourned at 9:45 a.m.

Respectfully submitted,

Donnie J. McGahee