The College of Education Executive Committee met on Thursday, September 7, 2000, at 8:30 a.m. in the Conference Room in the Education Center with Dr. T. Reed presiding. Members present were: Drs. McGahee, Ducharme, Bauer, Gibbs, Gunter, Atterbom, Siegrist, Price, Swank, Corbin, and Ms. Roberts.

Dr. T. Reed asked Dr. McGahee to provide a technology update. Dr. McGahee reported that the new computers were in the offices of all new faculty. By Friday morning, Mr. Watson should have the computers ready to deliver to the KSPE faculty. After KSPE, the next group to get computers will be EDL faculty. Dr. McGahee reported that the four new scanners purchased by Dr. T. Reed would be placed in the Psychology Building, the PE Complex, the Special Education and Communication Disorders Building, and in the IMC in the Education Center. Dr. T. Reed reported that Mr. Archibald's office, Microcomputer Support, had assumed responsibilities for the COE network as of yesterday. Mr. Watson's office will continue to handle problems with individual computers within the COE.

Dr. T. Reed stated that Dr. Levy had asked each college to provide documentation on how Recommendation #1 from the SACS report was handled. This recommendation deals with the use of data for decision making in program review. Each department head had brought copies of Tables 3-6 from his/her annual report; these tables listed program revisions within departmental programs. Dr. T. Reed asked each department head to provide (1) the data source(s), and (2) evidence showing that program changes had been made based on the data. This information is provided in the following table:

Dr. T. Reed asked department heads to send him the names of faculty they would like to nominate to send to the "Teaching and Learning Conference." From among the nominees, Dr. T. Reed will select the COE nominee and forward the name to Dr. Levy. Nominations should be made by the end of today.

Dr. T. Reed led a discussion focusing on the COE Conceptual Framework. He noted that the conceptual framework is one of the first items reviewed by an accrediting team. The conceptual framework should be viewed as the "gateway" into the COE teacher education programs. Once the framework is defined, it needs to be well articulated. A good conceptual framework should have parameters. The conceptual framework here at VSU should not be the same as the conceptual framework at another institution, such as Georgia State or the University of Georgia. The population served in South Georgia is different from populations served in other parts of the state.

Dr. T. Reed asked committee members to "brainstorm" about the region that we serve. Some of the ideas which were discussed:

· Many of the high school graduates from our region cannot gain admission to VSU; many of our entering students are from the Atlanta area.

· Very diverse population in our region.

· High drop-out rate in our region.

· Low socioeconomic backgrounds.

· High percentage of minority students.

· Very conservative population in our region.

· Limited access to technology.

· Lower percentage of high school students who complete the college prep curriculum in our region than in other regions of the state.

· Low pass rates on the graduation tests.

· Low educational levels of many parents.

· High percentage of white teachers compared to percentage of minority students in schools.

· Low number of advanced degrees in our region.

· High teenage pregnancy rates.

· Over-representation of minority students in special education classes.

· An increasing migrant student population.

· Lack of movement toward inclusionary practices in special education.

· Low literacy rate.

Discussion turned to what an educational system in a community should be able to accomplish. Some suggestions were:

· Teach all students to use technology.

· Involve parents in school; establish outreach to the community.

· Act as a change agent.

· Measure performance of students effectively.

Considering all of the above factors, how should/would teacher education programs in the COE be impacted' How should we prepare our students for this "real world'" What are the "basics" that we should expect our pre-service teachers to be able to do' Are we teaching our students to modify instruction to accommodate diversity' As teachers, COE faculty should be able to model these abilities--to demonstrate appropriate strategies to our students.

Dr. T. Reed noted that some of these goals should be long-range, probably five-year goals. He emphasized how all of the above factors should help us to "frame" the COE Conceptual Framework.

Dr. T. Reed announced that the conceptual framework would be discussed further at next week's meeting. He asked each department head to bring a list of several critical skills that all pre-service teachers should possess when they graduate; these skills should be measurable.

Dr. Swank announced that the debriefing meetings for OSE would be held tomorrow.

There being no further business, the meeting was adjourned at 10:15 a.m.

Respectfully submitted,

Donnie J. McGahee