NORTHERN ARIZONA
UNIVERSITY
Professional Education Unit
Northern Arizona University
PO Box 5774
Flagstaff, AZ 86011-5774
928-523-7101
928-523-8700 Fax
Memo
To:Y. Evie Garcia, Associate Dean, Graduate College
From: Dr. Kathy Hildebrand, Assistant Vice Provost
CC: Dr. Lawrence Gallagher, Associate Dean College of Education; Dr. Jean Boreen, Associate Vice Provost College of Arts and Letters; Dr. Angela Hansen, lead faculty member English Education (CAL); Karina Collentine, lead faculty member Modern Languages Education (CAL); Dr. Dr. Denise Helm, Associate Vice Provost, College of Health and Human Services; Dr. Janet McShane, Interim Director, Center for Science Teaching and Learning; Sharon Cardenas, lead faculty member CMOST Science Education and MAT in Science Teaching (CSTL); Dr. Shannon Guerrero, lead faculty member CMOST Mathematics Education (CEFNS); Scott Galland, Curriculum Process Associate
Date: February 13, 2012
Re: Change of prefix for secondary education programs’ student teaching course
I write on behalf of the Professional Education Unit Coordinating Council.
Currently, all teacher education program faculties control the curricular portion of the student teaching course their candidates take, contribute to the supervision of their candidates’ student teaching experiences, analyze student teaching data and document their findings in their OAA annual assessment and Specialized Professional Association (SPA) reports. While some programs’ student teaching courseis housed within their major (i.e. Elementary Education has an ECI student teaching course, Special Education has an ESE student teaching course, etc.), all of the graduate secondary education programs share a single student teaching course that is currently housed in the Department of Teaching and Learning, and therefore has an ECI prefix.
The initial secondary teacher education faculties have requested, through their respective Coordinating Council representative, that all student teachingcourses be consistent and assume a course prefix indicative of the major. For the sake of efficiency, the plan change proposals required for this are being submitted as a package.
In addition to increasing consistency across the Professional Education Unit, this will allow student credit hour production to be attributed to the correct program. It will also increase the efficiency by which faculty workload reflecting effort associated with involvement in their program’s student teaching experiences is entered into the FAAR system.
This request involves changing the student teaching course prefixes only. Nothing about the course itself will be changed as a result of this proposal. The number of credit hours required for the course, the signature assignments for the course, and the general course syllabus will remain the same.
The general course syllabus documents policy and procedures applicable to all student teachers as well as the minimum criteria for passing the course. It is currently the prerogative of program faculty to include supplemental course requirements that may add to or increase the course passing criteria based on information specific programs need to document in order to meet their SPA requirements. All graduate secondary education programs need to include supplemental criteria for their candidates because of SPA reporting purposes, and all these programs need to have their own final evaluation tool that is developed to demonstrate their program’s SPA standards. This phenomenon provides further rationale for moving the secondary student teaching course from one course to program specific courses. Although the responsibility of the curricular aspects of the student teaching course rests with program faculties, secondary education candidate course admission and completion requirements will continue to be monitored through the same processes as candidates in other initial teacher education programs within the Professional Education Unit.
The following course numbers will replace ECI 595C:
ENG 595 ENGEDMA
SPA 595 TSPEDMAT
TSM 595 CMTCT, CSTCT, SCICTMAT
From: Jean M Boreen
Sent: Wednesday, February 15, 2012 2:44 PM
To: Nicole A Morrow
Subject: Letter of support for Prefix changes for CAL Ed student teaching courses
Hi Nicole:
Please accept this as the letter of support from the College of Arts and Letters for the change in student teaching prefix from ECI to ARE, ENG, HIS, SPA, FRE, GER, and MUS. We are very pleased that this has gone through for many reasons, most importantly, how our faculty will be given credit for their work through the new faculty reporting system.
Thanks,
Jean
Do let me know if you need something more formal than this.
Jean
Dr. Jean Boreen
Professor of English
Associate Dean, College of Arts and Letters
Northern Arizona University
Box 5064/Flagstaff, AZ 86011-5064
(928) 523-6765—W
(928) 523-8477—F