STANDARD 6

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.

Overview: The Education Department serves as the unit. The Department Chair administers the elementary education program which is the only program at PNC related to licensure of teachers. The Department Chair has oversight over the budget and related resources.

The Education Department at Purdue University North Central (PNC) is one of 10 academic departments within the university. The academic departments are organized into four divisions and the Education Department is a part of the Professional Studies Division with Business and Nursing. Currently, there are no divisional deans, so the department chairs report directly to the Vice Chancellor for Academic Affairs. (Exhibit 6.1.1: Campus Organizational Chart)

The primary authority for oversight of unit operations including personnel, budget, program planning and the coordination of the unit lies with the Department Chair. The Department Chair is responsible for scheduling, hiring associate faculty, convening program meetings, and providing leadership in curricular decisions and changes to ensure that all candidates meet standards. She also participates in the Department Chair meetings called by the Vice Chancellor for Academic Affairs.

When the Education Department became academically autonomous in 2003, several committees were formed to ensure community participation in program design, implementation, and evaluation. Since the department has a small full-time faculty consisting of 5 members all department committees are committees of the whole. The first committee formed was the TEAM (Teachers Engaged and Motivated) committee. This committee has the primary responsibility of collaborating to work toward program improvement and is chaired by the Department Chair. Initially, the TEAM committee developed the conceptual framework in conjunction with our school partners. Currently it has met weekly to work on curriculum design and alignment with the PNC outcomes, and the assessment of candidates and the elementary education program. (Exhibit 6.1.2: TEAM Meeting Minutes) Beginning in the fall 2006 the TEAM committee will take on the role of the Curriculum and Assessment Committee for the Education Department and will have scheduled monthly meetings.

Faculty members are also appointed or may volunteer for ad-hoc committees within the department. An example of an ad-hoc committee is a committee that was formed in spring 2005 to develop a program proposal for the addition of Reading to the early and middle childhood elementary teaching license. This committee was made up of the two full-time literacy instructors and the Director of Field Experiences who is currently pursuing a Ph.D. in literacy.

Three other committees have been established to ensure collaboration with stakeholders. The first of these is the University Council for Teacher Education (UCTE). The committee is made up of area teachers, school principals, arts and sciences faculty, alumni, and current teacher education candidates. This committee meets once a semester to provide advice on program related issues. The second committee is the Content Area Council which is made up of arts and sciences faculty from departments which provide content area courses for education candidates. They meet once a year to discuss and provide advice related to curriculum and education program issues. The third committee is the Candidate Council. This group meets once a semester or as needed to discuss issues related to candidate concerns and to provide advice on program issues. It is made up of teacher education representatives from education block courses. (Exhibit 6.1.3: Meeting Minutes for UCTE, Content Area Council, Candidate Council)

Education candidates are admitted to the unit directly by the PNC Office of Admissions into either Education or Pre-Education. Candidates who are not fully qualified, but who may be qualified after successfully completing freshman level coursework are admitted into Pre-Education. (Exhibit 6.1.4: Admission Criteria for Pre-Education) This ensures that they receive appropriate advising to help them be successful in their pursuit of the elementary education program. Freshmen are all advised by the education academic advisor to ensure that they receive information related to the policies and procedures of the Education Department. They also participate in orientation to the campus and the education department. (Exhibit 6.1.5: Orientation Materials)

All policies including those related to grades and admissions and retention are included in the PNC catalog. An electronic version is accessible at http://www.pnc.edu/catalog/index.html A printed copy is also available, but candidates are apprised that the most current information is available in the electronic version. Candidates are notified of changes via their PNC e-mail accounts and changes in policies and curriculum are posted on the Education Department website at http://www.pnc.edu/ed.

Course offerings are published two times a year in the Class Schedule Bulletin which provides information on the academic calendar, tuition and fees, and other information related to academic practices. Candidates are also able to access an electronic schedule of classes via http://www.pnc.edu/schedule/index.html and are advised that this is the most reliable version of the class schedule.

Candidates are expected to maintain high standards related to academic conduct and personal behavior while participating in classes, in campus-related activities and when engaged in course related activities including field experiences. All university policies related to student conduct can be found at http://www.pnc.edu/cd/policy/policies.html (Exhibit 6.1.6: Connections: PNC Student Handbook) In addition, candidates are advised of expectations for behavior during field experiences at the beginning of courses that have a field experience. (Exhibit 6.1.7: Course Syllabi and Exhibit 6.1.8: Student Teaching Handbook)

When candidates are admitted to the Education program they are all assigned to work with the education academic advisor. When candidates are admitted to Block III and begin taking education methods courses, they are assigned a full-time faculty member to be their academic advisor. Candidates may schedule individual appointments, or if appropriate, participate in group advising sessions. Candidates also receive graduation and licensing information from the education academic advisor who also serves as licensing advisor. The academic advisor works closely with the candidates to give them an overview of the program and to help them schedule classes. At the completion of Block II she works with them to develop a Plan of Study for their remaining courses in the program. (Exhibit 6.1.9: Plan of Study examples) At this point candidates are assigned to a full-time faculty member for academic advising.

Candidates may be referred to the PNC Counselor, Diana Marovich as appropriate. She is a qualified mental health professional and is available to PNC students for confidential counseling and is also able to refer candidates when more intensive services are needed. Further information about her services may be found at http://www.pnc.edu/sa/counsel.html

Table 6.1 shows annual budgetary allocation and trend for the Education Department and two other units within the university over the past four years. (Exhibit 6.2.1: Budgets)

Faculty is encouraged to apply to the Vice Chancellor for Academic Affairs (VCAA) for faculty development funds to support travel to professional conferences and workshops. Release time, sabbatical leaves of absence and summer research grants are also funded by the VCAA (Exhibit 6.2.2: Professional Development Criteria and Funding) Beginning in fall 2000, a $10,000 account was established to assist probationary tenure track faculty in developing a scholarship agenda. (Exhibit 6.2.3: Probationary Faculty Development Funding) Table 6.2 shows how the professional development funds have been allocated by the VCAA.

The Department Chair is also provided with funding separate from faculty development funds to attend one professional conference a year by the Office of the Chancellor.

The unit currently employs the following on a full-time basis: four tenure-track faculty members, one continuing lecturer, a Director of Field Experiences, an Academic/Licensing Advisor, and one clerical support staff member. In addition, a full-time faculty member in the mathematics department teaches one education course, five part-time instructors teach Education courses and seven part-time instructors are university supervisors for student teaching.

Full-time tenure-track faculty members are expected to teach courses as assigned within the range equivalent to 11-14 contact hours per week per semester. Continuing lecturers are assigned courses equivalent to 14-16 contact hours. When faculty members are assigned the supervision of student teachers, the supervision of three placements is equivalent to three contact hours. In addition to teaching, faculty are expected to engage in academic advising and all full-time faculty members have been assigned to advise candidates in Blocks III, IV, V, and VI. All full-time Education faculty members have the equivalent of a 12 hour contact hour schedule. The Department Chair is expected to have a six contact hour teaching schedule. (Exhibit 6.3.1: Faculty Job Descriptions)

All part-time faculty members are provided an orientation at the beginning of the fall semester by the Education Department as well as the university. (Exhibit 6.3.2: Part-time Faculty Orientation Materials) At this orientation, they are informed of the unit’s procedures and policies. As needed, they may also receive additional professional development in the use of technology. The university encourages all faculty members to make use of WebCT VISTA and provides regular support for its use. (Exhibit 6.3.3: WebCT VISTA resources and materials) In addition candidates in the Education Department are required to use TaskStream. All part-time faculty members who have key assignments aligned with their course have been trained in the use of TaskStream. (Exhibit 6.3.4: TaskStream training materials)

The Director of Field Experiences oversees the placement of all student teachers and makes initial contacts for field placements. The Academic/Licensing Advisor advises all Education candidates until they are enrolled in Block III. She also advises student teachers concerning how to apply for the teaching license and works with teachers in the local community to renew their teaching licenses.

The department chair’s office is located in the Technology Building and all faculty offices are within the same suite of offices. Each member of the full-time faculty has an individual office with a computer, telephone, and other office equipment according to their faculty assignment. Part-time faculty may share office space with other part-time faculty from other units if it is requested.

The Technology Building also houses the computer lab which is used for the required education technology courses EDCI 270 Introduction to Educational Technology and Computing and EDCI 271 Classroom Applications of Educational Technology. This lab is managed by the Department of Information Services and is one of the campus computer lab classrooms. In addition, Technology 214 is designated as a classroom for use by the Education Department only. Some curricular materials are housed here. When requested, other departments may utilize this classroom when it is available.

Teacher education candidates are in elementary schools on a regular basis and are able to make use of the school libraries and curricular materials that will be used to plan instruction and prepare materials that will be used for the instruction of students in that school. Some technology equipment is available for candidates to use when they are teaching in classrooms in our partnership schools. It is also available for faculty when they are teaching candidates in a designated classroom in the partnership schools.

Element 5: Unit Resources Including Technology

Information presented in Element 2 Unit Budget is indicative of university financial support of the unit. In addition, PNC provides resources from the Information Services Department (IS) and the PNC Library to Education candidates and faculty.

PNC provides all students with access to campus e-mail, the internet, and to its networked resources, including file storage space on a student file server. Wireless network access is also available on campus. Also available to students and faculty, both on- and off-campus, is access to the WebCT VISTA course management system.

IS maintains an open computer lab which provides over 100 PC desktop computers with full access to the network, internet, laser printers, a color scanner, and handicapped-accessible computers. The lab is open regularly and a lab attendant is available when the lab is open. In addition, the campus supports a number of specialized facilities which provide students with access to computers with the same software and network capabilities, including the Learning Center, Language Lab, Writing Center, and the Cyber Café.

Upgrades of student and faculty computers are funded through the campus budget. The upgrading of these computers is managed by IS which has established a process so that about one third of the computers on campus are replaced each year. The newest computers are used to upgrade the main student labs. The computers made available by this process are redistributed to other labs and to faculty, often after upgrades to memory and central processing units have been performed.

IS also provides support to education faculty by updating and maintaining specific databases and EdVanta, the resource package that is utilized by the PNC registrar, admissions and the student services office. IS has worked closely with the Education Department to develop a data base that will support our assessment system. While this data base is not in full operation, IS has provided support in using ACCESS as a database system.

There are 13 general purpose classrooms on campus which are equipped with projection equipment and computers with internet access for instructional use. If an instructor is assigned to a classroom where these features are not available, there are 4 AV carts on campus and one will be provided upon request. This allows faculty to integrate a variety of technology into classes for instructional purposes. At this time, Technology 214, the designated classroom for education does not have this equipment, but internet access is available. IS also has several laptop computers that may be checked out by faculty.

Library support is provided to students and faculty by the PNC Library which is located in the LSF building. The library has a total collection of 84,755 volumes and subscribes to 33 print journals in Education, including 23 titles that are aimed at elementary education or teacher education. The library also has online access to 200 education journals, including 47 titles in the field of special education and 118 titles in teaching methods and curriculum. Students and faculty may access the PNC library catalog and links for journal articles, books and other libraries at the library’s website at http://www.pnc.edu/depts/ls/index.html.

During fiscal 2004-2005, the library purchased 118 books in the area of education with a total expenditure of $3,558.42. The following periodical databases may also be accessed through the library:

Other databases that may assist in student research are Expanded Academic Index ASAP, Academic Search Elite, and the ERIC Digital Library (107,000 full-text non-journal documents).

Department	Faculty FTE	Credit Hours/FTE	Department Credit Hours	Budgeted Academic Salaries	Total Direct Budget
Unit Resources – 2002-2003
Education	4	121	1822	382,377	390,130
Business	7	284	4258	458,928	469,481
Nursing	11	97	1459	666,207	678,094
Unit Resources – 2003-2004
Education	5	99	1489	338,486	346,739
Business	8	300	4504	465,048	477,152
Nursing	13	114	1706	680,736	694,623
Unit Resources – 2004-2005
Education	5	92	1379	350,086	358,339
Business	9	280	4200	566,270	578,374
Nursing	11.60	132	1984	744,776	758,663
Unit Resources – 2005-2006
Education	5.5	89	1331	365,038	376,566
Business	9	294	4414	539,324	551,428
Nursing	12.10	158	2366	718,094	731,981

Department	2003-2004	2004-2005
Education	2,074.18	3,491.89
Business	1,605.08	5,185.00
Nursing	1,707.00	2,307.60