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Standard 5: Faculty Qualifications, Performance, and Development
The College of Education and Human Services faculty have earned doctorates, have background and continuing experiences in schools at the levels they supervise, and engage in meaningful scholarship. Clinical faculty hold current state certificates or licenses in the fields they teach and supervise. Clinical faculty who serve as adjunct instructors are recognized as master teachers, experts in their field, or hold doctorates in their field. In alignment with our Conceptual Framework strands for Content Knowledge and Pedagogical Content Knowledge, College faculty are experts in the content they teach and in appropriate pedagogy to best teach that content. Faculty read current literature and research in their field and participate in professional organizations to help them refine their teaching (NCATE Faculty Vitae).
Wright State University and the College of Education and Human Services offer New Faculty Orientations each fall. At the beginning of each academic year, the College holds an annual College Faculty Retreat with professional development opportunities featuring invited guests to explore various topics related to diversity, technology, and effective teaching.
The retirement of several CEHS faculty members during the period 1996–2000 has provided the College an opportunity to make hiring decisions for new faculty that directly align with priorities in diversity and technology held by both the University and the College (Faculty Retirements).
CEHS Diversity
|
Fall 2001*
|
Faculty
|
Staff
|
| Male |
23
|
9
|
| Female |
31
|
25
|
| African American |
7
|
7
|
| Asian |
0
|
1
|
| Hispanic |
2
|
0
|
| White |
46
|
26
|
* Actual individuals; not FTE’s.
CEHS Human Resources (FTE’s)
|
Personnel |
96/97
|
99/00 |
00/01 |
|
Professor |
13.33 |
11.33 |
10.00 |
|
Associate Professor |
17.56 |
18.25 |
17.41 |
|
Assistant Professor |
14.49 |
16.49 |
19.97 |
|
Instructor/Lecturer |
2.00 |
3.67 |
4.00 |
|
Total Faculty |
47.38 |
49.74 |
51.38 |
|
Adjunct |
19.00 |
23.34 |
28.44 |
|
GA/s (IGA = .33 FTE) |
8.58 |
8.58 |
8.58 |
|
Unclassified |
10.80 |
11.40 |
12.00 |
|
Classified |
19.75 |
19.51 |
19.56 |
Teaching, Scholarship, and Service
Teaching is the primary responsibility of every faculty member. Candidate learning and performance are the focus for teaching decisions. Faculty employ a variety of appropriate teaching and assessment methods to meet the diverse learning needs of candidates (Course Syllabi). All courses include reflective practices, diversity issues, and technology applications. Candidates document these activities in journals, portfolios, and class assignments. Faculty regularly receive consulting requests, grants, and awards for innovative teaching (Faculty Grants; Awards; Publications and Presentations; NCATE Vitae).
The significance of teaching and advising in maintaining a sustained focus on student performance is reflected by the Unit’s strong undergraduate retention rate. Although the CEHS undergraduate enrollment is not the University’s largest by any measure, from July 1, 1999, to June 30, 2000, the College awarded 19.5 percent of the University’s bachelor’s degrees, a total of 327—or the second highest number of graduates (Advising and Monitoring Candidates).
The Unit Self-study focused on the alignment of our programs with NCATE 2000 Standards and assisted faculty in moving from an emphasis on input to candidate performance evidence and documenting impact on P–12 student learning. This shift to include candidate performance outcomes in our measures of success represents a major change in data analysis, requiring time and resources (Unit Assessment Plan).
In compliance with University requirements to annually report academic outcomes for every College degree program, the 2000–2001 CEHS Assessment Plan also identified the assessment of specific outcomes aligned with the NCATE 2000 Standards:
2. The efficacy of courses, field experiences, and programs.
3. Candidate content knowledge, and when appropriate, demonstrated
teaching that leads to
student learning.
During the 2000-2001 academic year, the faculty focused on teaching effectiveness, candidate outcomes, and current practices in the alignment of our programs with the Conceptual Framework, NCATE 2000 Standards, and Title II in the following ways:
1.Analyzing course
content and teaching in the context of the Conceptual Framework and
professional standards (Program
Alignment with the Conceptual Framework; INTASC/
Conceptual
Framework Alignment; Program
Alignment with Learned Society Standards).
2. Documenting the
types of assessment activities used in courses and identifying areas
needing improvement (Program
of Study Performance Assessments).
3. Documenting the
integration of diversity and technology throughout our programs of
study (Course
Syllabi; Program
Alignment with the Conceptual Framework).
4. Examining our
candidates’ scores on state required Praxis II tests to identify
and align
tested concepts with course content and requirements.
Professional Development
College faculty are actively engaged in scholarly activities related to teaching and learning in their field, creative endeavors, grant funding, and research (NCATE Faculty Vitae). Faculty attend conferences, seminars, and workshops to continue the process of professional growth as lifelong learners. To promote participation and involvement, since 1999 the Dean has allocated $1,500 a year to full-time members of the faculty for professional development activities. This funding is in addition to the professional development funds provided all full-time faculty by their respective departments. These actions directly support the values articulated in the Technology and Professionalism strands of our Conceptual Framework.
The significance of technology in teaching and learning is an ongoing professional development activity. Technology access and skill development are priorities emphasized in the CEHS Technology Plan. In addition to College and department-sponsored workshops, training for faculty in classroom and office technology applications is provided by WSU’s Center for Teaching and Learning (CTL), Computing and Telecommunications Services (CaTS), and the University Libraries. College faculty are actively involved in developing faculty pages, course websites, and fully online distance learning courses. In 2000, the College began the process of developing and offering the first online master’s degree program in rehabilitation counseling.
The University’s Office of Research and Sponsored Programs has established internal competitive grants to support faculty engaging in additional scholarly activities and professional development opportunities. Faculty Professional Development Leaves are also available to tenured faculty to pursue scholarly activity on a full-time basis for a designated period of time.
Collaboration
Externally funded grant activity has increased over the last five years in terms of the number of proposals that have been submitted and funded (CEHS Grants Summary). Grant funding has been crucial in providing faculty with opportunities to pursue professional research goals, collaborate with our education partners, and to gain support for new initiatives. The Regents Scholars Program represents such a collaborative initiative. Launched in February 2001 with the hiring of a program coordinator, this state-funded, multi-university collaborative focuses on the creation of a joint distance-education graduate program in mathematics and science education. Currently, 13 institutions are participating in the program.
Since the last NCATE visit, College faculty have been engaged in a wide range of collaborative partnerships, including professional development sites, special projects, grants, contracts, multi-university endeavors, and national consortia (CEHS Annual Reports: 1997–2001). Over the past five years, processes to obtain formal approval and written agreements for partnerships have been developed to assist the College of Education and Human Services in both managing and documenting these efforts (Partnership Agreement; Partnership Timeline: 1992–2001). Partnership projects that involve reassigned or release time for faculty or expenditures of College funds are submitted to the Dean for review and approval.
The development of more formal partnerships enables our faculty to collaborate with education partners to improve our programs and educational experiences for our candidates. A CEHS Partnership Committee has been formed to oversee existing partnerships and to process future partnership applications (Partnership Governance Structure; Partnership Committee Minutes;). Partnership endeavors are mutual within the philosophy of NNER and include collaborative efforts in school reform, professional presentations, and co-authored journal publications (An Introduction to the Partnerships).
Faculty Evaluation
Faculty have been developing new department bylaws in response to union representation by the American Association of University Professors (AAUP). Once adopted, the new department bylaws will define annual review criteria, promotion and tenure criteria, and required mentoring criteria for new and untenured faculty. The Wright State University Faculty Handbook and the CEHS Policies and Procedures Manual (Section 3) outlines the current faculty performance and appraisal process and emphasizes the development and improvement of professional competence and productivity. Students evaluate faculty on standard University end-of-course evaluations.
The purpose of the multiple forms of feedback is to provide faculty with information that will contribute to their professional growth and performance. Wright State’s Center for Teaching and Learning (CTL) provides assistance to faculty through peer-evaluations of teaching, professional development planning, and portfolio development for promotion and tenure.
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