College of Education Hosts Florida Department of Education Team
The College of Education looks forward to hosting its first site visit from the Florida Department of Education, September 21-24, 2008. The purpose of the visit is a continuing program approval review of the College of Education’s MA degree in Elementary Education with an endorsement in English for Speakers of Other Languages (ESOL). The program, which has 40 graduate students enrolled, is designed for students interested in becoming elementary teachers but have bachelor’s degrees in areas other than education. Students, who come with degrees in accounting, psychology, and law, report that the program gives them the opportunity to follow their dreams of making a difference in the lives of children.
The three-person site visit team will use the Florida Department of Education’s Continuing Program Approval Standards to evaluate the program’s effectiveness in three areas: 1) the curriculum content delivered in the approved program includes the state of Florida’s Uniform Core Curriculum and all other state-mandated requirements; 2) each candidate in the approved program will demonstrate all competencies identified in Statute and Rule; and 3) the approved program implements processes to ensure continuous program improvement.
During the four-day site visit, the team will observe classes, speak with students, faculty, and university administrators, review student work, meet with the college’s community advisory board members, interview school district teachers and administrators, and evaluate the program’s system of continuous improvement.
“The site visit provides an opportunity for us to showcase the efforts of our faculty and students and as an external validation of this excellent program,” notes Dean Vivian Fueyo, Founding Dean of the College of Education.
Dr. Mark Howse, Assessment Coordinator at Bethune-Cookman University, will serve as team chair. The other team members are Dr. Lance Tomei, Director for Assessment, Accreditation, and Data Management at the University of Central Florida; and Dr. Adriana McEachern, Interim Dean of the College of Education at Florida International University. The site visit team will be accompanied by three non-voting members, Dr. Genae Crump, Program Director of Educator Preparation for the Florida Department of Education; Ms. Tonya Brown, DOE Educator Preparation Program Specialist; and Dr. Eugenia Russell-Cole, Director of Advising for Education at Florida Memorial University.
The team will prepare a written report with the findings of its visit. The report with the team’s decision will be sent to the university within three months of the site visit. Continuing program approval by the team will result in a seven-year approval by the Florida Department of Education for the College of Education to continue to offer this popular degree program leading to teacher certification.
The visit by the Florida Department of Education will be followed in September of 2009 by a site visit from the National Council for the Accreditation of Teacher Education (NCATE). The NCATE team will review evidence from the College of Education in relationship to six national standards: 1) candidates’ knowledge, skills and professional dispositions; 2) the college’s assessment system and unit evaluation; 3) field experiences and clinical practice; 4) diversity; 5) faculty qualifications, performance, and development; and 6) unit governance and resources.
