Unit Governance and Resources
6a. Unit Leadership and Authority
Unit management and coordination of programs. At
Southeastern, COEHD has the responsibility to coordinate programs
for initial and continuing preparation of teachers and other PK-12
school personnel. All departments within COEHD and departments
outside COEHD that offer and deliver curricula for degrees in
teacher certification are coordinated by COEHD. The COEHD
Organizational Flow Chart
(Exhibit 6a.1) describes the Unit’s responsibility to
include all entities in regard to teacher certification. COEHD
manages the Unit through the CTE. The Council, made up of
representatives from each teacher education program at
Southeastern and school partners, reviews and must approve all
teacher education design plans as well as catalogue changes to
existing programs.
Professional community participation. In addition to
faculty representatives, the CTE has both public school and
student representation. Approval from the CTE membership is
required before changes to a teacher education program can be
referred to the University Curriculum Council and the Provost.
Discussion and input from CTE members precedes approval by the
full committee. See the CTE web site for CTE membership, archived
meeting minutes and by-laws
(Exhibit 6a.2).
Candidates’ access to student services and counseling.
The Unit ensures that all teacher
education candidates have access to both academic advising and
personal/mental health counseling. Academic advising by senior
advisors in the Center for Student Excellence is required for all
freshmen in COEHD. After the second semester, candidates for
teacher education programs are assigned to a faculty mentor in
their academic department. The faculty mentors are responsible
for advising, curriculum mapping, career planning, and course
substitutions if needed. See COEHD Faculty Handbook policy on
advising in
Exhibit 6a.3. The Teacher Development Center
(Exhibit 6a.4) receives referrals from faculty for
candidates who exhibit disposition issues or other difficulties in
their professional education course work. Candidates may also be
referred to the Southeastern Comprehensive Counseling Center
(Exhibit 6a.5) for personal and mental health
counseling.
Recruiting and admission policies. The Selective
Admissions and Retention in Teacher Education Committee (SARTE)
monitors the recruiting, admission, and retention of candidates
into or from any of the teacher education programs (Exhibit
6a.6).
Accuracy of academic information. University and Unit
recruiting and admission policies are accurately described in
various forms of media. The accuracy of these published documents
is assured by the requirement that all such documents are produced
by the Office of Public Information. Click here for electronic
examples of publications including admission and recruitment
policies.
6b.
Unit Budget.
Budget to support programs. The University and COEHD budgets
are displayed in exhibits
6b.1 and
6b.2.
Exhibit 6b.3 shows that COEHD is the second
highest funded college of five at Southeastern per student credit
hour produced.
Financial support for professional development. Funds are
provided for professional development of faculty through the CFE
and supplemented by individual departments.
Exhibit 6b.4 displays faculty who received
professional development funds.
Budget changes from last visit. For the 2007-08 academic
year, Southeastern received a $20 million dollar increase in
funding from the state legislature to bring funding to the
Southern Regional Average. This funding was used to enhance the
quality of COEHD programs. The 2007-2008 budget is listed in
Exhibit 6b.5.
6c. Personnel
Institution and unit policies. Faculty workload policies
at Southeastern are listed in both the University Faculty Handbook
(Exhibit 6c.1) and the COEHD Faculty Handbook (Section
5,
Exhibit 6c.2).
Workloads for teaching and clinical supervision. The
actual faculty teaching load at Southeastern is 15 hours, but
faculty are given reassigned time to conduct other tasks for which
they are responsible. Workloads for COEHD faculty are 12 hours
for undergraduate faculty, 9 hours for master’s level faculty, and
6 hours for doctoral level faculty. Actual faculty
workload data can be calculated from the annual PEDS reports that
are submitted to AACTE each year.
PEDS reports are archived at the following web site in the
NCATE electronic exhibit room at and summarized for the last three
years in
Exhibit 6c.3. COEHD faculty supervise student
teachers and interns as part of their faculty workload. The Title
2 institutional report card includes actual faculty load in regard
to student teaching supervision.
Exhibit 6c 4 gives the actual student teaching ratio
reported in the last four Title 2 reports. These ratios are
between 3.8 and 5.4 (the 5.4 was an anomaly).
Relationship between workload and productivity. Faculty
T&P policies
(Exhibit 6c.5) describe the expectations for faculty
workload. These policies and practices permit and encourage
faculty to engage in a wide range of activities on a community,
state, regional, and/or national level. The work climate within
the Unit promotes intellectual vitality, best practices, and
scholarship. Faculty productivity may be evidenced by the quality
and quantity of professional activities in the areas of teaching,
professional activity, and service. These are summarized in the
Standard 5 report and reported in
Exhibit 6c.6.
Use
of part-time faculty. COEHD hires both full-time and
part-time faculty to meet the College’s mission. The full-time
faculty are the primary faculty who teach COEHD majors. Part-time
and adjunct faculty are used in emergency situations when
full-time faculty members cannot immediately be replaced, while a
search is being conducted, or to help carry out the College’s
mission of outreach and public service to the service region.
Exhibits
6c.7 and
6c.8 list information about the composition of the
COEHD faculty, by academic rank by college for the past few years.
Support personnel. A list of support personnel within the
COEHD is found in
Exhibit 6c.9. The support staff includes civil
service full time clerical and secretarial staff, graduate
assistants, and student workers.
6d.
Unit Facilities
Adequacy of facilities. The Unit has outstanding facilities
on campus and with PK-12 partners to support candidates in meeting
standards. In 2003, the Teacher Education Center (TEC) was
expanded to add a new wing that provides 14 additional classrooms,
34 additional faculty offices, two new computer labs, and a
200-seat lecture hall. Additionally, greatly updated technology
teaching resources make the enhanced TEC an outstanding facility
for educator preparation. The TEC houses the Department of
Teaching and Learning, the Department of Educational Leadership
and Technology, and the Southeastern Laboratory School (K-8),
which was renovated at the same time that the new TEC annex was
built. The lab school offers one section of each K-8 grade level
and includes a gymnasium; music, A-V, and science rooms; and
teachers’ work room/lounge. The TEC Learning Resource Center (LRC)
serves Department of Teaching and Learning faculty and students
through materials and services. The librarian consults the
Department Head and the Director of the Laboratory School when
acquiring and/or updating materials. Significant technology
purchases made in recent years are available for reference or
instructional use by faculty. In addition to conventional library
resources, the LRC operates a LAN throughout the TEC building.
The
Department of Counseling and Human Development (CHD), located in
White Hall on the south side of the campus, offers a CACREP
accredited Counselor Education master’s degree program and the
Family Consumer Sciences degree programs. The CWSE-accredited
Social Work (SW) degree program is also a part of CHD and is
located in McGee Hall. A White Hall renovation project is on the
state capital outlay schedule and is scheduled to begin during the
2007-08 academic year. The renovation of White Hall will allow SW
faculty and staff to move into White Hall in December 2007 so that
all CHD programs will be in the same building.
Sims Memorial Library continues to provide materials and
professional support required by the various academic disciplines
of the University, as well as within the Unit, in their pursuit of
teaching effectiveness and quality scholarship. In addition to
traditional library facilities, the library houses a Media
Department, the Center for Southeast Louisiana Studies, and a
computer laboratory. The library provides access to
resources such as ERIC, CIJE, and RIE. Online access to the
ERIC collection is provided through EbscoHost with links to
full-text for some recent journal articles and to the ERIC website
for most ERIC documents published since 1993. ERIC Documents
produced before September 30, 2004, are also available on
microfiche in the Government Documents Department of the Library.
During the 1999-2000 academic year, the library began a
multi-faceted restructuring of its journal collection. Library
faculty and students may now access the
library’s indexes and full-text databases, including ProQuest
Education Journals and Wilson Education Abstracts, from remote
locations, thereby meeting the needs of a growing population
of distance learners. Beginning in February 2001, Sims Memorial
Library purchased several collections of full text electronic
books (ebooks) from
net Library to augment the print book collection. The Library
is a member of the statewide Louisiana Academic Library
Information Network Consortium (LALINC) of public and private
college and university libraries. Through this consortium
Southeastern faculty, staff and students have reciprocal borrowing
privileges at member libraries.
Turtle Cove Environmental Research Station is the field
research station of Southeastern’s College of Science and
Technology. Its predominant use is by faculty and students in the
Biology Department, but teacher education and PK-12 partnership
programs also use it. Other outstanding off-campus facilities
include the
Livingston Parish Literacy and Technology Center, which opened
in Fall 2005 as a result of a 1999 partnership between
Southeastern, Livingston Parish School Board, and the federal
court. The Center offers Southeastern core curriculum
courses
including COEHD evening undergraduate and graduate courses,
continuing
education programs, business training,
community
music programs, high school scholars program, and
summer academic camps. The
St. Tammany Center, located in Mandeville near the
intersection of I-12 and Louisiana 59, enrolls approximately 2,000
students each semester in core curriculum classes, including both
undergraduate methods and graduate education courses. In
addition, the Unit offers off-campus undergraduate and graduate
courses for continuing preparation of teachers and administrators
in several surrounding parishes.
6e.
Unit Resources Including Technology
Technology resources to support faculty and students. Faculty
and candidates have wide access to library, curricular, and
informational
technology resources to prepare educators to integrate
technology into PK-12 instruction. In addition, Southeastern
utilizes Blackboard as the electronic course management system for
all courses offered at Southeastern. All TEC classrooms are
equipped with Smart Boards and computers with video projectors,
and the TEC has a video conference room and four computer
laboratories. Exhibit
6e.1 displays a
list of TEC technology resources. White Hall technology resources
for the Social Work, Counseling, and Family and Consumer Science
degree programs also include Smart Boards and projectors in all
classrooms.
Exhibit 6e.2 lists White Hall technology resources.
Faculty self report their technology usage in annual performance
assessment surveys, while student usage of technology is monitored
by examination of their electronic portfolio artifacts. The
University provides funds to replace every faculty and staff
computer every three years.
Resources to support assessment system. The Unit’s assessment
plan is supported by
PASS-PORT), a data base
management system designed for the assessment system. The Board
of Regents originally developed and paid for the use of PASS-PORT
for all Louisiana universities. In 2006, the system was sold to a
private provider and now candidates are required to purchase a
seven-year license to PASS-PORT in their first education course.
All assessment artifacts are stored in the database, which allows
aggregation of all data on demand. Through its Gradebook feature,
Blackboard also allows faculty to manage assessment of their
students and students to track their own progress.
Library and curricular resources. In addition to assisting
students and faculty, the Unit serves as an information technology
resource beyond teacher preparation programs, serving the Unit,
the institution, and community. In 2006-2007, Sims Library
provided 198 presentations to groups totaling approximately 4,694
individuals. To ensure currency, Sims solicits the Unit faculty
annually for education acquisitions.
The CFE serves the Unit and institution with current
information on a wide variety of topics including personal and
professional growth, funding opportunities, and service learning.
The Center also helps faculty assess and incorporate technology
into their teaching through workshops, seminars, and
individualized training. |
