Meeting Minutes: Committee on Educator Preparation
Academic Advisory Committee on Educator Preparation (EPAAC)
Meeting Minutes, February 9, 2001
Macon, Ga
John B. Black, Vice President for Academic Affairs at Dalton State College convened the meeting at 10:00 a.m. The minutes of the October 31, 2000, meeting (distributed earlier by e-mail) were approved.
It was moved and seconded (Lord/Patterson) that members continue to vote according to the practice used at earlier meetings: one vote for each two-year institution; two votes (one for the Education representative; one for the Arts and Sciences representative) for each four-year institution. The motion passed unanimously.
Jan Kettlewell provided a brief update on the governor's Education Reform Study Commission. Dr. Kettlewell noted that no change had been made to the issue papers that were distributed at the previous meeting. Information about the commission is available on the governor's web page (http://www.gagovernor.org/governor/mac_2001_ed_reform.html). The governor is to invite the chancellor to reconsider the Regents Principles on Education along the lines recommended by the Education Reform Study Commission. Also, the Education Coordination Council was discussing a "tiered-approach" to certification.
Following Dr. Kettlewell's report, there was an extended discussion, chaired by Joan Lord, concerning a report submitted by the committee studying B.S. and B.A. degrees in disciplines with teacher certification. Some of the points raised by participants throughout this discussion included the following:
- Several participants felt that the proposal of the committee went further than the Board of Regents Principles required. As a result, the proposal intruded on matters that were better left as campus decisions.
- Others felt that the proposal should allow for greater flexibility since a "one size fits all" approach was not appropriate to teacher education programs. The local functional units should be permitted to create the best structure for that institution's own students and needs.
- Still other participants felt that the proposal provided sufficient local safeguards for institutional autonomy because the functional unit of the institution controlled the curriculum.
- Some members felt that it was important to be proactive by adopting the committee's proposal. If the proposal were not adopted, these members felt, a less desirable course of action might be proposed in the legislature.
- It was noted by certain participants that there was a good deal of uncertainty about what "sanctions" would be imposed by the University System if a campus elected not to meet one of the standards.
With several substantive changes, a revised version of the committee's report was passed by the participants with a majority vote. (The revised version of this proposal appears as a separate document.)
Kirk Myers gave a report from the committee that had been exploring the possibility of allowing students who successfully complete the Praxis I exam to substitute that test for the Regents Exam. Initial data at Georgia Southwestern State University appears to indicate that Praxis I is significantly more demanding than the Regents Exam and that nearly every student who passes Praxis I also passes the Regents Exam.
Dr. Myers also noted that, at his institution, enrollments in secondary education programs appeared to be declining. He wondered whether this pattern existed at other institutions. Members were urged to e-mail enrollment information about secondary education programs, broken down by undergraduate and graduate programs, for fall, spring, and summer (separately) 1998, 1999, and 2000 to John Black.
Wil Campbell of Albany State University distributed a draft of a letter to Dr. F.D. Toth, Executive Secretary of the Professional Standards Commission, that expressed concern over perceived problems with the Praxis II exam. In providing a context for this letter, Dr. Campbell noted that institutions are frequently not told which students associate themselves with those institutions when taking the test. Moreover, repeated studies indicate that minority students do not do well with questions requiring negative reasoning skills ("all of the following except ...") and yet such questions still appear in many Praxis II exams. In certain disciplines, the formulation of the Praxis II exam varies from state to state, and yet the overall scores on the exam are compared as though the tests were identical. The Foreign Language Association of Georgia and the state's Academic Advisory Committee in Music have expressed concerns about the quality of the Praxis II exams in their disciplines.
Dr. Kettlewell distributed four documents: 2001 Refinements to the Regents' Principles for Preparation of School Leaders; 2001 Refinements to the Regents' Principles for Preparation of Teachers; the Advisory Committee for Refinements on Teacher Education; and Advisory Committee for Refinements on Preparation of School Leaders. She noted that a draft of these refinements will be presented to the Board of Regents at its March meeting and acted on in April.
Dr. Kettlewell also noted that the meeting scheduled for April 5-6 in Savannah would be an extension of the September meeting in Atlanta. A number of four-year campuses will have an opportunity to share their models of teacher preparation programs. Consultants will then add observations. Representatives of two-year campuses would hold parallel discussions.
Members then discussed articulation agreements between University System institutions and technical institutes. Armstrong Atlantic State University and Savannah Technical College have developed a transfer agreement for a child care worker program that transitions to a teacher preparation program. DTAE is interested in expanding this type of cooperative venture. Members expressed concern that SACS might object if faculty members at the technical institute have not earned at least a master's degree. It was noted that University System institutions needed to look very carefully at the credentials of technical institute faculty and the syllabi of their courses before committing to such agreements. Also, the technical institute would need to maintain the credentials of faculty members in the program as the personnel changed. A committee to explore these articulation agreements was formed and included Paul Beare, Ronnie Booth, Margaret Smith, Louis Castenell and Derek Mpinga.
Dr. Zinsmeister encouraged members to submit to her all corrections to the membership roster.
A flyer promoting the spring conference "Education in the Digital Age" at Callaway Gardens, April 18-20, 2001, was distributed. Faculty members should be encouraged to attend.
Dr. Larnell Flannagan asked that the alternative route certification programs be added to the agenda. There was some discussion as to how other universities were handling the requests from local school systems to offer evening, weekend, and/or summer session courses to help certify individuals who are long term subs with BA/BS/MS/MA degrees, but lacked coursework to be certified. GSU's deans indicated that they offered a post-bac program and WGCSU's representative said they have been working on this, and is willing to share more information with anyone interested. It was recommended that maybe Fran Watkins could be invited to the next meeting to discuss this matter in detail. Jan Kettlewell suggested that Fran be notified in order to learn more about how best to offer an alternative route to certify those holding non-teaching degrees.
Bernie Patterson, Dean of Arts and Sciences at Georgia College and State University, distributed a flyer encouraging members to vote for him to kiss a pig by making contributions to the Milledgeville/Baldwin County Boys and Girls Club. Many members, considering it highly desirable for Dr. Patterson to make his practice of smooching swine more public, immediately tendered their contributions. (Seriously, many members were delighted to contribute to this worthy cause.)
Respectfully submitted by Jeffrey L. Buller on March 14, 2001.