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STANDARD 6: UNIT GOVERNANCE AND RESOURCES

 

6.1

 

The Teacher Education Unit (TEU) housed in the School of Educational and Behavioral Sciences (SoEBS) maintains all educator preparation programs through the Teacher Education Council (TEC). The Dean is the unit head, reports to the Vice President of Academic Affairs, and is supported by the Director of Unit Assessment & Accreditation, Director of Teacher Education, Certification, & Field Experiences, four Department Heads/Chairs, and the Director of Graduate Programs (Evidence: TEU Org Chart). The Langston University-Oklahoma City campus houses the Master of Education (M.Ed.) program and its five options, Bilingual/Multicultural, Educational Leadership, Elementary Education, English s a Second Language, & Urban Education. Educational Leadership is the only M.Ed. program that leads to educator certification and has been on voluntary moratorium since 2013. The Langston University-Tulsa campus offers initial certification in Elementary Education and Special Education. LU-Tulsa also offers the M.Ed. option of Urban Education.

 

The Dean, in consultation with the TEC, governs and has overall administrative responsibilities for the unit. The TEC is comprised of representatives from the teacher education programs at the university. It serves as a coordinating body and disseminates information to Program Chairs, Department Heads, and the Director of Graduate Programs.

 

The unit receives sufficient budgetary allocations to support programs preparing candidates to meet standards. The submitted proposed 2012-13, 2013-14, budgets reflect the actual budgets for the indicated years. Expenditures by activity/function, department, position and objective and the 2015 budget were reviewed (Exhibits 6.4.f –g). These documents indicate categories for personnel expenditures, travel, equipment and supplies. The SoEBS’s state-appropriated funds are commensurate with its mission and comparable to other schools in the University. Regular budget allocations are supplemented by grants, including Title III funding, to support various initiatives. Since there are also required clinical components to programs within the School of Nursing and Health Professions, their allocation is used as the comparative budget. Even in these challenging budget times, the President, Vice President of Academic Affairs, and Vice President of Fiscal and Administrative Affairs have acknowledged the importance of the unit’s clinical fieldwork, work with PreK-12 schools, assessment, and accreditation efforts by maintaining funding to support these activities.  

 

According to the 2009 Faculty Handbook (Exhibit 6.4.a, p. 69),

 

“the departmental average teaching load shall not exceed twenty-seven hours per academic year. A faculty member who teaches only graduates course shall have an eighteen-hour graduate teaching load. A mixed graduate and undergraduate teaching load shall be computed at a ratio of three graduate hours equal four undergraduate hours. Faculty members teaching twelve or more undergraduate hours may be allowed to teach one overload class per semester. Faculty members may accept one additional overload assignment per year provided that the assignment is either for service or scholarly activity.”

 

Faculty load over the past three years has exceeded the recommended load per academic year (Evidence: Faculty Table 2012-2015).  The Vice President of Academic Affairs has noted this as an across the campus and is not unique to the unit. To address faculty load within the SoEBS, Department Chairs/Program Directors have been charged with ensuring faculty maintain an advisement matrix (instituted in fall 2015) to better track candidate need for course offerings and decrease courses being offered with low enrollment (Evidence: Advisement Matrix available on site).

 

The Advisement and Mentoring handbook provides candidates in the initial program information on portfolio assessment, advisement, enrollment, scholarships, and degree plans of study. There is a policy for counseling students out of the teacher education program, including procedures for due process.

 

The university offers several face-to-face and virtual services for students. Harrison, LU-OKC, and LU-Tulsa libraries, as well as the Tolson Black Heritage Center, serve as the primary research collections (Exhibit 6.4.c., p.21). The Harrison Library is the main library, and the Tolson Black Heritage Center’s collection contains more than 7,000 volumes of work and several black newspapers and periodicals. It also offers 44 public-use computers with internet access. The LU-Tulsa library is a digital learning resource center. There are labs and other programs located across the campuses, including the instructional resource center, audiovisual center, reading, writing, math, and music labs. The technology at LU connects students to common educational links among Oklahoma institutions, business, health-related centers, and other historically black colleges. A counseling center is available on the main campus, as well as student health services, a child development center, career services, and places for students to interact socially and informally (Hale Student Success Center; Coleman Heritage Center).

 

Candidates have access to academic calendars, catalogs, program publications, and grading policies are established.

 

6.2.b

 

The current faculty handbook, dated 2009, is a university level publication that is managed through the office of the Vice President of Academic Affairs. A committee of faculty and administrators was convened in 2015 to review and update the university’s faculty handbook; the goal is to submit the recommended document to the faculty senate in January 2016. The Dean serves on this committee.  For the TEU, the Assessment & Curriculum Committee has identified the need for a TEU Faculty Handbook. The TEU Faculty Handbook is anticipated to be drafted in spring 2016 and implemented summer 2016. The handbook will reflect the unit’s governance and communicate policies and procedures such as the TEC constitution and bylaws, role of the Advisory Council, yearly assessment and handbook reviews, Program Quality and Internal Review process, state required public school service hours, and the like). Plans of study were revised to align with other state institutions as it relates to the number of credits required for graduation. These new plans of study, as well as updated [student] handbooks will be implemented beginning fall 2015. Initiatives for including updated policies and procedures are also included in technology plans and university websites.

 

6.5

 

The Teacher Education Council serves in the following general capacities for all programs that prepare teachers and professional school personnel at Langston University:

 

  • Reviewing and approving all policies governing the preparation of teachers and other school professionals and recommending their implementation to the appropriate administrative units;

  • Promoting coordination among faculty in the various academic units which prepare school professionals through degree programs;

  • Providing a forum for discussion of plans and policies related to the preparation of school professionals among members of the extended community (including the public and business sectors) who are stakeholders in improving education;

  • Enabling a unified, broadly based, and representative body for communication with the University central administration, with local and state education agencies, with professional associations and with national accrediting agencies regarding the preparation of school professionals at Langston University.

 

In addition, the TEC advises the Dean of the SoEBS and the Director of Teacher Education, Certification, and Field Experiences, and other appropriate administrators, in the following activities:

 

  • Development and monitoring of the unit’s conceptual framework and its implementation; 

  • Development and monitoring of the Unit Assessment System;

  • Review of outcome data from candidate performance and unit operation;

  • Development of admission and retention policies and criteria; and

  • Study and assessment of curricular effectiveness and procedures based on candidate performance data, data on unit operations and the needs of the teaching profession

 

As members of partnership schools are not members of the TEC, the unit established the Teacher Education Advisory Council in spring 2015. The Advisory Council is charged with advising the Dean of the SoEBS, Director of Teacher Education, Certification, & Field Experiences, Director of Unit Assessment & Accreditation, and other appropriate administrators. This Council:

 

  • Provides a forum for the exchange of information, suggestions and perspectives about professional education practices and programs;

     

  • Reviews unit programs that lead to educator certification in meeting institutional, state, and national standards;

     

  • Reviews unit data and makes recommendations for continuous improvement specific to the assessment system and candidate performance.

 

(Evidence: TEC Constitution & Bylaws, Advisory Council Constitution & Bylaws)

 

 

The Computer Technology Integration Center (CTI) is a department on campus that provides faculty, staff, and candidates' access to appropriate hardware and software, numerous integration activities including workshops, distance learning activities, video production and digitizing, online course design and technology support, individualized training, hands-on workshops and seminars. Faculty and staff have the support, technical expertise and training of the CTI team in a facility equipped with necessary technology to offer seminars and necessary hands-on workshops so that they can create online courses, integrate multimedia technology into existing courses, develop their course content for the web, and test/evaluate new software for their class use. CTI services include the following:

 

  • D2L Training

  • Instructional Design Consultation

  • Instructional Technologies

  • Online Course Development

  • Software Application Training

  • Computer Lab with 18 PC’s and Mac’s

  • Video Editing

  • ˜Video Conferencing ˜

  • Captioning Services

  • Classroom Recordings

  • CD & DVD Creation

  • Graphics & Multimedia

  • Live Video Streaming

  • VHS to DVD

  • ˜Webinar Room ˜

  • Duplication Services

  • Integration of Technology in Classrooms

 

As the result of computer integration training at CTI, faculty can take advantage of their learned technology skills to deliver courses anywhere, anytime and teach in an electronic and distance learning classrooms that will prepare students for working in technological global markets.

 

In the first year of PASS-PORT, trainings were made available on all campuses for faculty and students multiple times throughout the semester (Evidence: SoEBS 2014-2015 Calendar). Additionally, training videos were made for faculty and candidates. Faculty are able to upload the videos to their D2L sites, making them readily available to candidates. The training videos are also available directly from the PASS-PORT site (available on site). Faculty and candidates have access to the PASS-PORT Coordinator via email and cell phone on weekdays and weekends. A PASS-PORT Handbook is in the development process with an anticipated distribution date of mid-fall 2015 (available on site).

 

Instructional resource centers/curriculum libraries are located on each campus. The TEU Curriculum Library is located on the Langston campus, the Learning Resource Center is located on the Tulsa campus, and the Oklahoma City Curriculum Library is located on the OKC campus. The TEU Curriculum Library was designed to provide candidates space to study, prepare for certification exams, read textbooks and scholarly journals, and access digital resources through the University library's digital database. The Curriculum library has five new desktop computers and five laptops. The Curriculum library was closed in fall 2014 to allow for the removal and replacement of outdated materials and technology. It is anticipated that the Curriculum library will reopen spring 2016.

 

The Learning Resource Center in Tulsa allows candidates to access digital resources through the on-line LU library's digital database that can also be accessed from any location (home, office, work, etc.). The Learning Resource Center houses five desktop computers, a small study area, copier, and some non-scholarly magazines. The Learning Resource Center is located on the second floor of the facility and accessible by elevator and stairs. Prior to fall 2015, a part-time Librarian managed the Learning Resource Center.

 

The Oklahoma City Curriculum Library contains six desktop computers providing access to digital resources through the LU library's digital database. There are books and scholarly journals available as well as non-scholarly magazines. Staff maintains a rotation schedule to provide library coverage and support.

 

The G. Lamar Harrison Library is located on the Langston campus and maintains the digital database as well as houses books and scholarly journals. The Harrison Library has a borrowing agreement with regional universities that allow faculty, staff, and candidates to borrow books and journals across university campuses. Langston offers interlibrary loan services as well as the OK Share Card, a cooperative agreement among the college and university libraries of the state of Oklahoma whereby candidates’ home institutions issue a library identification card that allows candidates to visit and borrow materials from other Oklahoma academic libraries. The library staff has the ability, through the Interlibrary Loan service, to request and receive a book from any place in the world. The library offers textbook reserves for all 1000 and 2000 level classes offered for the current semester at LU and, for courses above the 1000 and 2000 level, faculty can request the materials be placed on reserve. All reserves are searchable through the online database. The library tracks the usage of each of the curriculum libraries as way to respond to the needs of all university students (Evidence: Library Use Statistics).

 

Candidates at the Tulsa and OKC campuses receive communications from the Dean and other members of the faculty through their approved Langston University email addresses. Course instructors can contact candidates through the D2L course management system, regardless of campus. For events and other activities that take place on the Langston campus, candidates can find all information available on both the LU SoEBS webpage and the LU SoEBS Facebook page. The Dean, in conjunction with the Leadership Council, coordinates the dissemination of information through these sites. All postings are approved by the Dean for items listed on the Facebook page and approved by the Dean and the Office of Public Relations for the SoEBS webpage (available on site).

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