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The unit has the leadership, authority, budget, personnel, facilities, and resources, including information technology resources, for the preparation of candidates to meet professional, state, and institutional standards.
6.1 Unit Governance and Resources
6.1.a Unit Leadership and Authority
The Unit is headed by a Dean responsible for unit management.
The School of Education provides leadership to develop and enforce academic standards that help to meet the University of the Virgin Islands goal of providing undergraduate and graduate education which is of the highest quality as pertains to teacher education programs in the territory.
The Dean reports directly to the Provost and works with the Provost and the other four deans in planning and development to specify the role of teacher education within the institution, and participating in the University’s academic planning as it relates to teacher education. This planning role includes anticipating needs for new programs or new initiatives, keeping the Provost, the Deans and faculty aware of these anticipated needs, working with the Provost's office in seeking ways to request and to obtain funds to implement new initiatives, working with the Provost and the University's academic planners in identifying the nature of the ongoing changing role of teacher education in the mission of the University, and advising the Provost and University academic planners regarding teacher education programs which have been designated for consolidation or elimination; and to seek cooperation among departments and colleges to work for common educational goals.
The unit is governed by a committee of the whole given the small size of the unit’s faculty. Regular monthly SOE meetings involve all full time faculty, and some part-time faculty. At the SOE meetings, decisions are made relative to program policies, procedures, curriculum, and conceptual framework for the teacher education program. The Dean chairs SOE meetings and sets the agenda based on faculty input. A system of committees supports the work of the SOE. (See Table 6.1 for List of Committees) These committees provide input to the Dean and make recommendations to the SOE as a whole. Minutes of all SOE meetings are sent to all unit faculty members after each meeting including the Provost’s Office.
6.1.b Unit Budget
The School of Education has the necessary budget available to support programs preparing candidates to meet NCATE standards. Given the state of the economy, the funding from the U.S. Virgin Island’s Governor’s Office was decreased. As of 2009-2010 school year budget hearings are held during the months of January and February and each dean presents his/her school/college’s budget to the University Budget Committee (UBC). An excerpt from the President states that
“As an institution, we begin the spring 2012 semester and the 2012 calendar year within the context of the mounting fiscal challenges facing the Territory. As a result of these increased fiscal exigencies, on December 29, 2011, the University received correspondence from the Director of the Office of Management and Budget notifying us that the University’s allotment will be reduced by $1,027,609, effective January 5, 2012, in an effort for the Government to address the projected revenue shortfall of $67.5 million.” The situation remains the same for the current year. Below is the Unit’s Budget Proposal for 2013-2014.
6.1.c Personnel
The School of Education Faculty Workload Policy derives from the Faculty Policy Manual (FPM) which states that a full time for teaching faculty is 24 credits per academic year. Load in each semester should fall within 2 credits of the normal 12 credits per semester. Assignments consisting of more than 14 or less than 10 credits in a given semester must have the approval of the affected faculty member. Faculty, who are under loaded in the Fall semester, must accept the complementary overload in the following Spring semester. Faculty who are overloaded in the Fall semester are only required to accept the complementary overload in the Spring semester. If a Unit Manager assigns less than 24 credits to a faculty member in an academic year, the faculty member’s compensation is not affected. If a Unit Manager assigns more than 24 credits to a faculty member in an academic year, this must be done with the approval of the affected faculty member who will, in accordance with published policies, receive additional compensation for any load carried above 24 credits (see Section 6). (FPM 2008, Sec. 5i, p. 11)
Faculty members have the major responsibilities for designing, delivering, assessing, and modifying highly effective professional education programs. Part-time faculty and Clinical Supervisors also play a vital role in the preparation of the Unit’s candidates. Part-time faculty and Clinical Supervisors are selected for their experience and expertise, including current assignments in P-12 schools, and to enhance our professional preparation efforts. Non-tenured faculty may teach selected “core” as well as selected “concentration” courses, provide clinical supervision, and implement Program and Unit assessments.
6.1.d Unit Facilities
The School of Education on the St. Thomas Campus houses the majority of the Unit’s programs and is located in the Teacher Education Building. The building consists of four classrooms, faculty and staff offices, a conference room and the Dean’s Office.
On the St. Croix Albert A. Sheen Campus, two faculty members have a separate office; three members share offices with colleagues.
The School of Education and all other units utilize the University libraries and the Information Technology (IT) resources. The libraries and IT are organized to facilitate use by all schools and colleges.
The unit requests funds in its annual budget to the University’s Budget Committee to fill in vacant positions and to obtain other needed resources.
Through English as a Second Language (ESL) grant, the School of Education has obtained two promethean boards – one on each campus – to enhance the training of teachers, administrators and other educational professionals.
There are nine comparable video classrooms on each campus. In addition, each classroom is a smart classroom, which means that there is a computer in each classroom for faculty and candidate use. Each library has a conference room and a viewing room. The viewing room is equipped with a promethean board. All faculty members receive training on the use of Blackboard, and other technologies in the viewing room.
Faculty and students check out books and equipment from the library. From this record we can show the frequency of checkouts and how many candidates utilize the resources.
6.1.e Unit Resources including Technology
Through English as a Second Language (ESL) grant, the School of Education has obtained two promethean boards – one on each campus – to enhance the training of teachers, administrators and other educational professionals.
Currently the unit uses excel as the primary technological tool to maintain our unit assessments. Our assessments are done by Dr. Suzy Harney, our Director of Assessments.
The library is equipped with laptops, cameras for emerging equipment. There is a Center for Excellence in Teaching and Learning (CETL), which provides support for faculty members who want to integrate technology in their classrooms. There is also support for Blackboard.
The library has a number of volumes of books. There are online data bases such as JSTOR, ACADEMIC SEARCH PRIMIER, EBSCOR, and several other resources such as journals that are in print and electronic forms. The libraries have two fully equipped computer labs with Dell capabilities. These labs are maintained by IT personnel. One librarian is responsible to ensure that our school gets sufficient and current resources. She contacts faculty to find out what their needs are, and provides the resources that faculty request. Through the interlibrary loan faculty and candidates can request journals or books. Journals take about two weeks and books about four weeks. All candidates have access to Blackboard. In addition, the library resources can be accessed by faculty and candidates at home and on campus.
Moving Toward Target or Continuous Improvement
6.2.bContinuous Improvement
Communication is one of the key components of this unit. We communicate frequently by email as well as orally. We agree to disagree in order to accomplish the different tasks that we have to perform. The Director of NCATE provided a structure for the delivery and feedback pertinent to all programs in the School of Education. The Director is now the Dean as well as the Director of NCATE. The Director of Assessments planned the assessments, discussed the nature of the assessments, received feedback and produced assessments that were agreed by all faculty members. The School of Education has organized a Faculty Development Community for its faculty members. The Director of the Community stated that this virtual learning community will enable the faculty to connect with each other and with experts. The intent is to enhance a professionalized teaching workforce and to promote high-quality professional development. At the website of the Community faculty will have access to resources, web-based professional development opportunities, and a connected network of education faculty. This community can be accessed on the UVI website, by first logging in through “myCampus” and then logging in with the UVI username and password. When this is done, click on the tab “Communities” at the top of the screen, and click on “Communities I have joined.” From the list below select the School of Education and double click under this link on “Private Pages –Live.”
As a result of the launching of this Community the Director through the Dean has developed ‘brown-bag’ sessions where faculty members present research that they do in their classrooms. At the first brown-bag session on January 11, 2013 a faculty member conducted a course outline development and alignment workshop. Another faculty member examined the topic: “Performance-based and Portfolio Assessment: Alignment with the SPAS” on February 12, 2013. Assessment is an integral part of the teaching-learning community. The quality and clarity of the assessment tool should reflect effective instruction, as well as relevant curriculum.
This 'brown-bag' session engaged participants in a process that examined assessment tools developed to guide and inform the learner, as well as the teacher. The students of EDU553 piloted the process, and created rubrics for the portfolios, as well as for the presentations required for completion of the course objectives. Brown bag sessions are scheduled for the months of March and April 2013.
Prior to these professional development sessions, one of our faculty members presented at the first faculty colloquium on November 28, 2011 for the school-year 2011-2012 on the topic: “Preparing In-service Teachers to Teach Students towards Independence in Learning.” The paper reflected upon literature in the field, and recent literature review presented by the Department for Schools and Families. It also provided responses to questions collected from administrators, teachers, students and home schoolers. As a result of the ESL Grant mentioned in 6.e.1, two promethean boards have been installed one on each campus. As part of the ESL grant three journals will be added to the library collection on both campuses. They are ASCD journal, TESOL and NABE. Through SAFRA grant, our students will be getting assistance for PRAXIS Examinations through the Center for Student Success and by 6 appointed tutors who are now being recruited. |