Meetings/Events

Congratulations

The National Science Foundation has awarded a grant of $470,613 to Appalachian State University for support of the project "STEM and ICT Instructional Worlds: The 3D Experience (STEM-ICT 3D)"; the grant is under the direction of Nita J. Matzen (LES), D. M. Switzer, Dick Riedl (LES),Kenneth A. Weaver, Sean D. Williams.

This is a continuing grant which has been approved on scientific / technical merit for approximately 3 years. Contingent on the availability of funds and the scientific progress of the project, NSF expects to continue support at approximately the following level: $500,000 each year for the next two years.

The Communications Disorders program has received word that it has met the Council on Academic Accreditation’s requirements for program certification for another year after submitting a detailed annual report on the program’s activities.

Teaching Cadet Day this past Tuesday was a great success with over 150 high school students from 10 high schools attending a full day of activities on campus. The Teaching Fellows staff and students are to be commended for putting together the program and providing such a quality experience for the visiting students.

New Building Update

Some of you have asked what is going on at the site for the new building, since there has been some digging and related activity on the site. Although we wish that we could report that digging has officially begun for the building, in actuality, Physical Plant is using the opportunity to take advantage of that vacant space and detour traffic around College Street where utility lines are being extended to the site. A storm drain, and a new electrical duct bank have already been installed and now they are working on extending the steam tunnel. A fire hydrant, sewer connection and telecommunicate ductbank will also be completed in this phase.

We are in the process of installing a webcam to overlook the construction site, making it possible for anyone to go to our home page and view what the latest construction activity may be; we hope to go live with this in about two weeks and will let you know when the link is active. We thank Health Services for cooperating with us in providing a place for the webcam.

Mountaineer Summer Readers Program

Now in its second year, the Mountaineer Readers Program, a cooperative effort between the ASU Athletic Department and the ASU-Public School Partnership, has had a very successful summer. Sixty-four schools signed up; fifty schools completed the program. 1,013 students completed the program. The total number of books read was 39,131. Top readers, their principals, and media center directors will be honored on October 25 at half-time of the football game. The school with the highest percentage of readers in each district will receive a $300 award for purchasing materials for the school’s media center.

SALT Grant Reminder

SALT proposals are due in the Dean’s Office by Friday, October 3 and must be accompanied by the required signature page.

After You Go SAT-Optional

A new report this week by the National Association for College Admission Counseling urges colleges to more carefully consider whether they need to require standardized testing for admission. And the report suggests that a careful analysis should lead many institutions to go test-optional.

Colleges that have been test-optional for some time report success — more applications over all, more applications from members of minority groups, and no drops in applicant quality or student success. But with the NACAC report creating new momentum for the test-optional movement, one question that arises is, what is involved when a college makes the decision to make this shift? The question is especially important for larger institutions, since many of the colleges with the most experience being test-optional are small liberal arts colleges that already had highly personalized admissions processes.

Currently, Wake Forest University is undergoing such a change — having announced this summer that it would no longer require a test for admission. Wake Forest is among the largest competitive colleges to make the move — and officials there report that there’s more to dropping the SAT than just dropping the SAT. (for more go to newsroom@insidehighered.com)

Teacher Residencies

Urban teacher residencies, which focus heavily on classroom-based training and on-the-job support for new teachers, are attracting attention as promising ways to staff city schools. A study (pdf) by the Washington-based Aspen Institute and the Center for Teaching Quality, in Hillsborough, N.C., released last month, explores the Boston Teacher Residency Program and the Academy for Urban School Leadership in Chicago. The study found that 90 percent of the teachers entering the Boston program were still teaching in the district after three years. In Chicago, that figure was 95 percent.

Another report (pdf) , prepared by the Center for Teaching Quality and the National Council for Accreditation of Teacher Education and released last week, concludes that the time is right for the education community to embrace residency programs and to develop them further. “The programs are grounded in the fact that there is a tremendous amount of expertise within our schools. Most of what we know about good teaching already exists in our schools,” said Jesse Solomon, the director of the Boston Teacher Residency program, which was created in 2003.

The newly reauthorized federal Higher Education Act calls for $300 million for partnerships among university-based teacher education and arts and sciences programs and high-need schools and districts¬—and for building one-year paid, clinical training for preservice teachers and for developing induction programs to support them once they enter classrooms. That amount, if funded by appropriators, could potentially be tapped to set up urban teacher-residency programs, supporters said last week at a Washington forum on teacher residencies.—Edweek.org (9/11)

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“Change is a Journey, not a Destination.”
—M. Fullan