Meetings/Events

Congratulations

Hunter R. Boylan (LES & NCDE) was the recipient of the first Service and Leadership Award from the Council of Learning Assistance and Developmental Education Associations. The Council is the coordinating body for the Association for the Tutoring Profession, the College Reading and Learning Association, the National Association for Developmental Education, and the National College Learning Center Association. The award was presented this fall at the International Conference on Research in Access and Developmental Education in San Juan, Puerto Rico.

Kudos to the Elementary Education faculty who under the leadership of Susan Colby and others have navigated the tricky waters of the new General Education program and have produced a draft showing how Elementary Education majors can select certain themes and related courses to meet the necessary content requirements of the El Ed major. This is no small undertaking and undoubtedly there will be some adjustments along the way, but to have a plan developed at this point is a very important first step in aligning the major with the Gen Ed requirements.

Good Recruitment News

Among this year’s applicant pool for the Teaching Fellows Scholarship, 40% of the applicants (roughly 600) indicated that Appalachian was either their first or second choice. Our cap on the number of Teaching Fellows we can accept is usually 50.

Recruitment/Graduation Targets

The GA has just sent us our proposed targets for “completers” over the next five years. We are in the process of reviewing the targets to determine if they match with what we believe our capacity to be. Once we have negotiated our numbers with GA, we will share those with everyone in teacher education here at the university. One clue to give you an idea of what kind of numbers we are dealing with is that for the “traditional” teacher education graduates (regular four year completers), the target for 2013 is approximately 600; this is for undergraduates only. At the present time, we graduate approximately 450-500.

The good news is that about 15% of all applicants to ASU for next fall are indicating education as their major of choice; this means we have an applicant pool—not to be confused with number accepted—of approximately 1900 at this early stage of the admission process. We will be working on an analysis of our entire teacher education population to try to develop a tracking system that shows trend data for each major including applicant pool, acceptances, and yields along with retention and graduation rates.

Application for Graduate Faculty Status

Just a reminder that for everyone applying for either initial or continuing graduate faculty status, each candidate must address three areas: teaching, scholarship/research, and service. One’s vita usually suffices as documentation for the scholarship/research; however, in terms of teaching, for example, candidates are expected to describe their instructional record and experience in graduate course instruction, work with graduate assistants, and supervision and/or committee work on theses. Reviewers find it very helpful if aggregated student evaluation data are included, along with brief descriptions of changes in teaching approaches (i.e., integration of technology), significant revision of course materials, etc., during the last appointment period. In terms of service, be sure to include information regarding service with program, department, college, as well as professional organizations at state, national, and international levels.

Budget Ramifications

We are requesting that everyone teaching off-campus, those doing student teaching/internship supervision, etc. file their travel expenses on a monthly basis for the remainder of spring semester instead of waiting until the end of the semester. We ask you to do this because of the need to be certain we can reimburse you in a timely way as budgets continue to shrink. The same request goes to anyone traveling to a professional conference—submit your expenses, if at all possible, within 10 days of your return from the trip. If anyone has a SALT grant for which they have not encumbered their funds, they should do so immediately; equipment purchases should be submitted as soon as possible, since there could be some delay in the processing of such requests. So far, faculty searches can continue, instructional materials and equipment may be processed, and professional travel already approved may be carried out.

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