RCOE Dean’s Update – 05/04/09
Meetings/Events
| May 5, Tues | - RCOE Administrative Council, 10-12, Greene-Oakes |
| May 7, Thur | - “Evidences” Writing Group, 8:30—, Rm. 214 |
| May 9, Sat | - RCOE Undergraduate Commencement, 9 a.m., Convocation Center - University Graduate Commencement, 12:30, Convocation Center |
Kudos
Mary Ruth Sizer (LRE) was given HONORS of the Association by her peers of the North Carolina Speech, Hearing and Language Association at the Spring Convention in Raleigh on April 24, 2009.
RCOE Faculty Awards
The RCOE Faculty Development Committee has completed its review of nominees for faculty awards. The following individuals are the recipients of this year’s awards. Outstanding Teaching—Tracy Goodson-Espy (C&I); Outstanding Scholarship—Larry Kortering (LRE); Outstanding Community of Practice—Ann Marie Clark (C&I); Outstanding Mentoring—Allen Bryant (C&I); Outstanding Adjunct Teaching—Mary Ferrell (C&I). These individuals will be recognized at the opening meeting of the college in the fall.
Alice P. Naylor Dissertation Award
Dr. Angie Wright, Senior Director of Grants Administration & Compliance Reporting for the Wake County Public School System, was the first recipient of the new Alice Phoebe Naylor Outstanding Dissertation Award. The award is administered through the Appalachian State University Doctoral Program in Educational Leadership. The award was created by alumni and friends of the Program to honor Alice P. Naylor who retired in June 2008 after nine years as Director of the Program and thirty-three years on the ASU faculty.
Each spring the Doctoral Program will make the award to recognize the writer of the outstanding dissertation from the previous calendar year. A nominating committee of distinguished education faculty reviews each nominated dissertation to determine the award winner. This year’s honoree, Angie Wright, graduated with her Doctorate in Educational Leadership in May 2008. Her dissertation research was about the issues faced by working mothers who have to balance their responsibilities in the home and those in the workplace. The award was presented as part of the Doctoral Program Spring Symposium held at the ASU Higher Education Center in Hickory, April 25.
Advancement Change
Dolly Farrell will be moving to Salisbury, North Carolina where her husband Liam has accepted the head soccer coach position at Salisbury College. We have, however, worked out an arrangement whereby Dolly will continue to serve as the RCOE Advancement Officer, spending part of her time here in the RCOE and part of her time working out of her home to visit donor prospects, etc. We are most grateful that Dolly has agreed to continue her advancement duties on behalf of the RCOE.
Budget Items
We have little new to report on the budget front other than the information everyone received on the “furloughing.” As you undoubtedly discovered, at this time, only your May and June 2009 pay checks will be affected. The “10 hour gift” applies to SPA staff primarily and can be accessed only after June 1, 2009 and before December 31, 2009 and only with the appropriate supervisor’s approval. The below link to the Governor’s Office is the correct clarification.
http://www.governor.state.nc.us/NewsItems/PressReleaseDetail.aspx?newsItemid=333
ASU’s Human Resource Services has posted a link of commonly asked questions. You can visit their home page for more information.
Final Grades Due
We ask that every effort be made to meet the deadline for submitting grades. The following information has been provided by the Registrar’s Office: Final grades are due May 8 at 1:00 pm. At that time, Registrar personnel will begin an audit of missing grades and notify the faculty member and the appropriate Deans office. At 5:00 pm., the grade posting link will be disabled until grades have been posted to the students’ academic records and the gpa calculation has occurred. This process should be completed late Friday evening.
As you may recall in December, we were under an extreme time constraint with only a one business day turn around for reports to departments before the holiday break. Faculty response was extraordinary and the number of missing grades was reduced dramatically. The technical unit of the Registrar’s Office worked extensive weekend hours to provide the reports by Monday. However, given the current budget restrictions and our inability to compensate for overtime hours, we will not be able to invest the same amount of time as last semester. We will resume end of semester activities on Monday and Tuesday of the following week (May 11-12) which consists of academic standing and honors processing. All end of semester reports will be made available Wednesday, May 13. We have verified with the Office of Academic Affairs that the Deans and Chancellor letters and academic standing notices should be mailed to the students’ permanent address. The funds which were recently frozen can be used to cover postage costs for these essential communications to students. However, Mr. McLeod has indicated we will not print the grade reports which requires a substantial amount of paper and is considered to be an ‘unnecessary’ print since the information will be retained electronically in EPrint. The information will be available in Eprint May 13 and may be printed as needed.
SALT Reports
Just a reminder that SALT reports are due by June 30, if not before.
Draft Standards for NC Students
The Department of Public Instruction (DPI) is seeking input on the Draft Essential Standards for North Carolina Public Schools. DPI has requested that school districts compile feedback on the Draft Essential Standards; however, they are interested in receiving feedback from individuals as well. To provide feedback, please go to
The Draft Essential Standards can be found at
Please note, some version of these Standards will be adopted and North Carolina teachers will be held accountable for seeing that their students meet the standards; all subjects and grade levels are represented in the Draft. Faculty are strongly encouraged to review these and provide feedback to DPI.
Call for Proposals
The 54th Annual Meeting of the South Atlantic Philosophy of Education Society will be held September 25-26 on the campus of UNC—Chapel Hill. The program committee invites proposals to be submitted for presentation at the meeting. Presented papers will be eligible to be published in the Society’s yearbook. The theme, Democracy and Schooling, is inspired by national and global conversations about current conceptions of what democratic social and political engagements entail. As the notion of democracy is being debated, so too is the very idea of public schooling. We hope this theme will foster conversations about schooling’s potential role in defining, creating and reconstructing democratic societies. We invite papers that broadly address the topic of democratic education, key issues facing schools within democratic societies, and theorizations of what “democratic education” means. We also invite proposals addressing other philosophical and foundational topics. of Education at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
Proposals should not exceed 250 words and should be submitted via email attachment in MSWord, Rich Text, or PDF format to: Peter Nelsen, SAPES Program Committee Chair nelsenpj@appstate.edu Proposals must be received by July 15th. Graduate students are especially encouraged to submit proposals. Limited stipends for graduate student travel are available. For more information about the meeting or the South Atlantic Philosophy of Education Society, go to
Tough Love in Halifax
Halifax County (NC) school employees must “succeed or go” during the three years the state will oversee education in the district, a state education official said in court Wednesday. Pat Ashley, an administrator with the state Department of Public Instruction, testified in a Wake County courtroom about a plan to reverse sliding student performance in Halifax, a struggling, poor district. The plan involves intensive training and monitoring of teachers, principals and central office staff.
The state was pushed by Wake Superior Court Judge Howard Manning Jr. to take “command and control” of education in the northeastern North Carolina county’s school district. “The children are getting royally deprived of everything by the adults,” said Manning, who oversees the state’s long-running court case on school quality. Halifax students score well below state averages on standardized tests, and none of its schools meet federal progress measures.
The improvement plan includes three years of training and coaching for teachers, principals and central office staff, and professional development and training for the local school board. State education officials will be able to look at personnel, student and financial records in the county. The State Board of Education is scheduled to sign off on the plan next month. The Halifax school board has agreed to the plan, and Manning called it “a good start.”
See full story at
Last Update
This update will be the last for the semester except for periodic updates with special information as it occurs. At times the year has seemed more like a marathon than usual. I thank everyone for their efforts this year and look forward to continuing those efforts next year. In case you need a little levity at the end of the semester, you might enjoy watching the dancing prowess of Snowball. Snowball is a medium sulphur crested eleanora cockatoo. He is 11 years old and is a sanctuary bird at Bird Lovers Only Rescue Service, Inc. which is a 501c3 not for profit parrot rescue and sanctuary. The stamina of this bird, not to mention the rhythm, is pretty amazing. See
I promise no more youtube links for now 
Have a pleasant summer. Charlie
*******************************
“Change is a Journey, not a Destination.”
—M. Fullan
