NCATE Board of Examiners Visit

1. NCATE Board of Examiners Visit Widener University

2. Welcome • Brief history of Widener and the Center for Education • Tradition of Service • Commitment to Civic Engagement • Pre-eminent Metropolitan University

3. The Center for Education • Proud to be a leader in civic engagement • Field experiences in local school districts • Interdisciplinary activities with other units • Charter School • SWCS • Widener Reads and Widener Counts • More than 49 tutors in 9 schools • WSEA, Earth Force, academic days , ecology academy

4. Unit Structure • How do we fit together? University School of Human Service Professions Center for Education

5. The School of Human Service Professions (SHSP) • Four Units- Dean Stephen Wilhite • Education Director and Associate Dean Ledoux • Social Work Director and Associate Dean Silver • Physical Therapy Director and Associate Dean Dole • Graduate Clinical Psychology Director and Associate Dean Brabender

6. Structure • Semi-autonomous • Scheduling • Budget • Graduate admissions • Programs • Support staff and infrastructure • Field experience and certification • Technology

7. Uniqueness and Redundancy • Uniqueness • Center Committees: Academic Affairs, Certification, Diversity, Assessment, Awards, Admissions, Promotion and Tenure • Allows for programmatic changes on the local level • Allows for the distinctive nature of the field to be reflected • Gives the unit a sense of ownership

8. Redundancy • SHSP Committee: Academic Affairs, Diversity, Promotion and Tenure • Provides support and interdisciplinary initiatives • Academic Affairs- E.g. policies for plagiarism • Diversity-Annual diversity programming that is more “diverse” and interdisciplinary • Promotion and Tenure-Guidelines, but flexible for unit standards, procedures.

9. What do we do best? • Conceptual Framework The Center for Education’s goal is to develop our professional expertise as educators and leaders in the classroom, the field, and the communities we serve. We realize our goal through adherence to the values of academic excellence, collaboration, diversity and life-long learning, and by our commitments to technology and best practices

10. Knowledge, skills and dispositions When I see those in the field who are really successful, they have gone to Widener for their degree. William Saccardi, EdD candidate • Initial certification through advanced degrees, build knowledge, skills and dispositions through classroom and field experiences.

11. Assessment • Lots of input from field supervisors, cooperating teachers, TEC, faculty, support staff. • Continued review of data and assessment of data quality. Fairness, not only to student but to the users (E.g. Portfolios) • Redundancy and information for candidates and outside constituencies • Use of data for program improvement (shared with faculty, TEC, advisory boards, etc.)

12. Field Experience • Early and often • Collaborative (meeting the needs of candidates and districts) • Relationships • Diversity of placements • Progressive and regular • Reflective (KSS)/Diversity/Standards/Technology Not just learn it, experience it!

13. Diversity • Challenge of underrepresented faculty • Actually a real strength: • HSED program at advanced levels • Field experiences and placements, collaboration, ELL • SHSP and University connections- strategic plan • Outreach in new hires • Exceptionalities

14. Faculty • PDE new norms • All doctorally prepared • Excellent teachers • Productivity in scholarship (P&T Guidelines) • Academic Citizenship • Teacher/Scholar model (University) • Basic education experience

15. Professional development • Conferences • Tea and Technology • Research Symposium • Collaboration among faculty • Learning assistance programs • Mentoring of new faculty

16. Review of Additional Resources • http://www.taskstream.com/ts/ledoux2/SupplementaryDocuments.html • Security may ask you to log into the system: • If this brings you back to the login page, simply use: mwledoux Password: NCATE

17. Thank You.