6a. Unit Leadership and Authority

6a.1. How does the unit manage or coordinate the planning, delivery, and operation of all programs at the institution for the preparation of educators?

The unit’s leadership efficiently manages and coordinates all programs at Dalton State College to effectively prepare educational professionals to work in P-12 schools.  The University System of Georgia (USG) Academic Affairs Handbook outlines the policies and procedures that affect day-to-day operations of institutions within the System . Authority within Dalton State College is articulated through a coherent and clearly stated organizational structure( p. 9). 

The School of Education is one of seven academic units (identified as “schools”) that report to the Office of the Vice President for Academic Affairs.  Each school has developed a governance structure that administers the mission of the school and aligns with the mission and governance structure of the College.  The Dalton State College Faculty Handbook, and the Dalton State College Catalog and Student Handbook communicate the structures of the schools and the College.  All documents and the handbooks are subordinate to the Policy Manual of the Georgia Board of Regents. 

The head of the Professional Education Unit is the dean of the School of Education whose primary role is to plan, coordinate, manage, and oversee the operations of the Professional Education Unit. Leadership for all educator preparation programs, including coordination of accreditation and state program approval activities and oversight of curriculum and policies fall under the purview of the dean.  Meetings are held to ensure faculty’s involvement in the decision making process.

The unit is responsible for establishing policies for all education program including curriculum, program entry, retention, grading policies, and program completion requirements as well as program evaluation. Development of new curriculum may originate in the School of Education but approval is routed through the academic department, academic, school, and the Dalton State College Academic Council.

6a.2. What are the unit's recruiting and admissions policies? How does the unit ensure that they are clearly and consistently described in publications and catalogues? 

The unit ensures that admission practices are current and accurate and are described clearly and consistently in publications, catalogs, and web sites.  The College’s web site provides admission information and requirements to prospective and current education candidates as well as to other students . The College ensures the web site is accessible, accurate, and current.

The School of Education’s web site provides candidates with admission information and requirements to enter the Teacher Education Program for Early Childhood, ESOL endorsement, Biology, History, Mathematics, English and Chemistry. 

Recruitment of ethnically diverse teacher candidates is of primary concern for the unit. Because of the increased Latino population in its service area, recruitment of multilingual teacher candidates is of the highest priority. The unit follows the College’s plan in the recruitment of potential teacher candidates. Future plans for the unit are to develop a recruitment plan for secondary teachers in critical needs areas.

Scholarships are available through the Dalton State College Foundation. Scholarship information can be found at DSC Scholarship Foundation.  

6a.3. How does the unit ensure that its academic calendars, catalogues, publications, grading policies, and advertising are accurate and current? 

The Office of the Vice President for Academic Affairs ensures the College’s academic calendars, policies, catalogs, and publications pertinent to prospective and current students are current and accurate. The catalog contains DSC’s calendar, grading policies, as well as relevant information pertinent to teacher candidates.  Application, recruitment brochures, and scholarship applications and information are printed in the School of Education's publication and on the unit's web site. The web site and other relevant publications are reviewed yearly for accuracy and currency.

6a.4. How does the unit ensure that candidates have access to student services such as advising and counseling?

The unit ensures that candidates have access to available student services including advising and counseling.  The Dalton State College (DSC) catalog and web site contain information for undergraduate students regarding advisement. First-time, full-time pre-education students enrolled at DSC are advised in the DSC Advising Center.  Pre-education students enrolled in learning support classes are advised in the Center until exiting learning support classes at which time the names are forwarded to the appropriate major department. Advisors utilize the institution’s Banner system which provides data from the Office of Admissions, including GPA, course schedules, academic criteria, pre-education student’s progress, and other data pertinent to advisement of pre-education students. The advisor maintains contact with the pre-education student (ultimately teacher candidate), monitors student progress, and recommends special services such as counseling, financial aid assistance, and tutoring services.

The unit has established advising procedures to guide the unit's faculty in advisement to ensure appropriate emphasis is placed on advisement. Data regarding candidates’ assessment of their advisement are collected in LiveText and used for unit improvement. The unit maintains an advising folder and updates are posted regularly.

Education majors who need additional academic assistance can receive it from the Academic Career and Enhancement Center.   In addition, the unit ensures teacher candidates have access to counseling services provided by Dalton State College.  Information regarding personal and career counseling is provided by the Counseling & Career Services through various means:  bulletin boards, regular emails to students, new student orientation meetings and web-based services.  The director of the Center has prepared a draft copy of a handbook to guide staff in working with candidates.   The Disability Support Services Center provides support to candidates evidencing a need for accommodations.

6a.5. Which members of the professional community participate in program design, implementation, and evaluation? In what ways do they participate?

Members of the professional community meet to participate in the design, implementation and evaluation of programs delivered by the unit. The professional communities’ membership consist of three major groups: the Teacher Education Unit, the Teacher Education Council, and the Assessment Committee.

The Teacher Education Unit's membership consists of teacher educators from the programs of Early Childhood Education and ESOL (English to Speakers of Other Languages) and representative educators from the secondary programs:  Mathematics, Biology, Chemistry, English, and History. All members of the teacher education unit are full-time faculty.  Under the direction of the education dean, unit representatives plan, design, implement, and evaluate the unit's initiatives. The unit structure provides the oversight of P-12 programs and members serve as resource personnel for students and faculty in each of the majors.  

The Teacher Education Council functions in an advisory role to the unit.  Membership consists of representatives from the School of Liberal Arts, School of Sciences and Mathematics, School of Education, former students, and P-12 partners. The Council meets fall and spring semester to discuss programmatic changes and other information pertinent to the unit’s operations.

The unit has established an Assessment Committee whose primary purpose is to review and analyze candidates’ assessments and program quality assessments. The Committee’s membership consists of representatives from the unit and P-12 partners.

6a.6. How does the unit facilitate collaboration with other academic units involved in the preparation of professional educators?   

Initiation and development of new programs are coordinated with other academic units involved in the preparation of professional educators by the dean of the School of Education.  Meetings are held regularly with representatives of academic units, and members of academic units are represented on the Teacher Education Council and Assessment Committee. 

Development of secondary teacher education programs was facilitated by the dean and faculty members from liberal arts, sciences and mathematics, and education.   Informal meetings held in summer and fall 2007 with P-12 educators, education, and mathematics and biology faculty lead to the development of courses to meet standards (Georgia Performance Standards, PSC Standards, NCTM Standards, and NCTS Standards) and requirements for licensure.   In summer and fall 2008, History, English, and Chemistry faculty met informally with the school of education faculty to plan a sequence of courses leading toward licensure in the respective content areas. Courses for secondary programs were developed to meet the following standards: GPS, NCTM, NCTS, NCTSS, NCTE, and PSC.

Content area deans and department chairs are responsible for aligning programs to standards and coordinating objectives, activities, assessments, technology training and materials for content courses leading to secondary licensure.  The School of Education is responsible for continuous assessment of programs. The unit holds meetings with content faculty to ensure shared decision-making occurs, and to verify that coursework addresses the standards.

Additional evidence of collaboration among education faculty, mathematics faculty, and grades 6-12 teachers and administrators exist with the implementation of Project 6-16 in January 2008.  Members sought to find solutions to problems students face in learning mathematics in grades 6-12 and to identify problems that would be incurred by teachers with the implementation of the new Georgia mathematics curriculum. Subsequent meetings (2008, 2009) focused on demonstrations of strategies to meet the new GPS in mathematics  by grades  6-12 teachers to college faculty responsible for preparation of secondary teachers.

6b. Unit Budget

6b.1. What is the budget available to support programs preparing candidates to meet standards? How does the unit's budget compare to the budgets of other units with clinical components on campus or similar units at other institutions?

The unit’s budget is commensurate with the six other Schools and with two Schools with similar requirements; for example, on-campus programs and clinical experiences.  The budget illustrates monies expended for personnel services, travel, and operating expenses and is sufficient to support high-quality experiences, evidenced by the high pass rate on the state licensure exams. 

The Dalton State College Foundation  committed to support each School in the academic years of 2008-2009 and 2009-2010 in the amount of $2,000.00.  The monies are used to support professional development, supplies, equipment, and other expenses incurred in the program operation. The  Foundation also has provided financial assistance to the School of Education to support travel to NCATE meetings

6b.2.  How adequately does the budget support all programs for the preparation of educators? What changes to the budget over the past few years have affected the quality of the programs offered?

Although funding derived from state appropriations has decreased, the unit receives sufficient budgetary allocations to provide quality programs preparing candidates to meet standards as evidenced by candidates’ continued successful pass rate of the state licensure exam.  Although competing for resources has been challenging due to the addition of the secondary programs, allocation requests for additional faculty have been supported by the College which adds to the program quality. 

6c. Personnel

6c.1. What are the institution's and unit's workload policies? What is included in the workloads of faculty (e.g., hours of teaching, advising of candidates, supervising student teachers, work in P-12 schools, independent study, research, administrative duties, and dissertation advisement)?

 DSC Faculty Handbook

contains information regarding the work load for full-time faculty which includes teaching, academic advising, service to the College, scholarship, professional development, and professional service to the community. The standard workload for full-time faculty is four courses per semester, or a total of 12 credit hours.  Support for overload teaching is available. The dean, in collaboration with the VPAA, has the authority to offer faculty release time for unit priorities including accreditation work. Online courses are defined as part of a normal faculty load.

The School of Education was awarded an Endowed Chair position funded by the Goizueta Foundation.  The Endowed Chair’s teaching load is one course per semester (fall and spring). The Endowed Chair provides the College with expertise in addressing the needs of Latino students as well as recruitment of Latino candidates.  

Dalton State College rewards faculty primarily for teaching, advisement and service to the College; the unit encourages faculty to contribute to their professional development through research and scholarship and strongly encourages work with P-12 schools.  The dean is responsible for ensuring compliance with faculty workload standards.

 6c.2. What are the faculty workloads for teaching and the supervision of clinical practice?

The unit’s faculty are expected to teach 12 semester hours per semester unless released for other purposes. If full-time faculty teaches more than 12 hours, doing so is considered an “overload,” and faculty are compensated accordingly.  Advisement of potential teacher candidates is conducted by faculty with an average load of approximately 55 advisees. 
 
Supervision of teacher candidates by faculty is limited by the number of candidates.  Clinical supervision and field experience supervision loads are factored into faculty load.  Part-time and full-time faculty are used as needed to meet the needs of supervision and course delivery. Typically, full-time faculty provide course instruction.  If part-time faculty are employed to teach and/or supervise, planning for instruction is collaborative and monitored.

6c.3. To what extent do workloads and class size allow faculty to be engaged effectively in teaching, scholarship, and service (including time for such responsibilities as advisement, developing assessments, and online courses)?

The standard college workload for faculty who teach primarily upper-division courses is four courses per semester or a total of 12 credit hours. Full-time faculty are expected to engage in scholarship, and service in addition to teaching, advising, serving on committees and developing online courses. Currently, two faculty members are engaged in the development and delivery of an online course.

There is some variation among faculty who serve as program coordinators, field experience director, and NCATE coordinator and who participate in accreditation work. The dean allocates workloads among all faculty members. Faculty also are encouraged to be active professionally at the local, state, and national levels as evidenced in faculty vitae.

6c.4. How does the unit ensure that the use of part-time faculty contributes to the integrity, coherence, and quality of the unit and its programs? 

The unit ensures that part-time faculty contribute to the integrity, coherence, and quality of the unit and its program through formal and informal meetings and training. Part-time teaching faculty are mentored by a full-time faculty member, and meet regularly to ensure course coherence, including standardization of syllabi and grading procedures. 

Part-time field supervisors are often former administrators or lead teachers who have demonstrated competency in the supervision of teachers.  Field supervisors are trained in using evaluation instruments to assess teacher candidates in the field and in using LiveText for entering assessment information. On-going communication exists between director of field placement and field supervisors regarding schedules, expectations, and relevant issues pertinent to teacher candidates.  Part-time teaching faculty are evaluated through course evaluations and part-time field supervisors are evaluated by teacher candidates. 

The supervision load for part-time faculty varies according to the number of candidates. Part-time supervisors typically supervise 10-12 teacher candidates in field experiences and supervise six candidates during clinical practice. As teacher candidates progress through the program, the level of supervision becomes greater requiring supervisors to utilize mentoring and coaching skills to assist teacher candidates in the development of the knowledge, skills, and dispositions identified as Professional Outcomes in the Conceptual Framework.

6c.5. What personnel provide support for the unit? How does the unit ensure that it has an

adequate number of support personnel?

The unit is provided with an administrative assistant who supports the faculty in their teaching and service endeavors. Student workers are available to faculty members requesting them.  Assistance for the unit’s faculty in the area of technology including continued use of LiveText is provided by the Educational Technology Center (ETC).  The unit is provided with a full-tie director of field placement. 

6c.6. What financial support is available for professional development activities for faculty?

The College receives allocated resources in accordance with the University System of Georgia and the Dalton State college budgetary process to ensure all schools and departments are provided with resources in an equitable manner. To the extent possible, DSC provides funds for the professional development of the unit’s faculty in the areas of scholarship, curriculum development, instruction, and work with P-12 schools. 

The Teaching and Learning Center provides professional development opportunities for faculty, and its web site lists multiple training opportunities including technology training, reading resources, online resources, luncheon conversations series, resources for teaching different disciplines, as well as study abroad opportunities.

The Educational Technology Training Center (ETC), located on the campus, provides professional development opportunities for the unit’s faculty related to technology and P-12 curriculum on a requested basis. The ETC also assists the unit’s faculty with on-going training in the use of LiveText.

6d.1. How adequate are unit--classrooms, faculty offices, library/media center, the technology infrastructure, and school facilities--to support teaching and learning? [Describe facilities on the main campus as well as the facilities at off-campus sites if they exist.]

Dalton State College has experienced exceptional student population growth for the AY 2009-2010 which has created challenges for the college.  However, the unit has adequate campus and school facilities to support teacher candidates in meeting the standards.  There are 55 classrooms across campus which are shared with all schools at DSC. Most of the professional education courses are taught in classrooms in the  James E. Brown Center, located on the north end of the campus.  DSC has multiple computer labs available for teacher candidates with access to the Internet and available printers. All buildings on campus support wireless technology.  

In addition, the ETC has a computer lab available to faculty and teacher candidates. Teacher candidates may also "check-out" laptops and other state of the art technology during field and clinical placement.

The School of Education offices are housed in the Gignilliat Memorial Hall, ground floor level, and the Loberbaum Liberal Arts Building. Full-time faculty members and the administrative assistant have offices equipped with a computer with essential software, networked to three printers and the College servers. Faculty housed in the Liberal Arts Building have personal printers and are linked to the three printers in the Memorial Building. Faculty have access to laptops and state-of-the-art technology located at the ETC.  

6e. Unit resources including technology

6e.1. How does the unit allocate resources across programs to ensure candidates meet standards in their field of study? 

The unit allocates resources to prepare teacher candidates to meet standards and to implement the assessment plan. The unit has adequate information technology resources to support faculty’s and candidates’ work. The Office of Computing and Information Services (OCIS) is responsible for the management and support of computing, networking, and information technology services at DSC.  The services provided by OCIS include management and support of academic and administrative computing, of local and wide area networking, of microcomputer hardware and software applications, of computer labs, of Internet access, and of faculty/staff training. OCIS supports web services, email,  faculty and student organization web sites, file storage, DSCConnect, and GeorgiaView.

6e.2. What information technology resources support faculty and candidates? What evidence shows that candidates and faculty use these resources?

The unit has available resources to offer candidates and faculty high quality instructional technology experiences. The unit has identified instructional technology as a priority for faculty and candidates. Wireless access is available in all classrooms, and courses are taught in classrooms equipped with a ceiling mounted projector, computer with Internet connectivity, podium and DVD/VCR. In addition, faculty and candidates have access to Educational Technology Center’s state-of-the-art technology. 

The ETC is equipped with 28 computers in one fully equipped lab. Instructor stations with ceiling-mounted, computer-driven projectors and interactive whiteboards including Smart and Promethean are provided in each lab.  Scanner stations are available for digitizing work samples. Digital and video cameras and student response systems as well as other cutting-edge technologies are available. ELMO document cameras in instructional classrooms are used by DSC education faculty to enhance instruction. 

An instructional classroom in the ETC can be equipped with 20 wireless Dell laptops and 10 Apple iBooks.  The Center also has a Polycom Video Conferencing system which provides a means to facilitate meetings and trainings with other locations nationally and internationally.  The ETC supports LiveText providing hands-on training for teacher candidates and full-time and part-time education faculty.

Candidates also are required to develop an E-Portfolio in LiveText ( Kassie Cudd and Jennifer Findley ) as evidence of  meeting INTASC Principles

The ETC director reports directly to the Education Dean.

Faculty are required to use LiveText for entering assessment data and can require candidate's work to be submitted in LiveText. Further, faculty also use Georgia View and DSC Connect as a means of communication with candidates, posting assignments, syllabi and grades.

6e.3. What resources are available for the development and implementation of the unit's assessment system?

The unit has adequate resources available to develop and implement the unit’s assessment system.  The Education faculty adopted LiveText as a way to develop, manage, and assess program and candidate data. Data collection other than that utilized by LiveText is housed in either Excel or Access database.  The access database is supported by DSC’s OCIS.  The ETC provides faculty with up-to-date training as well as state-of-the-art technology training. Faculty collaborate to prioritize course-related requirements to be entered into LiveText by candidates.

6e.4. What library and curricular resources exist at the institution? How does the unit ensure they are sufficient and current?

 The Derrell C. Roberts Library provides access to an extensive collection of resources and services. This recently expanded and renovated 57,700 square foot facility houses approximately 132,000 volumes, 209 current periodical subscriptions, 9,924 media items, 6,000+ e-books, and is a selective federal government documents repository. Books, periodicals, government documents, e-books, and media can be identified by using the online catalog .DSC affiliated patrons can use the GIL Universal Catalog to locate materials owned by other USG libraries to facilitate interlibrary loan or GIL Express borrowing. Through the GALILEO (Georgia Library Learning Online) virtual library, 88 workstations offer access to 200 + full-text databases with over 27,000 full-text periodicals, subject indexes and directories, online reference materials, and Georgia documents and historical papers. GALILEO, Georgia’s statewide library consortia, is essential in providing library users with online resources through cooperative licensing. In addition to GALILEO, the Roberts Library provides access to specialized databases like GaleNET, Proquest Nursing, and Proquest Education. All online resources are linked off the library’s GALILEO page . Library users may access these resources on campus without a password. All students and faculty, including distance learners, can gain off-campus access by going to the library’s main page and clicking on Off Campus access using DSConnect login, and then entering their usernames and passwords

6e.5. How does the unit ensure the accessibility of resources to candidates, including candidates in off-campus, distance learning, and alternate route programs, through electronic means?

Available labs and technology, as stated above, ensure candidates have the resources available to meet standards as well as participate in hybrid courses.  Faculty and candidates use GeorgiaView, DSConnect, and LiveText to engage candidates in meeting course requirements.  Both GeorgiaView and DSConnect are supported by OCIS, and  Livetext is supported by ETC.  DSC’s School of Education does not offer courses online through distance learning, nor does it deliver its programs off campus.