COUNCIL FOR EDUCATOR PREPARATION
Speight 203 at 3:15 p.m.
The sixth meeting of the Council for Educator Preparation for the 2017-2018 academic year was held Monday, February 12, 2018 at 3:15 p.m. in Speight 203. Members present: Jennifer Adams, Barbara Brehm, Charity Cayton, Vivian Covington (Chair), Ellen Dobson, Bernice Dodor, Johna Faulconer, Laura King, LCSN-PCS Representative- Kamara Roach, Laura Levi-Altstaedter, Marissa Nesbit, Dan Novey, Jeff Pizzutilla, Nicole Smith, Lora Lee Smith-Canter, Cynthia Wagoner, Ivan Wallace, Kevin White, and Jamie Williams. Visitors in attendance were Laura Bilbro-Berry, Crystal Jones, and Shari Steadman. Absent were Nanyoung Kim, Rhea Miles, Caitlin Ryan, Christina Tschida, Christy Walcott, and Elaine Yontz.
Approval of Minutes January 8, 2018 Meeting
The minutes were approved.
Announcements
The Beta Alpha Chapter of Delta Kappa Gamma Society International is offering a grant-in-aid to an incoming senior education major in an amount up to $500. An application form was distributed and emailed to undergraduate representatives for distribution to qualified students. The deadline is March 1, 2018.
The North Carolina Network to Transform Teaching (NT3) is hosting a meeting for beginning teacher coordinators and mentors on April 16, 2018 at the NCAE Center in Raleigh. The program work aims to make accomplished teaching the norm for every student in every school every day by supporting the teaching continuum from early career through professional teaching, National Board Certification, and teacher leadership. This event is free of charge with advanced registration, which closes March 9, 2018. Food during the event and one hotel room will be provided. Questions and concerns should be directed to Dr. Beth Edwards, NC NT3 Director. Please email edwardsbeth63@gmail.com.
Standing Update from the Office of Assessment, Accreditation and Digital Learning
CAEP–Ellen Dobson reported that she had not heard from all program areas regarding the key assessment document, so check with your area to be sure the document gets submitted. Candidates must be proficient in a key assessment, so grades should not be given until key assessments are graded and the grade reflects passing (meaning key assessment was proficient) or not passing if the key assessment was not proficient. Syllabi should reflect this! Undergraduate and graduate program surveys will open April 9 and close April 23. Data will be pulled by May 7th. You will need to submit final Intern II evaluations by May 1st to have scores before May 7th.
SACS—Reports are due May 15, 2018.
The Teacher Education Management System (TEMS) will eventually be replaced by SONIA, a program by Planet Software. The program interacts with information in Banner and allows us to capture placements, edTPA scores, etc. UNC-W is using this system now and we will begin using it soon.
Standing Update from Office of Clinical Experiences & Alternative Licensure
Intern I Application Meetings will be held February 23rd, 26th or 27th. Students are required to attend one of the meetings if your program area participates in this meeting. Seating is first come, first served. Candidates have been notified.
The Internship Agreement form is now one page instead of the multiple page NCR paper. Candidates will upload the completed form in TaskStream after securing required signatures.
Degree seeking candidates wanting to add an additional license area prior to completing their degree, should contact the Office of Clinical Experiences, OCE@ecu.edu for a Plan of Study (POS). If the candidate is either SPED-GC or ELEM with a reading concentration, no appointment or POS is needed, as the READ license is built into SPED-GC and comes with the Reading Concentration. All other add-on areas need an approved POS from OCE/AL.
If your department is adding field experiences to a class, notify OCE so the course can be added to the current list of courses with practica. If a course requires a practicum placement, it should be in the course description in the catalog, which requires curricular action. Faculty cannot just decide to add a practica, field experience, or anything else that requires entry into a school building or agency without curricular action.
Old Business
Session Law 2017-57 8.2 allows a bonus for Highly Qualified NC teaching graduates hired after July 1, 2017 who meet the following criteria:
- New teacher
- Graduate from approved educator preparation program in NC
- GPA of 3.75 or higher and a score of 48 or higher on the edTPA or equivalent assessment.
A Highly Qualified graduate is paid a monthly supplement of the equivalent of the difference in salary of a Bachelor level teacher with zero years of experience and
- 3 years of experience, if teaching in a low performing school for the first 3 years of employment.
- 2 years of experience, if licensed and teaching in EC, science, technology, engineering or mathematics for the first 2 years of employment.
- 1 year of experience, for all others for the first year of employment.
New Business
One candidate has asked to redo a portion of the edTPA in an effort to achieve the score of 48 for highly qualified status. Paying for a retake is costly but the candidate could earn a significant amount of money more for the first, second, and or third year of teaching if qualified. We need a policy with some parameters about how many retakes will be allowed, timeframe to get this done, consequences in terms of grades if the score goes down, etc. This was referred to the policy committee.
The UNC System is requiring undergraduate degree programs to lower their total hours to 120. Five program areas are at 120 and there are 11 with more than 120 hours. They range from 123 to 132 hours. Several program areas are in the midst of reducing their hours to 120 as the double counting allowed for general education credits/program area credits has helped. A waiver for more than 120 hours can be requested to the Board of Trustees to be reviewed and granted by the Board of Governors. The education deans in the UNC System are discussing asking for a waiver. Dr. Covington is leading this process in the COE for Dean Hayes.
A report on the State of the Teaching Profession in NC was distributed. The State Board of Education is required to monitor and compile an annual report on the decisions of teachers who leave the teaching profession. LEAs are asked to complete an annual report on the reasons teachers leave their systems, submitting data to the Department of Public Instruction. The overall state attrition rate for 2016-17 is 8.70%, slightly less than the previous year. Attrition rates for beginning teachers was higher than those not classified as a beginning teacher. Lateral entry and Teach for America teachers were included in the report. The complete report including charts may be found at https://www.ncga.state.nc.us/documentsites/committees/JLEOC/Reports%20Received/2018%20Reports%20Received/State%20of%20Teaching%20Profession_Final_2017.pdf. We are required by law to share this with all candidates. Dr. Covington shared that this can be put with the required reading in Intern I and Intern II in Taskstream to simply achieve this requirement.
There is a new policy, Reports of Alleged Violations Regarding EPPs. Students in an EPP may submit a complaint about an EPP for investigation and resolution. The State Board may investigate the complaint. They do not have jurisdiction over complaints related to grades, credit for training or seeking reinstatement to an EPP. Complainants must file in writing to the State Board. Each EPP shall provide notification of the complaint process on the website of the EPP, a sign prominently displayed in program facilities and in the student handbook. The State Board shall post the complaint process on the State Board’s website.
A policy regarding drug testing, which some school systems require even for practicum placements, was discussed. If this were adopted, would this be at admission to an EP program, practicum or internship? What are other IHEs doing? This was referred to the policy committee to investigate the issue. Dr. Nicole Smith will gather data form other UNC System IHEs about what they are doing.
Standing Committees
Curriculum Committee –No report. The committee will meet 2/26 at 3:15 p.m. in Speight 202. Notice of packages in Curriculog that are ready for CEP CC review should be sent by 5:00 p.m. on 2/19 to Elain Yontz.
Evaluation & Planning Committee – No Report
Admissions & Retention – No report
Policy – No report. The Policy Committee met after the CEP meeting to determine a time to discuss a potential drug testing policy and edTPA.
There being no further business, Dan Novey moved to adjourn and it was seconded by Jamie Williams. The meeting adjourned at 4:20 p.m. The next meeting will be March 12, 2018 in Speight 203 at 3:15 p.m.
Respectfully submitted,
Sherry S. Tripp