NCATE - Institution & The Unit

Unit Overview

The professional education programs at Wayne State College have been nationally accredited since the 1960s, successfully completing its last NCATE review in 1997. During the 2000-2001 year, there were 3,222 students enrolled at Wayne State College. 42 percent of the population was male while 58 percent was female. 5.8 percent of the students were from minority populations. 24 percent of the students were enrolled in teacher education, 22 percent were business majors and 54 percent were enrolled in the liberal arts and sciences.

At the advanced candidate level the enrollment was 1561. There were 404 males and 1157 females with a 1 percent minorities population. At the advanced candidate level, the core courses (15 hours of common courses taken by all candidates in the Curriculum and Instruction and Educational Administration programs at the advanced level and partially taken by candidates in the Counseling and Special Education programs at the advanced level) are delivered both on campus at Wayne and at six other locations in the area on a rotational basis (see Appendix A). Some of the courses are offered via distance learning from one of three distance learning labs on the Wayne State campus (or, at times, the distance learning lab at the Wayne Community Schools) to two or three distance sites in the area (may be a cohort site or a different site requested by students, e.g. Atkinson West Holt Schools). For other courses, Wayne State faculty travel to cohort sites to deliver the course. The courses may or may not be delivered to other locations from the cohort site.

The initial and advanced programs described below conform to the standards required by national learned societies, state requirements for licensure, and INTASC principles.

Changes in program offerings since 1997 include the addition of ESL, alternative education, and educational technology to the areas of emphasis within the Curriculum and Instruction advanced program. A new delivery system has been developed for the Education Specialist program in which the program will be delivered partially on-line and partially on the Wayne State campus. At the initial program level, an Early Childhood endorsement, that must be taken in conjunction with an Elementary Education endorsement, has been developed.

Between 1976 and 2001, the organizational structure of the College consisted of eight academic divisions, each directed by a “division head.” The only exception to this was the Education Division, which was directed by a dean. The Wayne State community underwent an a sweeping organizational change process during the 2000-2001 school year. Four division head positions were eliminated and four academic “schools” were formed, including: the School of Business and Technology, the School of Natural and Social Sciences, the School of Arts and Humanities, and the School of Education and Counseling. Each entity is now headed by a dean. (see Appendix B for organizational charts) The Education Division underwent the least amount of change. Essentially, it went from being one of eight academic entities to being one of four. Its dean prior to this reorganization, and since 1998, has been Dr. Paul Theobald.

The organizational structure within each School encompasses departments and teams. Each department and team is led by a chairperson. The School of Education and Counseling is comprised of two departments: Foundations and Educational Leadership, and Counseling and Special Education. The Foundations and Educational Leadership department is comprised of the following teams: Educational Administration, Elementary Education, Curriculum and Instruction, and Secondary Education. The Special Education and Counseling department is comprised of the following teams: Special Education and Counseling.

Wayne State College is a member of the Nebraska Network for Educational Renewal (NeNER), which is a member setting in John Goodlad’s National Network for Educational Renewal (NNER). (O.2) This association has resulted in significant dividends in at least three different ways. Paraphrasing the NNER agenda just a bit, its three largest contributions to Wayne State College have been 1) the notion concept of “partner” schools, 2) the concept of “tripartite” involvement in the process of educating educators, and 3) the notion concept of teaching and preparing to teach as moral endeavors directly connected to the vitality of a society’s democratic arrangements. Dr. Theobald came to Wayne State College already deeply immersed in the NNER agenda. As a faculty member at Texas A&M University, he became a leadership associate in Goodlad’s teacher education development project during the early 1990s. His focused study of what Goodlad calls the “simultaneous renewal” of teaching and teacher education has led to many publications on the topic. Dr. Theobald served as a department head and dean of two other professional education units before coming to Wayne State in 1998. He currently serves as NeNER’s representative to the NNER governing council. (O.5.1)

In an effort to make goodfulfill on our the institutional and unit commitment to serving the rural communities of northeast Nebraska, Wayne State College has maintained a close affiliation with another school improvement effort, this one specifically geared toward rural education. Like NeNER, it is a statewide effort with close connections to a national organization. Nebraska’s School at the Center initiative seeks to make help schools make substantive useful connections to between a school and the rural community that surrounds it. The larger national organization is called the Rural School and Community Trust, and it is located in Washington, DC. As with NeNER, Dr. Theobald serves as Vice Chair on the Board of Directors of School at the Center.

Wayne State’s relationship to its partner schools has continued to evolve and mature. In as manythe years as when there were funds were available to do it, we the unit has have hosted “partner school banquets.” (O.3) These occasions were specifically designed as brainstorming sessions for deepening the mutual benefits that defined our school/unit partnerships. They have proved to be the catalyst to for some powerful learning projects that have positively touched the livesaffected of P-12 school and college educators as well as their respective students. First and foremostForemost among these was the establishment of the Northeast Nebraska Teacher Academy (NENTA).

The general teacher shortage in northeast Nebraska has had the residual effect of draining limiting the pool of available substitute teachers. And this has occurred at a time when public schools have had to dramatically revamp their curriculum to meet new state learning standards and implement entirely new assessment practices and mechanisms. This has created a huge demand for staff development hours, but the absence shortage of substitute teachers consistently often curtailed limited what teachers might accomplish. We Members of the unit faculty became aware of this dilemma at our the fall 2000 partnership banquet.

A discussion ensued at that event. Since the state had already established a “local substitute certificate” that called for only 60 college credit hours and one course in professional education, administrators asked if we there might be a way to get talented teacher education candidates into the local substitute pool. Follow-up discussions proceeded on a regular basis. At last aFinally, a plan was put in place that wouldwould create a network of well-qualified teacher candidates, fully certified as local substitutes, supported in many different ways, that could insert thousands of substitute teaching hours into 13 partner districts in northeast Nebraska. The implementation of this plan has created a dramatic example of mutually beneficial partner school-college relationships. (O.4E) We will discuss NENTA and other school-college partnerships NENTA and other school-college partnerships will be discussed later in this document.

Another direct benefit of our the unit’s membership in NNER has been the importance placed on “tripartite” ownership in the teacher education endeavor. Most Most programs have a practitioner advisory board and a college-wide council for teacher education and in the past Wayne State did as well. The problem with this arrangement is that all the players were never, or rarely assembled such so that they could speak communicatewith one another. During our the institution’s reorganization year at Wayne State (2000-2001) we members of the unit’s leadership began to envision a new council that would bring all three professional groups to the table at the same time: arts and sciences professors, teacher educators form from the School of Education and Counseling, and representatives from our the unit’s partner schools. The newly formed tripartite body known as the Teacher Education Advisory Council (TEAC) was first convened in the fall of 2001. (O.5)

These examples, we believe, are indicative of the fact that the School of Education and Counseling at Wayne State College is a dynamic, cutting-edge, intellectually vibrant, academic unit. Faculty are dedicated to the highest quality preparation of teachers and other professional school personnel.