Advanced Programs Committee

Minutes of meeting on 10/10/00

Present: Chris Bocklage, Art; Lisa Frankes, TED; Jane Gordon, TED; H. A. Hasan, SPED; Tom McDole, BTE; Kaia Skaggs, TED; Sue Stickel, L&C; Mary Teal, Music; Jackie Tracy, L&C; Judy Williston, TED

Minutes from the 9/26/00 meeting were approved.

A document regarding implementation expectations for the NCATE 2000 standards from Carolyn Finch was handed out. Discussion was postponed because of Dr. Finch’s absence.

There was discussion of the inclusion of the four non-NCATE graduate programs in the Advanced Programs committee. Sue Stickel reported that the two L&C programs (Community Counseling and College Student Personnel) wish to remain as members of Professional and Affiliated Programs. A motion was made and seconded to extend an invitation for representation on the Advanced Programs Committee to the masters programs in Educational Psychology and Social Foundations. Judy Williston will solicit input from the dean and from Doug Briggs, chair of Professional and Affiliated Programs. Dr. Pedersen, who was going to get feedback from HPERD was not present and no information on their response was available. Dr. Stickel reported that the two programs in L&C were self-contained and did not feel that they would be affected by the kinds of issues dealt with by Advanced Programs. This led to a discussion about the input structure in general, which is seen as confusing and unwieldy. The motion to invite the programs to participate in Advanced Programs was unanimously approved.

Dean Robbins has asked for input on the current committee structure. There are several issues of concern to this committee:

- What is the charge of the committee? Are we to be "NCATE guardians", screening proposals and making decisions based only on NCATE guidelines, or are the duties more general than NCATE alone?

- The brief description of the committee states that it is to deal with "all matters" concerning the advanced programs, but it is not clear what "all matters" includes. What is the role of the committee is it reviewer of programs, guider of programs, keeper of NCATE regulations, or what?

- If in fact we are supposed to look at courses from the perspective of NCATE guidelines, what are those guidelines?

- The course approval process needs to be streamlined because it is confusing even to members of the committee what their specific responsibilities are, changes get delayed or lost sometimes for years, the flow of information is not clear, etc.

- What about the COE "outsiders"? Is the Advanced Programs Committee an NCATE requirement of some sort? What are the individuals who have no connection to the COE even though they are involved in NCATE programs supposed to do on the committee? How can their time be better spent, as many of the matters discussed are not relevant to them?

- Are there any other institutions that grapple to the same extent that we do with the NCATE/non-NCATE distinctions within individual departments, COE/non-COE administrative structures and the like and how do they handle these issues? We’re still struggling with the "what’s the unit" question with which we began last year, which makes it hard to see that the committee is accomplishing its goals (even if we were clear what those were).

A memo will be sent to the dean outlining these issues as being of interest to this committee.

Dr. Williston introduced an agenda item dealing with course changes from 1998-99 that were never taken care of. She will summarize these changes on a master list for discussion and action at the next meeting. Dr. Hasan will review the SPED requests and summarize for the group.

Dr. Williston provided clarification regarding the statement about the graduate school residency requirement discussed at the last meeting. According to her discussion with Michael Harris, the policy has already been approved so there is no need for committee input. In addition, he indicated that the statement was to apply to doctoral programs only, even though it says "graduate programs." Even though the statement has already been approved, the request was made by the committee to Dr. Williston to convey the information that if the statement does in fact apply to doctoral programs only that the phrase "graduate programs" be replaced with "doctoral programs" to avoid confusion.

A memo from SOFD regarding a course recommendation for the M.A. program in math education was circulated. The M.A. proposal will be returned to the math department with suggestions and the request that specific revisions be made in the proposal for final action rather than a narrative response. The committee was uncomfortable with the SOFD position that an additional course be required, but did agree to support their recommendation for a more appropriate possibility than the course originally proposed.

Dr. Finch had asked for some examples of assessments already in place at the advanced programs level. Several individuals brought examples but the discussion was tabled due to Dr. Finch’s absence.

The next meeting of the Advanced Programs committee will take place Oct. 24th. Agenda items will include: