Standard 4.C
Experiences Working with Diverse Candidates
Target: Candidates interact and work with candidates with exceptionalities and from diverse ethnic, racial, gender, language, socioeconomic, and religious groups in professional education courses on campus and in schools. The active participation of candidates from diverse cultural backgrounds and with different experiences is solicited, and valued and accepted in classes, field experiences, and clinical practice.
Age. According to the most recent EMU Student Profile that drew on Fall 2001 data, the average age of the EMU undergraduate student body was 24.5, with a wide range including 12.0% that were no more than 19 and 7.6% that were 36 or older. The average age of the EMU graduate student body was 34.0.
Ethnicity. For a number of years, almost every year, U.S. News and World Report has ranked EMU high among comparable Midwestern institutions in terms of "diversity." The magazine's diversity rankings identify and recognize institutions where students are most likely to encounter undergraduates of different racial and ethnic groups. The EMU Student Profile (Fall 2001 data) reported, at the undergraduate level, a student body that was 2.2% foreign, 17.4% Black, 2.1% Asian, 0.7% Amerindian, and 2.2% Hispanic. At the graduate level, the composition of the student body included 13.2% foreign, 10.1% Black, 3.0% Asian, 0.2% Amerindian, and 1.8% Hispanic.
According to the 2002 AACTE/NCATE PEDS report (Exhibit G-6), 15.2% of the student body for the initial teacher preparation program was minority, including foreign students. The comparable figure for advanced programs was 10.6%. Admissions to the initial teacher education program show increasing numbers and percentages of minority students. For example, in 1997-98, 64 (8.4% of all admissions) minority persons were admitted; for 2002-2003, this had increased to 168 minority persons (12.5%). (See Exhibit 2.11)
Gender. At the undergraduate level, EMU's student body was 60.5% female and, at the graduate level, women made up 65.0% of the students. (See Student Profile ). (Fall 2001 data.)
According to the 2002 AACTE/NCATE PEDS report (Exhibit G-6), 27.9% of the student body for the initial teacher preparation program was male. At the advanced level, it was 24.4%. Admissions to the initial teacher education program show increasing numbers and percentages of men. For example, in 1995-96, 231 men (26.3% of all admissions) were admitted; for 2002-2003, this had increased to 378 men (27.6%). (See Exhibit 2.11.)
Geographic. According to the Student Profile (Fall 2001 data), the EMU undergraduate student body contained 89.4% Michigan students, including 77.6% from Southeast Michigan (seven counties) and 11.8% from out-state Michigan. The remainder of the undergraduate student body consisted of 2.1% foreign students and 8.5% students from other U.S. states. However, 6.2% of the undergraduate students were from the one state of Ohio, at least in large part due to a tuition reciprocity agreement affecting certain counties in Ohio.
At the graduate level, according to the EMU Student Profile (Fall 2001 data), the EMU student body consisted of 84.0% students from Michigan (69.7% from Southeast Michigan, 14.3% from out-state Michigan), 3.5% from other U.S. states (1.6% from Ohio alone), and 12.6% foreign.
Academic ability. According to the EMU Student Profile (Fall 2001 data), of the EMU undergraduate students attending college any where for the first time in 2001, the mean ACT score was 20.78, the mean SAT score was 988, and the mean high school grade point average was 3.03. For new graduate students of that year, the average undergraduate grade point average was 3.14. For graduate students in the College of Education, the average undergraduate grade point average was 3.17.
Exceptionalities. The EMU campus in general and the Porter Building in particular are quite friendly to persons with disabilities and extensive services are provided by the campus Access Services Office . As a result, EMU probably has a higher-than-usual proportion of students with disabilities. Professional education students are frequently around persons with disabilities, not only in the professional education student body itself but by the presence in the Porter Building of the campus' Center for Adaptive Technology in Education (CATE Lab) and the College of Education Clinical Suite.
Other. EMU students are not wealthy. According to the EMU Financial Aid website "This year Eastern Michigan University will pay more than $100 million in Scholarships, Grants, Part-time employment and Loans to more than 13,000 students." Many students tell about being first-generation college students. Many, especially in the initial teacher education program, transfer to EMU, having first attended a community college for financial reasons. As a public institution, EMU and its professional education programs draw from the total religious diversity of Southeast Michigan.
Area school age population. Professional education students are involved with schools throughout Southeastern Michigan. SEMCOG, the Southeast Michigan Council of Governments, covers seven counties generally coinciding with the area from which most professional education students come and the area in which most field placements are made. Exhibit 4.8 provides a table showing selected demographic characteristics of this seven-county area. It is assumed that the school-age population reflects approximately the same demographics.
Program Admissions and Completions. An indicator of solicitation of diverse candidates at the initial program level is given in the statistics cited above showing the increases in men and in minority admissions over several years' time. An indicator of success in the program is that, according to the 2002 AACTE/NCATE PEDS report (Exhibit G-6), we had 237 men and 54 minority program completers in 2000-2001.