Institutional Report - Standard 5: Faculty Qualifications, Performance, and Development
Last Update: 1/15/04 *

The unit's faculty model best professional practice in scholarship, service, and teaching, including self-assessment of their own effectiveness and effects on candidate performance; they also collaborate with colleagues in the disciplines and schools. The unit systematically evaluates faculty performance and facilitates professional development.

Element 1: Qualified Faculty

The College of Education has 65 (36 female, 29 male) tenure-track faculty members, four clinical professors (2 female, 2 male), and two (female) clinical instructors. The tenure-track faculty also has contemporary professional experiences in school settings; much of this experience comes through the implementation of the early field experiences in the initial program.  In addition, reflecting the historical commitment to collaboration in the content areas at Purdue, the College of Education has 39 courtesy and adjunct appointments.

All cooperating teachers are required to have a teaching license in the areas they supervise and a minimum of three years of professional experience. The data in the table below indicate that our cooperating teachers are highly experienced.

Table 18. Cooperating Teacher Years of Experience

University supervisors are either retired administrators/teachers or mid-career teachers who have taken a break from full-time teaching for a variety of reasons. Similar to requirements for the cooperating teachers, university supervisors have a minimum of three years of teaching experience and have or have had relevant teaching licenses. Most university supervisors also  hold a master's degree. The supervisors who work with the Block field experiences gain contemporary professional experience by participating in weekly Block staff meetings supervised by higher education faculty and by frequent interaction with the teachers and principals who host the field experiences. University supervisors also can extend their contemporary experience by participating in Professional Development School activities. Faculty vitae are available and include information regarding academic preparation and credentials, scholarly publications and presentations, and professional engagement.

Element 2: Modeling for Best Professional Practices in Teaching

Faculty members are recruited to teach in specific content areas.  Competence to teach in a content area is a criterion in search committee evaluations. Review of faculty vitae will reveal that faculty members have training and experience in their content areas. Further, they conduct scholarship and provide professional service in those content areas. The faculty vitae demonstrate the depth of faculty understanding of their fields.

The intellectual vitality of the faculty and their sensitivity to critical issues is manifested in the Purdue conceptual framework, which reflects current developments in the field. For example, the initial program emphasizes use of emerging technology, adapting instruction to diverse learners, and inclusive education. The advanced program emphasizes research through the creation, synthesis, and communication of knowledge. Conceptual framework emphases are reflected in curriculum objectives in the initial and advanced programs, which are assessed through the portfolio assessment system. 

Consider the following examples of faculty instruction that reflects the conceptual framework, appropriate performance assessment, and current research and professional developments.

• EDCI 250 Professional Development in Family and Consumer and Family Sciences candidates participate in the State Leadership Conference for the Indiana Family, Career, and Community Leaders of America candidate organization. EDCI 250 candidates serve as judges and facilitators for competitive events for middle and high school candidates. This activity reflects the conceptual framework emphases of collaboration with the community, focusing on the learner, and assessing growth and outcomes.
• Block II candidates work as a group to create a tri-fold brochure related to a topic such as bullying, depression, and familial substance abuse. This single brochure incorporates: six characteristics of the problem/experience, five "dos" and five "don'ts" for teachers, five strategies for handling a student affected by this problem/experience, three journal articles, five references for curriculum resources, five references for children/youth literature, and five website links. This assignment is an example of understanding individual development of candidates and synthesis and communication of knowledge.
• Candidates in the initial program special education courses (e.g., EDPS 469 Advanced Methods in Social Behavioral Change in Special Education) use personal digital assistants (PDAs) to record notes on treatment options for behavior problems. Candidates in the advanced program special education courses (e.g., EDPS 575 Severely Emotionally Handicapped Individuals: Advances in Intervention Strategies and Research) use PDAs to conduct behavioral assessments and plan and monitor interventions for behavior problems. Candidates in EDPS 460 Strategies for Teaching Individuals with Disabilities and EDPS 463 Teaching Individuals with Severe Disabilities learn to use MP3 players to develop and deliver self-operated auditory prompts for school aged students with moderate and severe disabilities. These are examples of instruction using technology to understand individual development of students, focus on the learner, and assess growth and outcomes.
• School counseling candidates construct a web site for a student population of their choice as an EDPS 505 Career Theory and Information assignment. Candidates construct sites that provide links to career interest assessment resources, college and university admissions information, financial aid resources, and labor market information. This assignment reflects the conceptual framework emphases on use of current and emerging technologies and communication of knowledge. School Counseling Internship (EDPS 695B) candidates have constructed CD-ROMs on the topic of conflict resolution education for elementary and middle/high school candidates. These CD-ROMs are designed for use by parents, students, and faculty. This class project, which will be presented at the upcoming annual meeting of the Indiana Counseling Association, is an example of using technology to communicate knowledge and active participation in one's profession.

Faculty use a wide variety of instructional strategies to promote candidate learning, including case studies, technology-based projects, debates, reflective assessment, poster sessions, research reports, and demonstrations of instructional techniques. Candidate work samples can be up-loaded to the e-portfolio. Consider the following examples of instructional strategies used to encourage the development of reflection, critical thinking, and problem solving:

• EDCI 356 Career Education through Family and Consumer Sciences candidates carry out an individualized study of a career preparation program. This project includes one or more school-based observations with interviews of high school teachers and students, and sometimes interviews with participating employers. This assignment provides candidates with positive models of professional dispositions. 
• Instructors in every core Educational Leadership program course use a "Standards Journal" assignment to elicit application, analysis, and synthesis of leadership and management theories in practice. The Standards Journal assignment provides faculty with concrete evidence of candidate progress towards attainment of the Indiana Professional Standards Board / Interstate School Leaders Licensure Consortium standards.
• EDPS 540 Gifted, Creative, and Talented Children candidates participate in a structured debate of a current issue in gifted education as their culminating experience in the course. This assignment promotes the development of analysis, synthesis, and application skills.

Diversity is one of the four major foci of the initial program. EDCI 285 Multiculturalism and Education (Block I) explicitly focuses on diversity topics. For example, EDCI 285 candidates work with low and moderate-income elementary school children to develop art projects related to identity and social justice. This course culminates in Cultural Palooza in which students display their artwork at a semester-end celebration on the Purdue campus attended by parents, teachers, government representatives, and Purdue faculty. More than 80 children participated in this event in its inaugural year (2002-03); we anticipate that approximately 180 children will participate in Cultural Palooza this year. The emphasis on diversity also is represented in EDPS 265 The Inclusive Classroom in Block II of the initial program. Moreover, diversity topics are infused throughout the initial program curricula. The Diversity in the Classroom Project is a collaborative effort between the Purdue Diversity Resource Office and the Schools of Education, Liberal Arts, and Consumer and Family Sciences. The Project sponsors a series of faculty-led discussions focused on developing competencies for teaching diverse learners. The Project distributes a monthly newsletter to initial program candidates with "Diversity Nuggets," news, a calendar of events, and suggested readings. The Project hosted a presentation from Professor Carlos Cortes (University of California-Riverside) on "The New Multiculturalist: Preparing Students for a Future of Constructive Diversity" in November 2003. The Diversity in the Classroom Project also sponsors a year-end conference featuring presentations by candidates, faculty, and guests.

Diversity is infused in the advanced program curricula; it is featured in courses related to introductions to the professions, research and assessment, and practicum and internship experiences. Because it is a research focus of several faculty members, diversity is prominently represented in the curricula of the initial and advanced programs. Both the initial and advanced programs emphasize development of sensitivity to cultural issues and use of differential strategies to promote learning and behavior change.

Technology also is emphasized in the initial and advanced programs. Adoption of the e-portfolio to document candidate learning is clear evidence of faculty commitment to use of technology as a powerful learning tool. The examples above demonstrate some of the ways in which faculty have incorporated technology in courses.

There are two different approaches to faculty assessment of candidate performance. The gate assessment system is used to assess candidate performance in the initial program. At each gate candidates must meet minimum GPA and standardized test score requirements. Faculty assess candidates' portfolio assessment assignments in each Block. For example, Block II faculty determine that candidates have passed a philosophy of education assignment before the candidates can advance from the Beginning to the Developing stage of the initial program. (This Block II artifact is entered in the e-portfolio.) During the Spring 2003 semester, 6 candidates (3%) failed to successfully complete the philosophy of education assignment and must repeat the Block II courses in order to progress in the program.

Faculty are intensely involved in candidate performance in the advanced programs. Faculty have integrated knowledge, disposition, and performance standards into all advanced program course goals and objectives. Course grades and practicum and internship evaluations explicitly reflect these standards.

Faculty also are required to attain teaching evaluations for each of their courses. They record self-assessments of teaching activities in written reports to departmental Primary Committees each year. (Curriculum and Instruction faculty complete the Form C Faculty Self-Review Report; Educational Studies faculty complete the Form 100 Faculty Self -Assessment.) Faculty commonly administer mid-course assessments to make necessary changes during the semester. In-depth teaching assessments are available from the Center for Instructional Excellence to promote the development of faculty teaching skills.

Candidates and peers have recognized COE faculty as outstanding teachers across campus. The Teaching for Tomorrow award is one index of outstanding teaching. This program involves the mentoring and development of highly talented assistant professors by outstanding senior professors. Since its inception in 1997, three COE assistant professors have participated as mentees and two professors have participated as mentors.

Element 3: Modeling for Best Professional Practices in Scholarship

Scholarly productivity is a fundamental expectation of faculty members, who are typically allocated 50% of their time for scholarship and service. Faculty are expected to engage in multiple forms of scholarship, including: refereed journal articles, books, chapters, refereed conference presentations, and electronic media.

The faculty has established a national reputation for scholarly productivity, contributing widely to prestigious refereed journals. Currently, COE faculty members are editors (Curriculum Theory, EconEdLink, Journal of Mental Health Counseling) and associate editors (Journal of Mathematics Teacher Education, Mathematical Thinking and Learning: An International Journal, Psychology in the Schools, Taboo: The Journal of Culture and Education, and The Writing Instructor) of refereed journals. COE faculty also serve as editorial board members (e.g., American Education Research Journal, English Education, Gifted Child Quarterly, Journal of Elementary Science Education, Journal of Educational Psychology, Journal of Teacher Education, Teaching Exceptional Children) for prestigious journals. COE faculty also are active as conference program reviewers for professional associations such as American Educational Research Association, American Psychological Association, and the National Association of Research in Science Teaching. COE faculty members are fellows of the American Association of Mental Retardation, American Psychological Association, and the American Speech-Language-Hearing Association. The faculty are actively pursuing scholarship related to teaching and learning. Examples of faculty research are available in the Exhibit Room.

The following are examples of faculty research programs:

• Professor Youli Mantzicopoulos has studied the multiple determinants of school readiness. She has found that several factors predict nonpromotion to first grade following kindergarten, including: parent-child communication about school, parental satisfaction and involvement with school programs, and parental estimates of children's school adjustment.
• Professor Peg Ertmer has examined ways to increase preservice teachers' capacity for technology integration in their teaching. She found that using a CD-ROM to present exemplary models of teachers using technology increased preservice teachers' efficacy for use of technology in the classroom. This research is instrumental in developing methods for providing successful technology integration experiences for preservice teachers.
• Professor Sydney Zentall has explored the optimal stimulation model of educational intervention for children with attention-deficit/hyperactivity (ADHD) disorder. Her research has demonstrated that insufficient stimulation leads to stimulation-seeking behavior in children with ADHD. Her research also has demonstrated how attention training and visual stimulation can lead to increased academic productivity.

Element 4: Modeling for Best Professional Practices in Service

Engagement is a highly valued faculty function because of Purdue's land grant mission; engagement is one of the three major goals of the Purdue University Strategic Plan. Faculty are involved in a wide variety of engagement activities including work in Professional Development Schools (PDS), service to the state and nation, and leadership in professional associations. Consider the following three examples of faculty working in schools with colleagues:

• Last year the Reading Recovery University Training Center for Indiana, led by Purdue University trainers, provided teacher training and implementation support to 471 schools in 145 school districts, ultimately serving more than 7,128 Indiana school children. The Purdue Literacy collaborative supports 48 literacy coordinators who are, in turn, training every primary classroom teacher in their school buildings. These literacy initiatives are making a major impact on literacy in the State of Indiana.
• The Assessment Resource Center (ARC) developed Documentation of Indiana's Academic Standards (DIAS), an electronic assessment and portfolio system that can be used to gather, organize, and evaluate candidate achievement based on Indiana's academic standards. The DIAS is a highly valuable tool in the contemporary climate of school accountability and high-stakes assessment. ARC personnel trained teachers and administrators from more than 55 Indiana school corporations in the use of the DIAS standards-based assessment system during the 2002-03 academic year.
• The ENVISION professional development program for middle school science teachers has trained more than 100 teachers; this training has impacted more than 100,000 students in 10 states.

Purdue faculty are engaged in service initiatives that are leading directly to improvements in learning in the schools. COE faculty are actively providing leadership to professional associations related to P-12 education, both locally and nationally. It is through these leadership positions that COE faculty engage in dialogues about the design and delivery of initial and advanced instructional programs. Faculty members are involved in leadership roles in national organizations as Presidents (Association for Educational Communications and Technology Council on Systemic Change, National Association of Teacher Educators for Family and Consumer Sciences, Reading Recovery Council of North America), Chairs (Literacy Collaborative National Council), and board of directors members (National Association of Gifted Children, National Coalition for Family and Consumer Sciences Curriculum Council, National Council of Professors of Educational Administration, National Professional Advisory Board, Children and Adults with Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder, Reading Recovery Council of North America). COE faculty also serve Indiana associations in the roles of President (Indiana Association for Counselor Education and Supervision), Director (Indiana Reading Recovery Program), and committee chairs and members (Indiana Alternate Assessment Committee, Indiana Middle School Family and Consumer Sciences Curriculum Council). Every COE faculty member is involved in service to professional associations.

Faculty members also are providing services beyond the boundaries of campus. Consider the following examples.

• An educational leadership faculty member works with a team of representatives from Ball State, Indiana, and Indiana State Universities to assist local school boards in selecting new superintendents. The team trains board members in interview procedures and selection techniques and consults with boards throughout the recruitment, screening, and selection process.
• A special education faculty member has a cooperative contract with a local special services agency in which Purdue candidates provide augmentative and alternative communication (AAC) for students with severe disabilities. This agreement has helped the local agency to deal with the severe shortage of personnel with AAC training.
• Educational technology faculty members have engaged in a five-year teacher professional development effort in an area school corporation; teachers have been able to enroll in three separate educational technology courses at their school site. This initiative has affected all of the students in this school corporation; further, the school corporation garnered a grant for nearly $10 million from the U.S. Department of Education.

It is clear that Purdue faculty members are actively engaged in solving problems in teaching and learning beyond the boundaries of campus. Full documentation of the various ways that faculty members model best professional practices in service are detailed in the faculty vitae.

Element 5: Collaboration

We consider collaboration to be a strength of the Purdue University teacher education program. The philosophical and structural commitment to collaboration with colleagues in other Purdue academic units is reflected in the Teacher Education Program Governance and Administrative Structure. The Schools of Education, Agriculture, Consumer and Family Sciences, Liberal Arts, Science, and Technology jointly govern this program. This structure defines a collaborative working relationship among units that is manifested in three ways. First, 15 faculty are jointly appointed between the COE and other academic units; these appointments facilitate communication and collaboration between the COE and other academic units.  The joint appointment is a formal split of the faculty member's duties and salary between schools.  Second, the Teacher Education Council (TEC) is responsible for the governance and curriculum of the initial and advanced programs. The TEC is comprised of faculty from the six academic schools in the governance structure, including four voting representatives from the School of Liberal Arts, two representatives from both the Schools of Science and Consumer and Family Sciences and one representative each from the Schools of Agriculture and Technology, including representatives from Purdue Calumet and North Central campuses. Third, secondary education candidates major in their content area; this collaboration among academic units results in secondary education candidates being very well prepared in their content areas, which we consider to be a strength of the program.

The TEC has provided a forum for the faculty to engage as a community of learners regarding the conceptual framework and scholarship of the classroom. The TEC forum has served as a stimulus to revision of several secondary education programs, which are located in non-COE schools. For example, Art Education and Technology Education have revised their programs to improve their correspondence with relevant professional and state standards and to align their curricula for best practices for teaching.  The collaborative nature of the TEC has led to improvement in these secondary education programs.

Professional Development Schools (PDS) are the primary outlets for collaborating with P-12 colleagues. The COE has established a PDS Steering Committee composed of representatives from each PDS site, the community, and the COE. The Steering Committee works to coordinate the following activities: communications among sites and with other agencies, grant development, calls for participation, PDS evaluation, and partnership-wide activities. PDS partners include Klondike Middle School, Amelia Earhart Elementary School, Jefferson High School, Murdock Elementary School, Tecumseh Middle School, and Pine Village Elementary School. There is also a PDS representative on the TEC.

Collaboration also occurs through advisory boards, which provide programs with feedback and advice regarding their curricula, contemporary developments in the professional fields, and graduates' skills, competencies, and performance. The following programs have standing advisory boards: Agricultural Education, Educational Leadership and Cultural Foundations, Gifted Education, School Counseling, Consumer and Family Sciences, and Visual and Performing Arts. 

There is considerable collaboration with colleagues from other Purdue units in funded projects. For example, there are jointly funded projects between the Departments of Curriculum and Instruction and Child Development and Family Studies, the Department of Educational Studies and the School of Freshman Engineering, and the COE School Math & Science Center and the School of Science. Purdue University has just established the Discovery Learning Center (DLC), which has the goal of developing innovative approaches to P-16 math and science teaching. COE faculty will have opportunities to take part in teaching and research initiatives based in the DLC. The DLC also will make faculty start-up money available to new faculty interested in collaborating in cross-disciplinary learning initiatives.

Evidence of broader collaborative activity can be seen in the developing international programs. There are collaborations between the special education program and the University of Pretoria in South Africa and the school counseling program and Fontys University in The Netherlands. There is also an active collaboration between the Social Studies teacher education program and Herzen University in St. Petersburg, Russia. The Purdue University Office of International Programs is providing competitive grant funding to support the initiation, implementation, and expansion of international exchanges. Therefore, we anticipate steady growth in these international collaborations.

Our recognition of the need for increased collaboration led directly to the reform of the initial program and development of program emphases on early field experiences, diversity, use of technology, and portfolio assessment. The table below summarizes the number of early field experiences for COE initial program candidates during the 2002-03 academic year. The Unit collaborated with a total of 44 school corporations to implement the early field experiences during the 2002-03 academic year.

Table 19. Early Field Experiences for Initial Teacher Preparation Candidates

Element 6: Unit Evaluation of Professional Education Faculty Performance

Faculty are provided with two types of annual evaluation. The first type of evaluation is designed to enable assistant and associate professors to make progress towards promotion and tenure. All assistant and associate professors complete an annual self-evaluation (Form C, Form 100) of their performance in the areas of teaching, discovery, and engagement. The Primary Committees of each department annually review and evaluate these self-evaluations, teaching evaluations, and updated faculty vita. The Primary Committee provides a written evaluation (Form A, Form 101) to each assistant and associate professor. The second type of evaluation is the annual effort report that all faculty members, including full professors, submit to their department head each year. In Educational Studies, a committee of peers reviews these annual effort reports and rates each faculty member's annual effort. This merit committee provides summary ratings of teaching, research, and service productivity to the department head. Both department heads ultimately provide written merit evaluations of annual effort to each faculty member.

The faculty evaluations (Form C, Form 100) explicitly address the core elements of the conceptual framework. Faculty members report on the following elements: Use of current and emerging technologies; collaboration with teachers and the community; creation, synthesis, and communication of knowledge; engagement in professional development; and active participation in the profession.

The Department Head and Primary Committee representatives hold meetings with assistant and associate professors to review the annual feedback related to teaching, discovery, and service; this feedback is recorded in Form A or Form 101. The goals of these meetings include providing clear feedback and helping faculty members to devise plans to make needed improvements. Primary Committee members, mentors, or the Department Head informally monitors these plans.

The following are specific examples of faculty members using evaluations to improve instruction

• The EDCI 205 Exploring Teaching as a Career (Block I) course coordinator received feedback that the course lacked substance and that candidates wanted field experiences in their major subject. In response to the feedback, a book on teaching English as a second language was added to the curriculum and candidates were placed in field experiences matching their major subject area. Candidate satisfaction with the course has risen as these changes have been implemented.
• EDPS 235 Learning and Motivation (Block II) instructors have used candidate feedback to retain effective practices, such as providing case studies at the end of instructional units to promote integration of concepts, and discontinued ineffective practices. For example, instructors found that posting full lecture notes to the course website seemed to increase class absences. The instructors now post lecture outlines to facilitate note taking during class lectures.
• The EDCI 362 Literacy in the Elementary School I (Block III) course instructors have responded to candidate feedback by cutting the number of articles in the reading packet, dropping an upper elementary case assignment and eliminating one of the three literacy frameworks. These changes have reduced overlap between EDCI 362 and EDCI 363 Literacy in the Elementary School II without diminishing the quality of the course. 
• A Special Education professor meets twice each semester with the special education candidates completing practica with severely handicapped students. Their feedback has been used to improve the EDPS 463 Teaching Individuals with Severe Disabilities course that precedes the practicum. For example, she incorporated a "mini-portfolio" assignment into EDPS 463 to better prepare candidates for their practicum experiences.

Element 7: Unit Facilitation of Professional Development

Multiple forms of professional development are available to faculty members on campus. Within the School, the P³T³ grant has made extensive training available to faculty to integrate emerging technologies into instruction. One of the major goals of the P³T³ grant has been to prepare teacher education faculty to teach initial and advanced program candidates in technology-rich environments. Approximately 95% of the COE faculty participated in the two-day workshop supported by the grant. The grant also provided a series of follow-up workshops focused on skills such as WebCT, web page development, digital video editing, etc. The total attendance of these workshops has exceeded 800. Further, more than 97% of COE faculty rated their technological proficiency in the range of intermediate-to-full in a spring, 2003 survey. Clearly the P³T³ grant has significantly enhanced COE faculty use of current and emerging technology, one of the basic elements of the conceptual framework.

Faculty have ongoing opportunities to develop technology skills through the Purdue University Multimedia Instructional Development Center (MIDC) workshops. These multi-day digital media workshops are offered during semester breaks and over the summer. The MIDC also offers a series of seminars on the integration of technology and pedagogy each semester. Topics have included computer-guided instruction, information literacy, and use of web-based images for learning. The MIDC also sponsors an annual grants program to encourage the development and use of innovative technology in the curriculum. Faculty also can participate in non-technology teaching workshops hosted by the Center for Instructional Excellence (CIE). Topics include lecturing techniques, effective use of discussion groups, and using feedback to improve teaching.

In Fall 2003 the COE Dean constituted a task force to consider the professional development needs of our faculty at all levels. This task force will make recommendations about how to (1) foster the continued development of our faculty; (2) encourage new initiatives in scholarship and outreach; and (3) invigorate and reward faculty who pursue external funding. Consistent with the College of Education Strategic Plan, the implementation of this program will foster the development of programs of national distinction and creation of a world-class faculty. 

The institution and COE make multiple forms of skill development available to faculty members. All of the P³T³ workshops have been related to the conceptual framework foci of using technology, adaptive instruction, and engagement in professional development. Another major focus of the P³T³ project has been to develop a dynamic electronic portfolio (PEP) assessment system that enables pre-service teachers to document essential knowledge, skills, and dispositions. Faculty have received basic training in the e-portfolio system in COE faculty meetings. The faculty have demonstrated this training by integrating the PEP into courses. Faculty also have had the opportunity to receive training in the Documenting Indiana's Academic Standards (DIAS) electronic assessment and portfolio system to evaluate candidate achievement.

Faculty have access to professional development related to diversity through participation in Diversity Resource Office (DRO) presentations and workshops. Each fall semester the DRO provides a variety of educational offerings in Diversity Awareness Month. DRO programs include the Multicultural Classroom Resource Guide: Introduction and Review, Diversity Access Institute, and American Indian Studies in the Twenty-First Century: Prospects and Initiatives for Graduate Study, Community Outreach, and Professional Development. 

The University's sabbatical program also is an important professional development opportunity for faculty. The sabbatical is used to develop new skills or new programs of research. Faculty members are eligible for a fully paid one-semester sabbatical after 12 semesters of service. During the sabbatical faculty are excused from all teaching and service activities.

Evidence

* Please note, this site was prepared for the March 6-10, 2004, NCATE/IPSB Board of Examiners visit. The information posted here is available to the public and every attempt is being made to ensure its completeness and accuracy. If you have any updates or corrections, or have difficulty accessing or locating any documents, please contact T. J. Oakes, NCATE Coordinator, at oakest@purdue.edu or 765-494-5486, or contact Richard Frisbie, Assessment Coordinator and WebMaster at rfrisbie@purdue.edu or 765-494-2360.