please address questions or comments to David L. Stoloff, Education Department Chair
TEL:    (860) 465-5501        email:   stoloffd@easternct.edu
Education Department News Index
Disclaimer

1. Revise and implement all of the Education Department programs in alignment with National Council for the Accreditation of Teacher Education (NCATE) and national, professional organizations standards and changes in certification regulations.

2. Recruit additional faculty to fully support the academic excellence of our current programs and offerings.

3. Explore, enhance and develop Professional Development School (PDS) formal agreements with 2 to 4 regional school districts, reflecting NCATE standards.

4. Fully develop portfolio assessment in all programs that are aligned with national teaching standards and the Connecticut Common Core of Teaching.

5. Integrate technology applications within the coursework and field experiences of the Teacher Education and Graduate Studies programs.

6. Enhance the quality of field experiences by implementing a supervisory model that reflects the department's goals and conceptual framework.

7. Develop MS programs in Children’s Literature, in Mathematics Education, and in Educational Technology and begin the development of an MS in Special Education.

8. Recruit students and faculty who better represent the diversity of the state’s population.

9. Refine policies and processes for admission and retention of students in the teacher education programs.

10.  Improve departmental systems for gathering and reporting student data, and advise the registrar on departmental data needs as the CSU-BANNER system is developed.

1) Promoting Academic Excellence - All departmental goals

2) Financial Stability - goals 1, 3, 8, 9, 10

3) Faculty, Staff, and Student Diversity - particularly goals 2, 8

4) Continuous Quality Improvement (CQI) - particularly goals 1, 3, 4, 5, 6, 9

5) Integration of Technology - particularly goals 5, 7

6) BANNER Installation - particularly goals 8, 9, 10.
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Present: David Stoloff, Shirley Ernst, Leslie Ricklin, Sudha Swaminathan, Ann Gruenberg, Diane Cerreto, Julie Alexandrin, Ken Dobush, Jeff Trawick-Smith, Dan Rothermel, Mitch Sakofs, and Hari Koirala

The following committees were formed:

Committee on Admission and Retention in Education Committee - Mitch (Chair), Dan, Jeff, Julie, Sudha, Leslie, Diane, and David

Graduate Studies Committee - Hari (chair), Shirley, Jackie, Leslie, Ann, Ken, David

Field Experience Committee - Mitch, Dan, Julie, Diane, Jeff, Leslie, David and (Ann)

CEDE Committee - Ann, Sudha, and David

Library Builders Committee - Julie, Sudha, and Ann

Ed Tech Committee - Hari, Ken, Sudha, Jackie, David, and Mitch

DEC -  Leslie (chair), Jeff, David, Shirley, and Hari

Budget Committee - Paulette and David

PDS Committee - Mitch, Dan, Ken, and David

NCATE Writers Committee - Jackie, Leslie, Mitch, Dan, Shirley, Jeff, Hari, Neil, David, Dean Kleine.

The senator is Mitch Sakofs and alternate is Hari Koirala
 

Departmental Goals for 2000-2001

1. Revise and implement all of the Education Department programs in alignment with NCATE and national, professional organizations standards and changes in certification regulations.
2. Explore, enhance and develop Professional Development School (PDS) formal agreements with 2 to 4 regional school districts.
3. Fully develop portfolio assessment in all programs that are aligned with national teaching standards and the Connecticut Common Core of Teaching.
4. Enhance technology applications within the Teacher Education and graduate studies program.
5. Enhance the quality of the field experience using new supervisory models.
6. Develop MS in Education in Children’s Literature, Mathematics, and Educational Technology and begin the development of an MS in Special Education.
7. Recruit students that better represent the diversity of the state’s population.
8. Refine policies and processes for admission and retention of students in the teacher education programs.

Dr. Jacqueline Bowman

Revised and approved at the Education Department Faculty meeting, Thursday, October 5, 2000.
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Present: David Stoloff, Shirley Ernst, Leslie Ricklin, Ann Gruenberg, Diane Cerreto, Julie Alexandrin, Ken Dobush, Jeff Trawick-smith, Dan Rothermel, Mitch Sakofs, Jackie Bowman, and Hari Koirala

Minutes from the last meeting were examined, revised, and accepted unanimously.

Revisions:

Graduate Studies Committee to include Hari (Chairperson)

DEC - discussion on DEC membership eligibility.

Department Goals: Goals were examined and amended. Amendments to the department goals were approved by all.

Amended Department Goals:

Project News:

Hartford-UTC: Jeff reported that the project is moving forward at a steady rate.
 New faculty has been added to help fulfill a need for this project.

PT3-Thinkquest: David reported that everything is on schedule for the Cairo conference. He also presented new equipment to be used for data collection.

PDS – Dan and Mitch report progress being made at Killingly.

NCATE – David announced that the NCATE writers would be meeting on October 12 from 2-3PM.

Unit News:

Jeff presented the Early Childhood Education Portfolio Handbook.

Department by-laws were handed out for review.

Respectfully submitted for departmental review and approval,

Ken Dobush
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Present: David Stoloff, Shirley Ernst, Leslie Ricklin, Ann Gruenberg, Diane Cerreto, Julie Alexandrin, Ken Dobush, Jeff Trawick-Smith, Dan Rothermel, Mitch Sakofs, Jackie Bowman, Hari Koirala, and Hannah Sellers.

Minutes from the last meeting were examined, revised and accepted unanimously.

Announcements made:
End of Semester Party date was discussed, no consensus reached. In addition, the welcoming baby celebration for Sudha will take place at this event.

The Education Department Faculty Meeting Notes will now be available on the web.

Met and welcomed Hanna Sellers, the new full time faculty member of the Education Department.

David has received a $35,000 grant to help put masters level classes online. Ken has already agreed to put EDU 511 online. Anyone else interested in earning a stipend for developing an online course should contact David.

Grades appeal process alternative faculty person is Hari.

Children’s Literature Festival will be April 7, 2000. For more information contact Shirley.

Friday, April 27, 2000 is the new date for the Field Experience Committee’s Miniconference. Hoping all that had volunteered in the past will continue that commitment for this event.

Wednesday, December 6, 2000 from 3-5pm will be a mandatory meeting for students interested in Educational Programs at Eastern. Invitations will be sent out to ECSU students who have indicated an interest in education.

Students and Faculty have been invited to participate in the Windham Race/Culture Seminar November 16-18,2000. All interested have to make the full commitment to attend the complete function. If interested contact Mitch.

Unit Reports
Early Childhood Programs - The new programs for the graduate and undergraduate programs are almost done and will presented soon for review.

Upper Unit - PDS collaboration going well, next semester will have all core two students at Killingly High School for field placement and class on Wednesdays and will take other education classes on Mondays at Campus.

Start to inform students that placements are now going to be based more on what is a good placement as compared to what is convenient for the student.

Department Committees
Care - Next meeting 11/6 to go over applications for decisions about acceptance into programs. Thanks to everyone for interviewing.

Educational Field Experience - Meet to set goals for the year 10/31 and set date for Miniconference.

Library Builders - Meeting 11/2 to look over requests gotten so far. Please keep submitting requests of books, materials and videos you would like purchased.

Tech Committee - Look at email about how to contact someone on the weekends and after hours if need help with equipment.

Ken has a scanner up and running in his office is any one needs to put overheads into power point to use in tech classrooms.

Graduate committee - Letters have gone out with no responses.

Committee on Diversity and Excellence in Education  - Have not met but will meet soon.

PDS - Scheduled meeting, working with Killingly and Lebanon.

NCATE - English Department has now established a liaison and have gotten generic syllabi from mathematics department.

University Governance - Notes from last senate meeting will be distributed.

Small Group Discussions
Please review the distributed sheets: Brochure Copy, World Language Certification Program, Alumni Weekend Letter and direct comments to David.

Generic Syllabus was discussed and change suggested: Course Objectives to Learning Outcomes

All please work on generic syllabi for classes now teaching and give to David

Pam Starr came to discuss working with students with disabilities.

Respectfully submitted for department review and approval,

Julie R. Alexandrin

Revised and approved at the Education Department Faculty meeting, Thursday, December 7, 2000.
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Present:  David Stoloff, Shirley Ernst, Leslie Ricklin, Diane Cerreto, Julie Alexandrin, Ken Dobush,  Jeff Trawick-Smith, Mitch Sakofs, Hari Koirala, and Hannah Sellers.

Announcements:
          Send “thanks” to Sudha for the fruit basket and picture of Varun.
          A “thank you”, also, to Dean Kleine for the box of candy.
          Library Builders orders need to be sent to Julie or Ann by December 15, 2000.

Minutes from the November 2, 2000 meeting:
          Changes made:  Change CEED to CEDE committee
          Motion by Leslie, second by Hari, motion carried, minutes passed.

Action Item:  Leslie announced the Sunshine Fund will contribute $50.00 to the Carl E. and Helen D.
          Thoresen Fund for Adoption Research in memory of Dr. Jean Thoresen.

Unit Reports:
Jeff announced that the Child and Family Center Building will be open to families and children in Fall, 2002.
 NCATE writer’s meeting is scheduled for December 20, 2000.

Mitch has been working with Killingly and Lebanon schools on mini grant proposals and funds for faculty to visit PDS throughout the state.  The assistant principal from Killingly Middle School came to Dan’s class to talk about school expectations and student field placements. Bonnie Hanna, curriculum director in Lebanon has made a commitment to accept blocks of students.  All but four students have been placed for student teaching.

Discussion about changing the name of “outstanding student teacher” award to “outstanding student in  education” award.  Suggestions included:
  -nominate a fewer number of students; place emphasis on outstanding
 -everyone should be aware of criteria
 -there should be some evidence to look at (video, portfolio, sample of activities)
 -faculty should meet with coordinators
 -nominate one student for each level
 -create an “outstanding student teacher” three person committee, comprised of
   a coordinator, Mitch, and a faculty member who will screen student nominations
   and then show recommendations to the rest of the faculty.
-there should be representation of faculty from all levels on the committee.
Mitch made a motion to establish a committee to make recommendations and accept nominations to faculty for final selection of the “outstanding student teacher” award.  Mitch will invite a coordinator to be on the  committee.  Hari seconded the motion; Passed---three “nays”.

2003 Certification regulations:
Mitch will pass out copies:  Faculty can look through the regulations; if there are areas of concern, let Mitch know.

Discussion of educational experience supervision:
Mitch will pass out copies:  Faculty can look through the regulations; if there are areas of concern, let him know. Ken informed  faculty of a model program in Albany, NY involving monthly meetings of supervisors, cooperating teachers, student teachers and faculty.  Training sessions were also a part of the program.  Leslie stated that a classroom connection is important and that Ken’s idea should be discussed further.  Mitch suggested this be brought up at the May 10th Forum.

Respectfully submitted for department review and approval (on January 25, 2001),

Diane Cerreto
 
 

Discussion on the Modern/Classical Languages Certification draft proposal.  Suggestions for the program included:

 -a member of the MCL department should serve on CARE as students majoring in MCL and certification must apply to an educational program.

 -MCL majors should have a content reading course

 -MCL majors should take EDU 360 in their pre-admit semester like the other Education Majors

 -MCL department should add the two field placement courses:  EDU 301/401

 -MCL department should look at the standards and outcome assessment to eventually  become NCATE approved.

 -Finally, the question arose as to which department places students in field and student teaching and who supervises them?

L. Ricklin moved to support the MCL Department in their certification program.  S. Ernst seconded.  Approved

The next step is for the MCL Department to revise its certification program and bring it back to the Education Dept. for approval

Substitute Recording Secretary,

Leslie Ricklin
 

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Present:  Richard Reynolds, Leslie Ricklin, Shirley Ernst, Diane Cerreto, David Stoloff, Julie Alexandrin, Hannah Sellers, Susan Corrice, Jeff Trawick-Smith, Sudha Swaminathan, Ken Dobush, Dan Rothermel, Mitch Sakofs, Hari Koirala, Jackie Bowman, Ann Gruenberg

Announcements:
David announced when departmental and unit meetings would occur during the semester.  Room 115 is reserved on Thursdays from 12:00 to 2:00 for Education meetings.

David offered congratulations to folks who organized and participated in the Race/Culture Seminar.  Discussion about establishing committee to coordinate this.  Could be part of by-laws revisions.
 

Event/conference Announcements:
March 9 - Middle school Mania at Killingly (Dan & Leslie)
March 9 - Social Studies Conference - Boston
March 10 - School Safety Seminar,
                - CT Science Education Association Conference in New Britain
March 27th - New England League of Middle School - Providence
March 28th - Newcomers Conference
March 30 - Conversations in Ed. Tech. - system office,
April 4th – New England Association of Young Children
April 7 - Children's Literature Festival, - ECSU
April 21 - Academic Computing Conference - WCSU,
April 28 - Kappa Delta Pi initiation, Alumni Weekend
May 10th – Education Department Mini- Conference 4:00– 7:00

David requested that faculty send him dates of events so a running list can be kept.
 

Minutes from the December 7, 2000 meeting
Motion to approve made by Leslie; seconded by Ann;
Motion passed
 

Reports from Units:

Early Childhood.
Jeff announced that the ECE NCATE report was completed. Faculty were busy with the Hartford grant, and with Child & Family Center meetings.  The building is scheduled to be opened in Fall 2002.

David will be talking with Continuing Education about a proposed Child Development Association Degree.  Discussion focused on pros & cons of such a program, and of the problems associated with such programs and courses being planned without the knowledge and involvement of the department.  David noted that scheduling is to be done by the department, not by continuing education.
Number of students in current class at Mashantucket Pequot class is small (9).
 

Other Unit.

Hari questioned when the NCATE report is due.  David reported that this was not clear and that the NCATE consultant is not available yet.  Finished reports need to be sent to the Dean who is our liaison to all the involved committees and groups.  Leslie asked about conflict with state evaluation.  David reported that he had completed the institutional self-report and the pre-condition document.    Questions were raised about the fairness of comparing an institution of our size with larger institutions that have significantly more staff to work on the report.  Ken is going to DC to NCATE meeting and will request that our questions be answered.

PDS in Killingly.  Leslie & Dan are teaching their course in Killingly middle school.  An orientation for the students was set up at the school…the principal, assistant principal & superintendent, greeted students as did the curriculum coordinator.  Students were taken on a tour of the building.   Students will be doing field placement in morning and their cooperating teachers came to meet them as well.
.
Dan suggests using the Killingly folks as mentors for other PDS sites.

Julie announced that the library builders have put in half their order and that they need the rest of the book orders right away.

Jackie announced that the ASEER center will be convening a moon & meteorite certification program will be held in June.

Mitch reported that he has co-authored 2 grant proposals with PDS sites in Lebanon and Norwich.

David has funds from a CSU grant to pay stipends to students for on-line work.  He announced that www.Intranets.com is a place one can use to create threaded discussions…free.  Let David know if there are teachers who are interested in creating their own web sites.

Ken, Shirley, Dan, Leslie are working on some Thinkquest activities with spring classes.

David announced that since he will be going on sabbatical leave during Fall of 2001, he can’t be department chair during that time.  He suggests that there are other ways to organize department leadership.  The decision for departmental leadership for fall (and possibly for spring as well)  needs to be determined at next week's meeting so that we might schedule the Fall courses.

David distributed a draft copy of the Graduate Survey, which will be sent out in early February, with a March 8th return date.  We have address labels from Joan Rice of the students who enrolled in student teaching from Fall 1998 - Spring 2000.

Copies of the Departmental by-laws were distributed.  They need to be reviewed for possible revisions.

Units need to develop rationale and search plans for Searches for 2001-2002 for new faculty in Fall 2002.   They also need to finalize the Fall 2001 schedule.

A letter to alumni for the April 28th  event was distributed for editing.  David has added information relevant to the department activities and urged faculty to add other announcements of important events.

The regular departmental meeting adjourned and unit groups met for the last 15 minutes.  Motion to adjourn was made by Leslie and seconded by Jackie.  The motion passed and the meeting adjourned at 1:45.

Minutes Respectfully Submitted for Education Department Review, 2/1/01 - accepted by faculty

Shirley Ernst

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Faculty Present: David Stoloff, Leslie Ricklin, Shirley Ernst, Jeffrey Trawick-Smith, Richard Reynolds, Ann Gruenberg, Hari Koirala, Julie Alexandrin, Dan Rothermal, Sudha Swaminathan, Mitch Sakofs, Jackie Bowman, Ken Dobush, Susan Corrice, and Diane Cerreto.

Announcements/Committee Reports/Other:

1. Jeff announces that the Educational Experiences Committee will meet on March 8, 2001 before the CARE meeting.

2. David has helped Dan develop a website for Dan’s class.  Please see Dan or David for similar ventures.

3. Mitch announced that on April 24, a representative from the SDE would talk to student teachers about certification.  There will be an orientation meeting for future teacher prior to this meeting.

4. Ann agreed to discuss with members of the CEDE committee the possibility of CEDE being in charge of this orientation meeting.  Further, it was suggested that CEDE be in charge of coordinating future meetings of the Race/Culture Seminars.  CEDE committee members will discuss this suggestion and report back to the faculty on their decision at the next meeting.  Ideas for streamlining Race/Culture seminars were discussed.

5. David circulated a letter from the Connecticut Center for School Change inviting faculty to participate in a discussion to “refine teacher certification programs and processes in Connecticut.”  Interested faculty were requested to sign-up.

6. Hari shared an RFP for developing online Math and Math Ed courses for students to cross endorse to teach middle and high school math.  There is a shortage of Math teachers in CT.

7. Motion:  Leslie moved (with Julie seconding) that the minutes of the Jan. 25 meeting be approved.  Motion carried.

8. David shared Tom Gullotta’s proposal to offer an independent study project in the summer that would supplement attendance at the Hartman Conference.  Discussion on whether this should be a permanent summer course, formally approved by the Curriculum Committee. Motion:  Leslie moved that we ask Tom to create a formal syllabus that would come before the department, and on to the Curriculum Committee for approval.  Ann's friendly amendment to this motion, that Tom’s current proposal for an independent study be approved, was accepted.  Jackie seconded.  Motion carried.

9. David and Ann shared more details on Tom Gullotta’s earlier plan for developing/offering courses that would meet the CDA requirements.

10. Feb 2. is the last day to sign off on independent study projects.

11. David distributed copies of the Fall 2001 course schedule and requested faculty to inform him of any conflicts.

12. Ann nominated Leslie Ricklin as chair, and Ken Dobush as associate chair for the Fall 2001 semester.  Dan seconded.  Motion carried.  Leslie, Ken and David will discuss whether to continue this arrangement for Spring 2002.

13. Bylaws review:
The mission statement of the bylaws was reviewed, discussed and revised.  Leslie moved that we approve the newly revised mission statement.  Hari seconded.  Other initiatives that we do as faculty (and not captured by the mission statement) were discussed.  Motion has been tabled till next meeting.  David will distribute the revised statement in the dept. newsletter giving faculty a chance to read the statement over again.  A few other clauses in the bylaws were also discussed.

Meeting adjourned at 1:45

Submitted by

Sudha Swaminathan

Present: Shirley Ernst (Chaired the meeting), Richard Reynolds, Leslie Ricklin, Hari Koirala, Ann Gruenberg, Jeff Trawick-Smith, Sudha Swaminathan, Dan Rothermel, Ken Dobush, Julie Alexandrin, Diane Cerreto, Susan Corrice, Hannah Sellers

The meeting called to order at 12:30 by S. Ernst.

Reports
· J. Alexandrin reported on the allocation of current library funds and the status of Curriculum Center.
· J. Trawick-Smith reported that the United Technology has awarded a technology grant of another $200,000 for the next fiscal year in addition to the current grant of $250,000.
· Based on the recent Graduate Studies Committee meeting, H. Koirala reported that advisors should decide whether or not their students would be allowed to take EDU 570 (Capstone Seminar) and the Comprehensive Examination concurrently.  In the same line, they can also decide whether or not their students may take EDU 570 and Student Teaching concurrently.
· L. Ricklin reported that only five students applied to the Middle Level program.  Concerns were raised about the low application rate, and the department members fully supported some of the initiatives taken by CARE to increase the number of applications.

Motions Passed
· H. Koirala moved to approve the minutes of  February 1, 2001.  D. Rothermel seconded.  Motion passed unanimously.
· J. Trawick-Smith moved to approve HONS 201 (Reading Across the Curriculum) as one of the human development courses (among 15 credits) required for ECE.  A. Gruenberg seconded.  Motion passed unanimously.
· L. Ricklin moved to approve the newly revised Masters in Early Childhood Education.  A. Gruenberg seconded.  Motion passed unanimously.
· The faculty members discussed the revised mission statements of the department and expressed concerns about their lack of cohesiveness in terms of research and support from Arts and Sciences academic departments.  The meeting decided that the Education Department’s Conceptual Framework be developed in terms of research and input from academic departments.
In order to discuss the mission statement in depth, a departmental retreat is proposed for Wednesday, May 16, 2001 (9:00 am – 12:30 pm).
The meeting was adjourned at 1:59 p.m.

Respectfully submitted,

Hari P. Koirala

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Present: David Stoloff (Chair), Richard Reynolds, Leslie Ricklin, Jeff Trawick-Smith, Sudha Swaminathan, Dan Rothermel, Ken Dobush, Julie Alexandrin, Diane Cerreto, Susan Corrice, Hannah Sellers, Mitch Sakofs, Jackie Bowman

The meeting was called to order at 12:30 by D. Stoloff.

Announcements

The faculty wishes to acknowledge Leslie Ricklin as the recipient of the Outstanding Teacher Award for 2000-2001 at Eastern Connecticut State University.

There will be exhibits for student work on May 5 and May 10. The faculty are to encourage student participation.

On May 16 there will be a departmental retreat to discuss department by-laws and the mission statement.
An important topic to consider for the next faculty meeting is the review of the department’s goals, and the drafting of new goals for fall 2001 – spring 2002.

Reports

D. Stoloff reported on the progress of the NCATE Writers Committee. All the program reviews have been submitted to Dean Kleine, and she wants the committee to explore possibilities for developing a budget to support the NCATE process in the future.

K. Dobush reported for the Graduate Studies Committee. The committee has established a focus group to pursue the development of a rubric for evaluating Graduate Comprehensive Exams. In addition, a motion by the committee was passed to change the name of EDU 508 from Introduction to Research to Research in Education.

J. Bowman reported that the Educational Technology Committee will keep an updated list of who needs a new computer so the process of replacing equipment is expedited.

L. Ricklin reported for the Middle School Program. Currently, there are 11 students accepted. However, according to the State Education Department’s 2003 Regulations, candidates seeking secondary certification will be certified to teach grades 5 to 12, and the Middle Level Certification will be eliminated. A possibility for the future may be to bring back the Elementary Program.
Motions Passed

L Ricklin moved to approve the name change of EDU 508 from Introduction to Research to Research in Education. J. Alexandrin seconded. Motion passed unanimously.

M. Sakofs moved to approve the designation of Holly Mandes as Undergraduate Marshall, and Anne Powers as Graduate Marshall for graduation exercises in May. J. Bowman seconded. Motion passed unanimously.

J. Trawick-Smith moved to approve the removal of the offering of EDU 206 for the fall of 2001. R. Reynolds seconded. A friendly amendment was made to add the removal of the offering of EDU 205 and EDU 207 for the spring of 2002 was also made and accepted. The motion passed unanimously.

Respectfully submitted,

Ken Dobush
 

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