NCATE-Standard 6 | College of Education

Standard 6 – Leadership, Facilities, Resources

The unit has the leadership, authority, budget, personnel, facilities, and resources, including information technology resources, for the preparation of candidates to meet professional, state, and institutional standards.

6.1 Significant Changes

6.1 What are the significant changes in how the unit’s governance system and resources contribute to adequately prepare candidates to meet professional, state, and institutional standards?

The EPP unit continues to meet all aspects of Standard 6 – Unit Operations.

Unit Leadership and Authority

The Dean of the ECU COE provides leadership and authority for the EPP unit. The ECU COE manages the accreditation process for the EPP at the institution. The EPP is comprised of programs across five colleges at the institution, united by the CTE and the Provost’s Council on Teacher Education; an organizational chart of EPP programs illustrates the structure.

As noted in Section I.2, CTE is the representative body of the EPP at ECU. CTE includes representatives from all EPP departments, as well as student and public school partner representatives. CTE meets monthly and addresses EPP issues related to admissions and retention, curriculum, assessment and evaluation, and policy.

The Provost’s Council on Teacher Education includes the Provost, deans of the colleges that house EPP programs, the Dean of the ECU Graduate School, and key faculty and administrators in the COE. The Provost’s Council was first established in 2006 to unite teacher preparation efforts with a particular focus on collaborative efforts between teacher education and the arts and sciences. The Provost’s Council meets quarterly to address EPP issues related to accreditation, enrollment, funding, and strategic planning.

Admissions requirements are published by the Office of Undergraduate Admissions and in the university catalog, which is reviewed and updated annually. Individual program information is also available in the University Catalog, with special attention provided for all programs that grant licensure. Handbooks for Teacher Education and other programs are published on the OTE website.

Each college in the EPP provides adequate and appropriate access to academic advising and program counseling. The COE Advising Center advises the majority of initial licensure candidates in the EPP. The Executive Director of Teacher Education collaborates with the Advising Collaborative at the University—an umbrella organizing body of academic advisors—to ensure proper guidance is provided to all ITP candidates. All candidates in the EPP have an assigned academic advisor. The EPP assesses the quality of advising through exit surveys and shares data with program faculty.

Unit Budget

Budget allocations for the EPP are funded both separately and jointly with the EPP. Individual faculty members in the colleges that comprise the EPP are funded through the college. As the lead college for the EPP, the College of Education Dean oversees and provides budgetary support for the OTE and the OAA. Both offices provide service and support for the entire EPP. The institution provides additional funding to meet costs of accreditation and field experiences.

Unit Personnel

Significant changes in workload policies at ECU are impacting the EPP. In spring 2014, the University Committee on Fiscal Sustainability recommended that the institution adopt guidelines for faculty workload which would set a goal of 1.25 earned FTE (Full-time Equivalency) per faculty member. This calculation is based on student credit hour (SCH) and the UNC General Administration’s (UNC GA) funding model. Workload policies at the institution were revised in 2013-14, leading to new workload policies for each college in the EPP unit.

Part-time university supervisors typically supervise 3 to 10 interns per semester, with a maximum of 14 interns per semester. However, as the institutions newly approved workload policies are implemented, changes to the current university supervision model are anticipated.

The EPP has adequate support staff to ensure smooth operations of all academic and clinical programs. As noted in Section I.2, OTE and OAA, both housed in the COE, provide service and support to the EPP. OTE has 4.0 FTE to meet all NCDPI licensure requirements, state and national compliance reporting, background checks, and other support services. The Office of Clinical Experiences (OCE) and Alternative Licensure within OTE has 7.0 FTE to facilitate all placements for field experiences and clinical practice for the EPP (more than 4,000 annually) and develop plans of study for alternative licensure candidates. OAA includes 3.0 FTE dedicated to assessment reporting and accreditation tasks for the COE and EPP.

Additional support staff is hired through research grants (e.g., the TQP grant), funded projects, and Centers supporting the EPP.

As noted in Standard 5, EPP faculty members are encouraged to seek professional development opportunities related to their teaching, research, and service. Professional development opportunities are highlighted in exhibit 5.4.g.

Unit Facilities

Though spread across the ECU campus, the EPP has adequate facilities to complete its mission. Significant changes in unit facilities across the EPP include:

In 2013-14, the COE Advising Center was renovated to create a more accessible and inviting environment, while also providing more individual advising space.
In 2010-11, a faculty lab space in the COE Speight Building was reconfigured with input from Instructional Technology and Information Technology faculty to develop a model IT lab with multiple interactive whiteboards, laptop carts, and iPad carts for class and candidate use. The space has proven so valuable that the COE has partnered with the ECU ITCS to reconfigure a similar space in the COE Flanagan building.

Other highlights of unit facilities across the EPP include:

The Human Performance Laboratory (HPL) is an interdisciplinary research and service unit administratively housed within the College of Health and Human Performance. It is a resource available to faculty and candidates in the School of Health Education and Physical Education programs.
The Nancy W. Darden Child Development Center (NDCDC) is an early childhood model training facility for the Department of Child Development and Family Relations in the College of Human Ecology at ECU. NDCDC staff members supervise undergraduate students as they use child development theory in adult-child interactions, developmental guidance strategies, and inclusive curriculum design.
The Teaching Resource Center (TRC) in Joyner Library was established in 1988. The TRC contains children and young adult materials, K-12 NC state-adopted textbooks, multi-media, kits, and reference resources. The department primarily serves students enrolled in teacher education programs and educators in eastern NC.

Unit Resources, Including Instructional Technology

The EPP continues to provide adequate resources to support quality experiences for all candidates.

In the COE OAA, the full-time COE data manager provides data reports and ongoing support for all programs in the EPP. Technology support for each college in the EPP unit is provided by the unit and in collaboration with ECU ITCS. In the COE, 2.0 FTE technology support analysts provide distributed IT support for the college.

The EPP works closely with ECU ITCS to purchase and maintain adequate instructional technology in classrooms where the majority of candidates take courses, (e.g., interactive whiteboards, laptop carts, iPad carts). Emerging technology investments in support of candidate learning are made on a pilot basis and expanded if deemed appropriate and feasible. Every four years, all full-time faculty members are assigned a university-provided workstation, laptop, or desktop as part of the institutional roll-out program. Departments may provide additional printers and tablet devices if necessary.

The institution provides support for online learning environments through its learning management system. The institution and ECU ITCS provide generous support for the online portfolio assessment tool, Taskstream™, so that no additional cost is passed to EPP candidates.

6.2 AFI

6.2 Summarize activities and assessments that demonstrate correction of any areas for improvement from the previous visit, if applicable.

In the 2006 NCATE Accreditation visit, Standard 6 and its indicators were met.

6.3 Transformation Initiative

Summarize activities and changes based on data on candidate performance and program quality that are related to the TI, if TI is related to this standard.
Discuss plans for sustaining and enhancing progress on the TI in this area, if TI is related to this standard (81/12000 characters)

The ECU Transformation Initiative, the Pirate CODE, does not directly address Standard 6 and its indicators.

6.4 Exhibits

ECU is conditionally accredited based on the National Council for Accreditation of Teacher Education (NCATE) standards, for a period of 7 years, from Fall 2015 to Spring 2022.

ECU will seek accreditation based on the Council for the Accreditation of Educator Preparation (CAEP) Standards in Spring 2022. CAEP is the single specialized accreditor for educator preparation, and administers NCATE accreditation.