Components of an Executive Summary
For a Major Proposal to the Teacher Education Council
For a major proposal to the TEC for a new program or concentration, you will be asking
the TEC committee to review proposal forms and syllabi for several courses. Therefore,
it will strengthen your case for approval of this proposal if you deliver an executive
summary of the proposal to simply and clarify the information contained across many
pages. Ideally this executive summary would appear in the introduction to the written
proposal and will be delivered orally in person by one of the writers of this proposal. The
in-person speech for the executive summary occurs at the TEC meeting scheduled for the
first reading of the proposal and should take more than 20 minutes. For this proposal to
be effective, it should contain these elements:
The names of the department and program and person presenting this proposal
When the changes will be put into place, if approved: i.e., the changes will take
place for Fall 2009, but students in the program now will be “grandfathered in”
An acknowledgement of the people involved in writing this proposal, including
people outside the department, if applicable
The importance of this proposal, which should include a consideration of its
alignment with accreditation agencies (i.e., NCATE, PSC, ACEI, NBPTS, and so
on) and our governing body (the Board of Regents)
Theoretical and/or philosophical considerations for this proposal
A comparison to other programs in similar universities or a statement of how this
program is unique
The reason this change will improve the program and students’ learning or career
success
A small amount of the background or history of the program may help to put
these changes into a context of ongoing growth of the program
The basic nature of this change: e.g., admissions change or the proposal of a new
concentration/endorsement and the number of courses affected
The new admission criteria, if there is a change
A consideration of resources: which departments will teach these courses
A quick review of one or two of the most important courses if this proposal
involves new courses
A request for questions or comments