College of Education
Retention Plan
Influences
Two initiatives which positively impact student
success:
1. Reorganization of the College of Education in fall
2010 created a professional unit that allows
more emphasis on both retention and advising
in the preparation of teachers, counselors, and
school leaders.
2. Effective implementation of Ready2Teach
includes strengthened P-12 partnerships that
provide relevant experiences for our students.
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Goals of Retention Plan
• Goal 1: Enhance the student support structure
(advising, admission and exit procedures, field
placements, licensure) to improve retention.
• Goal 2: Use multiple data sources to monitor and
improve:
• candidate progress through academic programs;
• student knowledge, skills, and dispositions;
• effectiveness of retention efforts.
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Basic Assumptions
The plan developed by departmental retention committees is based on
three fundamental assumptions:
• Strategies are designed to positively impact both non-academic
support (advising, admissions, placement, etc.) and academic support
(classroom work and key assessments).
• Strategies are data-driven utilizing a system of data collection,
collaborative analysis of data, decision-making, goal setting, and
monitoring of results.
• Strategies are integrated and aligned for SACS, NCATE, and
Ready2Teach so that Retention is a key component of a
comprehensive plan.
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COE Students
• Undergraduate Majors
• Early Childhood Education
• Interdisciplinary Studies
• Special Education
1,296
444
724
128
• UG Secondary Education Minors
702
• MS and EdS
• Elementary/Special Education
• Professional Counseling
• Educational Leadership (cohorts)
• Educational Leadership (on campus)
875
278
63
322
212
Department of Elementary and Special Education:
Fall 2011 First-time Freshmen Who Returned Fall 2012
• Average COE retention is 77.5% (University 70.2%)
• Retention within COE majors is 62.7%
• Freshman retention rates in COE range from a low of
40% in Early Childhood Education to 46.7% in Special
Education and a high of 63% in Interdisciplinary Studies
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Secondary Education Minor
Secondary Education Minor: Program Completers
Year Admitted to Teacher Education
2nd Year Persistence
(MTSU)
3rd Year Persistence
(MTSU)
2008-2009
76.73% (85.34%)
83.63% (87.07%)
2009-2010
80.48% (88.98%)
86.6% (98.43%)
2010-2011
82.07% (94.48%)
NA
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Goal 1: Student Support
COE Academic Advising Model
Admission to Teacher Ed.
Cumulative GPA 2.75 or higher
Initial Assignment upon
admission:
Freshmen are assigned to the
UCAC Advisor
Transfer students are assigned
to the COE College Advisor
Completed 45 hours (6 at
MTSU)
Admission to Teacher Ed.
Workshops:
Conducted each semester by
the College Advisor and
required of all COE majors
Acceptable test scores:
ACT 22 or higher; SAT 1020 or
higher; Praxis I (Writing & Math
173 or higher, Reading, 174 or
higher)
Submitted application for
Admission to Teacher
Education
Clear background/fingerprint
check
UCAC Liaison Advisor
Freshmen until admitted to Teacher Education
COE College Advisor
Transfer and Re-enrolling Students
COE Faculty Advisors
Transfer students w/AST, Post-bac. students,
students admitted to teacher education
Post Admission to Teacher Ed.
Advising:
Faculty Advisor completes
upper division, substitution, and
intent to graduate forms
and
mentors students through
program completion
Goal 1: Student Support
Academic Advising
Graduating Student Survey
Goal 1: Student Support
Academic Advising Model
• Intake Advising Model
• Specific Duties for UCAC and College Advisors
• UCAC Liaison to COE
• UCAC Advisor for all Freshmen and CUSTOMS
• College Advisor for all Transfer and Re-Enrolling Students
• Teacher Education Admission Workshops Each Semester
Led by College Advisor (attendance required for
education majors)
• Faculty Advisors Assigned to All Education Majors and
Secondary Education Minors
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Goal 1: Student Support
Academic Advising Model
• Intake Advising Model – Current Status
 466 Students advised by UCAC advisor
 111 students applied to teacher education program
 303 students with less than 45 hours are on track to apply to
teacher education;
 52 students with GPAs too low for teacher education
redirected to other majors
 UCAC advisor relocated to the COE building to allow better
communication and cross training to assist students assigned
to other advisors
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Goal 1: Student Support
Academic Advising Model
UCAC Advisors and COE Liaison Advisor:
• Retention Advisors will hold to a 300:1 ratio.
• Advisors will begin communicating with students on a regular basis beginning
shortly after the student is accepted to begin building a relationship with the
student.
• Advisors will be responsible for seeing that all assigned students register for
classes. They will track students and employ intrusive advising measures to
assist students in registering while served by the UCAC.
• Retention targets for assigned students will be part of the evaluation criteria
for all UCAC advisors.
• Detailed advising notes of every contact will be kept and transferred upon
admission to teacher education.
• Advisors will respond promptly to Academic Alerts by faculty (within 2
business days).
• All course scheduling advising will be overseen by the COE liaison in the UCAC.
• The COE liaison will participate in COE freshman recruiting events and all
meetings and trainings for the faculty advisors.
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Academic Advising Model, cont.
College Advisor:
• Respond promptly to Academic Alerts by faculty (within 2 business days) for
students advised by COE faculty;
• Consult with the COE Liaison advisor regarding students close to admission
to teacher education;
• Coordinate a series of Admission to Teacher Ed workshops for students;
• Record student attendance at Admission to Teacher Ed workshops on
SOATEST in Banner;
• Provide on-ground community college visits and advising for community
college students planning to transfer to MTSU;
• Participate in all recruitment activities for transfer and re-enrolling students.
• Develop a program for all students lacking the appropriate requirements for
admission to teacher education;
• Maintain detailed advising notes of every contact in AdvisorTrac that will be
transferred upon admission to teacher education;
• Assign faculty advisors in Banner for all COE students;
• Be responsible for seeing that all assigned students register for classes,
tracking students and employing intrusive advising measures to assist
students in registering;
• Maintain retention targets for assigned students as part of the
evaluation criteria.
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Academic Advising Model, cont.
•
•
•
•
•
Faculty Advisors:
Participate in CUSTOMS advising activities;
Advise students admitted to the teacher education program
Maintain a record of all student advising efforts;
Assist students in filling out upper division, substitution, and intent to
graduate forms;
• Work with students on process for admission to Teacher Education;
• Mentor students through program completion;
• Serve on intervention and remediation teams for students experiencing
difficulty or deficiencies;
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Focused Intervention Strategies:
Academic Advising
• Assign faculty advisor to community college for outreach,
communication, and advising.
• Establish a COE Advising Team to review and revise processes
(i.e. change of major, faculty advisement, transfer advisement,
secondary education advisement, internal and external
training and communication).
• Establish a COE Retention Team to implement and support
initiatives such as a mentoring program for COE students,
student teacher exit interviews with Dean, COE advising nights,
a “Celebrate Teaching” focus, “Ask a Teacher” sessions,
Ready2Teach information using multi-media.
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Focused Intervention Strategies:
Academic Advising
• Track retention of students from Admission to Teacher
Education to Licensure.
• Create communication models to better advise students of
program requirements (brochures, step-by-step benchmark
timeline, web page, multi-media for Customs, meetings with
other Colleges).
• Evaluate annual survey of students on COE advising
experience.
• Focus on Student Service
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Goal 2: Enhancing Academic Success
Using Multiple Data Sources
Enhance the academic success of students admitted to the
Teacher Education Program by utilizing multiple data sources,
including:
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
COE Assessment of Student Teacher Preparation (ASTP)
Teacher Performance Assessment (edTPA data)
Praxis Data
Dispositions Assessment
Grade Distribution Reports
Residency I and Residency II Performance Data
Surveys of Graduation Seniors, MTSU faculty, P-12 Partners
Formative Assessment of Student Learning Outcomes (Tk20
data management system)
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Focused Intervention Strategies:
Assessment Data – Analyzing Student Performance
• Use edTPA, ASTP, the THEC Higher Education Report Card, TK20, and other
data to identify competencies not mastered by students.
• Ensure that courses emphasize what students need for key assessments
and professional preparation.
• The Grade Distribution Survey indicates no specific course in which an
abnormal number of students struggle. However, further analysis
indicated a potential disconnect between course grades and student
performance on key assessments such as Tk20, Praxis II, and edTPA.
• Adjust specific course content to integrate into pre-service programs
instruction in those areas that will ensure student success in the profession
(i.e. TVAAS instructional modules, Common Core Standards, TEAM Teacher
Evaluation Training).
• Provide opportunities for training for faculty members in these areas.
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Focused Intervention Strategies:
Assessment Data – Analyzing Student Performance
• Intervene in problem areas as students progress through
pre-service field experiences and Residency I and Residency
II prior to completion of key gateway assessments.
• Conduct intensive skill training for students with significant,
deficiencies, monitoring individual student proficiency,
involving faculty, P-12 educators, and Ready2Teach master
clinicians.
• Monitor teacher candidate progression of skill attainment.
• Conduct surveys to determine teacher candidate
perceptions of the quality of their experience and P-12
partner perceptions of student performance and
preparation.
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Collaborative Analysis of edTPA
Assessment Data
Through the use of the edTPA assessment required by Ready2Teach, student
proficiency can be tracked for intervention and/or remediation.
Spring 2012
Row Labels
Planning for
Increasing
Using
Student Knowledge of Justification
Planning
Knowledge
Students
of Planning Assessments
Engaging
Students
Deepening
Student
Learning
Analyzing
Student
Work
Using
Feedback
Using
Understanding
Assessment
Analyzing
Students'
to Inform
Teaching
Language
Instruction Effectiveness Development
Scaffolding
Academic
Language
Developing
Students'
Academic
Language
ECE
3.2
3
3.2
2.9
2.8
2.6
2.9
2.3
2.1
2.8
2.5
2.9
2.8
El. Math
2.76
2.44
2.6
2.36
2.71
2.46
2.4
2.24
2.16
2.44
2.08
2.16
2.36
EL-Literacy
2
2.33
2.33
2.33
2
2.33
2.33
2
1.67
2.33
2.33
2.67
2.67
MS-English
2.33
2.67
3.33
2.67
2
2
2.33
2.33
1.67
1.67
2.67
2.67
2.33
MS-History
3.33
3
2.67
3.33
3.33
3.33
3
3
3.33
3.33
3
3.33
3.33
2
1.5
2
2
2
1.5
2.5
2.5
2.5
2
1.5
2.5
1.5
MS-Science
2.25
1.75
2
2.5
1.67
1.67
2
2.25
1.75
1.75
2
2
2.5
Grand Total
2.74
2.5
2.68
2.54
2.58
2.42
2.5
2.3
2.14
2.44
2.24
2.44
2.5
MS-Math
COE Assessment of
Student Teacher Preparation
Data indicate that our students struggle with
“analyzing data for the purpose of differentiating
instruction.”
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Focused Intervention Strategies:
”Dispositions” Assessment
 Implement a support plan to assist students who experience
difficulty in progressing through their education coursework
and/or the student teaching residency semesters.
• If a student is identified by two faculty members as
deficient in a specific disposition, the student is referred
to a team of faculty members that will address and
attempt to remediate the deficiency.
• A faculty team meets with the student as often as
necessary to provide advice, support, skill acquisition,
resources, and attitude development in an effort to
identify and remediate the area of difficulty.
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Dispositions Assessment
Use data related to student dispositions to monitor and enhance
student performance and to develop individualized instructional
and remediation plans to enhance student performance.
Dispositions: Unit, University Supervisors (Both Placements, Spring, 2012)
Dispositions
# Unacceptable % Unacceptable # Acceptable % Acceptable # Target % Target
# No
Response
% No
Response
Total
Response
Average
Collaborative
4
0.93%
53
12.35%
372
86.71%
5
1.15%
429
1.86
Reflective
2
0.47%
94
21.91%
333
77.62%
5
1.15%
429
1.77
Professional
6
1.4%
52
12.09%
372
86.51%
4
0.92%
430
1.85
Self-Directed
9
2.09%
64
14.88%
357
83.02%
4
0.92%
430
1.81
Ethical
2
0.47%
37
8.64%
389
90.89%
6
1.38%
428
1.9
Critical Thinker
3
0.7%
134
31.09%
294
68.21%
3
0.69%
431
1.68
26
1.01%
434
16.84%
2117
82.15%
27
1.04%
2577
Total/Percentage
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Focused Intervention Strategies:
Assessment Data
•Share Praxis data results with the appropriate department chair
and dean, and provost.
•Use Praxis data to set departmental goals and strategies as part
of their Institutional Effectiveness Plans.
•Develop College of Education strategies to improve
performance on the professional education section of the
Praxis II assessment.
24
Drilling Deeper: Specific Departmental
Plans
• Office of Professional Laboratory Experiences
and Teacher Licensure
• Womack Department of Educational
Leadership
• Department of Elementary and Special
Education
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Praxis II Data
MTSU’s pass rate is lower than other TBR institutions at 94% (THEC
Report Card Nov., 2012). Most Praxis II assessment data reflect how
students perform in their academic major/content area, and one section
reflects knowledge of professional education content.
PRAXIS II – Selected Content Area Exams By College
2011-2012
Test
Basic & Applied Sciences
Biology: Content Knowledge
Mathematics: Content Knowledge
Mathematics: Pedagogy
Behavioral and Health Sciences
PE: Content and Design
Business
Business Education
Economics
Education
Early Childhood Education
Exceptional Child.: Mild
ELED: Curr., Instr., Assess.
ELED: Content Knowledge
Reading Across Curriculum
Liberal Arts
Art: Content and Analysis
English: Content Knowledge
Spanish: Content Knowledge
World & U.S. History
State Cut-Off Total # Passing
Score
(MTSU)
Total #
(MTSU)
% Passing
148
136
125
6
11
13
7
16
14
85.71%
68.75%
92.86%
164
10
15
66.67%
154
530
6
5
7
8
85.71%
62.50%
155
164
159
140
151
9
17
79
93
106
9
19
81
93
106
100.00%
89.47%
97.53%
100.00%
100.00%
530
157
163
136
8
9
3
9
9
9
6
9
88.89%
100.00%
50.00%
100.00%
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Office of Professional Laboratory
Experiences and Teacher Licensure
• Implement the Ready2Teach initiative to improve teacher
preparation effectiveness at all levels of the teacher education
experience.
 Integrate clinical preparation throughout every facet of
teacher education through course work, laboratory-based
experiences, and school-embedded practice.
 Cultivate collaborative partnerships among schools,
districts, and teacher preparation programs to ensure
each teacher candidate receives a robust, high-quality
clinical experience.
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Office of Professional Laboratory
Experiences and Teacher Licensure
• Use technology to track student residents’ progress
electronically for meeting Ready2Teach requirements, such as
TK20 and edTPA.
 Upload academic maps in TK20 to support students in meeting
Ready2Teach benchmarks.
 Design interactive workshops, help sessions, and multiple resources
to build capacity to fully use TK20 and Teacher Performance
Assessment (TPA).
 Create multiple sources of written and social media communication
such as, media print, blogs, electronic mail and webpages to inform
and advise students of Ready2Teach benchmarks.
 Identify and implement interventions by faculty, LEA and university
supervisors and master clinicians for
individual and small groups of students.
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Office of Professional Laboratory
Experiences and Teacher Licensure
• Conduct surveys of Residency I and Residency II student
residents, university faculty, and P-12 partners to identify and
respond to areas of needed support.
 Use survey data to design interactive workshops, seminars,
and focus groups to target specific interventions and
technical assistance.
 Monitor the implementation of suggested strategies and
interventions to measure progress through continuous
observation and feedback.
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Office of Professional Laboratory
Experiences and Teacher Licensure
• Use multiple data sources to identify and respond to common
needs of key stakeholders in the clinical experiences of
student residents.
 Establish clear expectations for effective data use at all levels by
key stakeholders.
 Model and monitor the use of data to inform instruction and
clinical experiences, measure the degree of implementation of
strategies, and to evaluate the effect of strategies on student
learning and performance.
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Womack Department
of Educational Leadership
• Implement Ready2Teach for students minoring in secondary
education.
 Revise education coursework to reflect less “seat time” in
classes and increased time in public school settings.
 Use problem based learning methodologies as a primary
emphasis of the Ready2Teach program.
 Utilize multiple sources of data to strengthen the preresidency and residency courses, identify competencies not
mastered by students, and revise coursework, seminars,
instruction, and clinical experiences to address and
strengthen identified areas needing improvement.
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Womack Department
of Educational Leadership
• Provide support and assistance to students who
experience difficulty in mastering competencies as they
progress through their courses.
 Develop plans to monitor student progress on critical
performances as they proceed through their pre-residency
and residency courses.
 Work with students who have deficiencies on critical
performances to provide assistance in strengthening those
areas as they progress through the pre-residency and
residency courses.
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Womack Department
of Educational Leadership
• Conduct ongoing meetings to enhance communication between
Educational Leadership advisors and advisors and key faculty in the
“major departments” of secondary education students.
• Communicate “curricular maps” and course rotation schedules to
students and their “major department” advisors to:
• allow undergraduate students to navigate the teacher education
minor more effectively and
• enable graduate students to experience less difficulty progressing
through their graduate degree program.
• Promote off-campus graduate cohort programs by increasing
program accessibility through Department representative interest
meetings.
33
Department of Elementary
and Special Education
• Use COE Comprehensive Assessments (e.g. interview, survey, and
course data) to monitor student progress and review for content
revision and student support.
• Provide an explanation of program criteria, standards, and
transition points in the two introductory courses .
• Analyze course by course data to implement programmatic changes
and enhance skill attainment of each student.
• Design the website, brochures, and other media to identify
transition points, program expectations, and tutoring opportunities.
• Implement flexible advising hours (e.g. Saturday, evening, offcampus, group advising, Skype).
• Establish a mentoring program for teacher candidates.
34
Department of Elementary
and Special Education
• Use academic alert and multiple sources of data to monitor
student progress.
• Provide tutoring and remediation plans for key assessments
throughout program.
• Maintain academic maps for each program area and coordinate
these with student Pipeline account.
• Revise interview protocol for program admission.
• Systematically implement edTPA and Problem Based Learning.
• Provide teacher candidates training on the TEAM evaluation
model.
35
Department of Elementary
and Special Education
• Post a curricular map for the degree program in the undergraduate
catalog and on the department website; review and update map
annually.
• Host regularly scheduled open-door time for students to meet with
Department Chair, brown bag seminars, “hot topic” discussions that
involve P-12 partners.
• Create multiple sources of written and social media communication
such as, media print, blogs, electronic mail, Twitter and Facebook to
inform and advise students of departmental benchmarks .
• Improve communication through multiple initiatives that include:
bulletin boards, upcoming events, academic maps and brochures, and
information regarding financial assistance and other
student resources.
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COE Retention and Advising Initiatives
•Remediation and Intervention Teams – Engage P-12 educators and faculty to
develop plans and assist students who exhibit difficulty and/or specific
deficiencies - $25,000
•Course and Program Redesign– Engage P-12 educators and faculty to develop
and implement courses and field experiences to ensure that students are
prepared for key assessments and entry into the profession - $18,000
•Initiatives to Link Students to Professional Educators and Faculty - Brown Bag
Seminars, Advising Nights, Ask a Teacher, Celebrate Teaching, etc - $12,000
•Enhanced Web Page and Multi-Media Communication – Develop and utilize
various media, including the COE Center for Educational Media video and pod
cast productions, to communicate program requirements, transition points,
program expectations, and training opportunities to students - $42,000
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COE Retention Plan Summary
The College of Education is committed to
improving student success and retention
through multiple changes and initiatives.
While we cannot guarantee every student will
be successful in every course, we can guarantee
that every student will be provided with
focused, meaningful assistance and support
throughout their teacher preparation journey.
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