Department of Instruction and Teacher Education Faculty Meeting
Minutes
February 3, 2012
9:00 a.m.
Wardlaw 110
In Attendance: Gloria Boutte, Kim Smoak, Paul Chaplin, Margo Jackson, Julia LopezRobinson, Nate Carnes, Kelly Buchheister, Meir Mueller, Rhonda Jeffries, Erin Miller,
Christine Lotter, Beth Powers-Costello, Susan Schramm-Pate, Amy Donnelly, Beth
White, David Virtue, Lucy Spence, Nancy Freeman, Angie Baum, Ed Dickey, Mary
Styslinger, Diane Stephens,Vic Oglan, Tambra Jackson, Heidi Mills and Diane DeFord.
I.
Approval of Minutes from January 5, 2012 –
Minutes were approved unanimously.
II.
Report from the Department Chair and Associate Chair
A.
Department Chair—Gloria Boutte
1. Provost’s Dashboard—Zach Kelehear-Dr. Kelehear was out sick and unable to
attend. Gloria did bring to everyone’s attention that there are 8 indicators which are the
focus of the Provost’s Dashboard. Each program should be looking at each indicator and
seeing how their program is contributing to those. There is room for flexibility so it is
appropriate to comment that a particular indicator may not be relevant to a particular
program or may need to be tweaked. More information about these indicators will be
forthcoming.
Gloria gave a brief overview of some of the key points such as the University’s
consideration of publishing average student SAT scores, national recognition of faculty,
and other factors that improve the positive public image of the University of South
Carolina and national rankings of universities and colleges.
The Provost’s interest in this is not solely related to such a report as that from US News
and World Report but also includes the current political climate within the state in which
the university is sometimes seen as not being productive. The goal is that, through
positive performance in these key indicators, USC is recognized for the positive work
that it does.
While there is controversy over the use of the SAT score as a valid measure, it is the most
commonly accepted score but the provost is open to other ideas.
Zach will be getting more information out to faculty on this.
2. ITE Searches—Updates--Search Committee Chairs
The Secondary Social Studies Search has moved forward with the recommendation of
Dr. Daniella Cook as the selected candidate being sent to the Dean. A second candidate,
Mr. LaGarrett King, was so strong that Gloria is asking the Dean to consider the
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possibility of allowing us to hire both candidates. Justification for this request has been
put forward but no decision on this possibility has been made.
For the Middle Level Search-Nate Carnes thanked the committee members for their hard
work thus far. From 19 applicants, three candidates were chosen to bring to campus for
visits. Campus visits have begun with these candidates. Nate also asked if Language and
Literacy faculty, along with David Virtue, could stay briefly after today’s ITE meeting to
fill in some gaps in the itinerary.
Candidate presentations will be on Monday, February 6 and Monday, February 13.
Elementary Math-Heidi Mills reported that two candidates will be coming to visit USC as
the process moves forward. One will be coming in later in February 20-21, with a second
coming in during March 1-2. Heidi will send out itineraries for each of these visits as
they are completed.
Gloria thanked the members of all search committees, and noted that Nate’s write ups
about the candidates were particularly well-written and helpful.
3. Assistant Department Chair-three people expressed interest in the position,
with one individual declining after getting more information. Dr. Rhonda Jeffries will be
the new assistant department chair. However, Dr. David Virtue also expressed interest
and this has led to a system of having Rhonda serve for two years with David taking over
after the end of Rhonda’s term. The reason for Rhonda serving first is, in part, due to
David’s continuing term with leadership roles in the middle-level professional
community which currently limits his availability for the position at this time.
Gloria then passed around the job description of this position, as well as the
responsibilities that Ed Dickey shares in his capacity, and the responsibilities of the
department chair to clarify the responsibilities of these positions.
4. Judicious Use of Copiers-Gloria encouraged faculty to be aware of not
overusing the copiers for such things as copying entire books to provide copies to
students. It is important that faculty have documents, books, articles, scanned or placed
on reserve in the library.
Ed indicated that students can take the digital file of articles, from Blackboard, to the
University printer to be printed and bound for approximately $19.00.
5. Communicating with Dean Watson; Searches-There were some questions
about why the Dean was not meeting with every visiting candidate to campus. Gloria
reminded faculty that the Dean, in his job talk, indicated that he would be out in the
community a great deal of time. However, if he is unable to meet with the candidate in
person, he will make a phone call to each candidate. He is, however, meeting with
candidates when he is able to do so.
Gloria also reminded faculty that, when communicating with the Dean, be sure to go
through department channels if something can be handled that way prior to going to the
Dean.
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Gloria reiterated that the Dean does still have an open door policy should faculty need to
see him but is simply encouraging people to be thoughtful in whether the conversation
should start at the department level before going to the Dean.
Gloria also reminded everyone to be sure to provide information that can be placed on the
COE calendar. Please look back at the e-mail sent at an earlier date regarding to whom
such information should be sent. It is appropriate to even include dissertation defenses,
without the candidates’ name, on this calendar.
Overall, be aware of keeping a current and vital web presence on the COE pages, as well
as our individual faculty web pages.
B.
Associate Chair—Ed Dickey-summer schedule is live on the web. Karen Scott is
currently working on loading in the fall calendar. Ed thanked program coordinators for
getting the information in to him on time. If there is any needed change, make your
program coordinator aware so they can be made sooner rather than later.
III.
Old Business
A.
Rescheduling Bafa Bafa Simulation—Nate Carnes-Last semester, faculty
expressed interest in taking part in this simulation. However, that had to be
cancelled and the question was then raised as to whether it would be better to
have this rescheduled for this semester or at the beginning of the academic year.
Heidi indicated that, since the simulation is also done in the fall with new MAT
students, perhaps faculty could be incorporated into this session for efficiency of
the offerings. This occurs in August and, this year, will be held on August 14.
Nate will send a reminder about this as appropriate. It is an approximately 3 hour
simulation. Nate will send out a doodle.com poll in order to gauge faculty
interest to assist in planning.
Nate also indicated that he needs a second faculty member in order to carry out
the simulation. Let him know if you are interested in helping.
IV.
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New Business
A.
Literacy Assessment Research Possibilities--Dr. Michelle Martin--Augusta
Baker Chair in Childhood Literacy-from the College of Mass
Communications and Library Science. Dr. Martin visited with us due to her
interest in collaboration with faculty on such things as literacy assessment. She
wanted to introduce herself to ITE faculty in order to make faculty aware of work
she is currently doing and her needs. She needs, perhaps a graduate student, who
can do some work with assessment. Has developed Camp Read-a-Rama, which
is a day camp that uses children’s literature to springboard into outdoor education
and literacy immersion. Dr. Rachelle Washington, at Clemson, is also
collaborating in this program. They are planning to host another 4 week program
at Clemson, as well as an additional week to be held at the State Library in
Columbia with the tentative plan for it to be held the second week of August.
Students with experience in children’s literature, elementary education or library
science are needed to staff the camp. On March 24, there will be a 1.5 hour
Read-a-Rama for Girl Scouts and students are needed to assist with this. This
will be held from 10:00am-11:30 at the main branch of RCPL on Assembly
Street.
She also hopes to gather some data on the effectiveness of Cocky’s Reading
Express and will need students/faculty to assist with this, as well.
On Feb. 21, there will be an unveiling of the Cocky’s Reading Express bus that
will help make that program more mobile and easily portable.
Dr. Martin indicated that she has someone working on a flyer that can be sent out
to students who may be interested and she will send this to Gloria for us to be
able to disseminate appropriately.
Dr. Martin also asked if any faculty have a grad student who lives in the upstate
that might be able to help gather data on the Clemson Camp Read-a-Rama
program to please let her know.
B.
Change in Ph.D. in Teaching Advisement Guide—Ken Vogler-In Ken’s absence,
Tambra Jackson gave the report that part of the program of study is a required
research seminar course, EDTE 670. The request is that this seminar course is
put in the advisement guide reiterating that this course must be taken during their
first program year. It is to be a standard fall offering.
Some concern was expressed as to whether numbers would be high enough to
warrant offering the course often enough for students to meet this requirement.
While it is in the advisement guide, Ed pointed out that it is not in the Graduate
Bulletin so there is some flexibility in how this is handled in order to best
accommodate students.
There is no action required on the addition of this to the advisement guide the
discussion was simply for faculty information.
B.
Doctoral Assistantships Committee—Susan Schramm-Pate-this is an Ad-Hoc
committee for the three full-time doc student positions. A rubric has been put
together for evaluating candidates for the position. However, further assistance
is needed with fine-tuning this rubric. Susan asked for faculty input on the
rubric. There was a suggestion that there be room for adjustment in the rubric to
reflect special qualifications or experience that might make them a strong
candidate.
In order to have more equal representation on this committee, perhaps the
committee needs to be made a standing committee, rather than an ad-hoc
committee.
There is also the question of whether there should be a course that is dedicated
for these doctoral assistantship students to teach. However, it was indicated that,
within the department, there are a variety of courses that might be appropriate for
them to teach.
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There is room within this assistantship for the recipient to be either a teaching
assistant or a research assistant, based on their qualifications. It is also important
that these students are served in ways that help prepare them to teach and be a
part of conducting research.
Susan made the point that the announcement for these positions may need to
include language that appeals students from a national pool of students who are
well-suited for a level one research institution and this is something to consider
for future advertisement of the position.
At this time, the comment was made that the current rubric is a useful, working
document for current use and notes can be made as to how this might need to be
revised in the future, based on challenges that may arise. It was also noted that
current applicants need to be evaluated based on the language of the
announcement as it went out this year.
It is important to note that, while stipends associated with various assistantships
may vary, it is not an indicator of the value placed on a particular assistantship
but that the funding for those positions comes from different sources.
The question was raised as to whether this assistantship is open to candidates
who have not yet been admitted to the program. It was noted that candidates can
apply for the assistantship at the same time they apply for admission to a program
but the assistantship is awarded based on the contingency of admission.
Therefore, it is important to make applicants aware that they are able to apply for
the assistantship at the time they are applying to the program. The award of the
assistantship is not made until April 15 so admission and assistantship decisions
will be complete prior to this announcement.
Gloria pointed out that, once awarded, these assistantships will stay with the
student throughout their program as long as the student continues on making
adequate progress on their degree. Therefore, we will not be advertising for new
applicants each year which gives time to revisit the process with regard to the
description and rubric for evaluation.
Susan removed herself from the committee and Tambra Jackson indicated that
she will serve on the committee.
C.
Curriculum Changes (Early Childhood Education)—Susan Schramm-Pate-Three
course changes and three new courses for early childhood for a total of 6
proposals were discussed and voted on.
Course Title Changes:
EDRD 345-changing course title from Language and Literacy in Early Childhood
Education, Part 1 to Teaching Reading in Early Childhood Education.
Change was voted on and approved.
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EDEC 442 change title from Teaching Social Studies and Science in Early
Childhood Education to Teaching Science in Early Childhood Education.
Change was voted on and approved.
EDRD 445 course change title from Language and Literacy in Early Childhood
Education, Part 1to Teaching Writing in Early Childhood Education and Literacy
Practicum.
Change was voted on and approved.
New courses:
EDEC 592 –Internship in Curriculum, Assessment, Teaching and Professional
Roles-new course proposal-9 hours effective fall 2012. Change was voted on
and approved.
EDEC 344-Linguistic Pluralism Across the Content Areas. A new course
supporting linguistic pluralism across content areas. Effective fall 2012. Change
was voted on and approved.
EDEC 444- Teaching Social Studies in Early Childhood Education. Voted on
and approved.
Question was raised as to how students would be impacted by this change. This
is a bulletin change but students already in the program can be grandfathered in
and allowed to remain under the previous system.
Deletion of EDEC 570-internship in the first three weeks of teaching. Erin
Miller explained that this was part of their program when public schools started
earlier in the year and USC students would have to come back early in order to
get into those schools. Now that schools start later, by state law, this course is no
longer necessary. Change was approved.
Three academic actions:
ARTE 520 and 530-no longer going to be required for the BA in ECE, effective
Fall 2012. However, they are being included in a list of choices for students,
among other fine arts choices. Voted on and approved, with one opposition.
From Rob Dedmon-Program progression requirement change-no longer will a
letter of recommendation required for admission to the professional program.
The candidate will still write an essay on an appropriate assigned topic regarding
middle level or curriculum dispositions. Change was approved.
Second action request from Rob Dedmon-already done but not in bulletin. U101
is no longer a requirement for middle level program. Will now be reflected in the
bulletin. Change was approved.
Thanks was expressed to the members of these committees who have done such a
good job in making appropriate changes within the program in order to best serve
our students.
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The point was made that critically examining our programs in this way is
important, particularly as the new core curriculum requirements are set by the
university and the needs of our students.
V.
Announcements
A.
Diversity Forum- Feb. 10 (ITE presenters are: Mary Styslinger, David Virtue,
Heidi Mills and MAT students, Early Childhood faculty)
B.
Congratulations to Gloria Boutte the 2012 USC Social Justice Award recipient!!!
C.
Tambra Jackson is close to securing a Freedom School site in Columbia.
While there are 9 Freedom Schools in South Carolina, this will be the first
in the city of Columbia.
D.
Visitors are welcome, every Tuesday, to see the Center for Inquiry
***Featured Faculty Epilogue***
I. Julia Lopez-Robertson and Beth Powers-Costello--“Exploring funds of knowledge of diverse
children, families, and communities through photography, narrative and collaborative artistic
methodologies: a beginning...
Meeting adjourned at 11:08am
Minutes respectfully submitted by Kim Smoak
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