WACTE members: 21
Schools or Colleges of
Teacher Education at 50+
locations in Washington State:
Antioch University (Seattle)
Central Washington
University
(Ellensburg, Lynnwood,
Lakewood, Moses Lake,
Wenatchee, Des Moines,
Yakima)
City University
(Bellevue, Everett, Seattle,
Renton, Tacoma, Vancouver,
Port Angeles, Centralia, Mt.
Vernon)
Eastern Washington
University
(Cheney, Spokane)
Gonzaga University
(Spokane)
Heritage University
(Toppenish, Yakima, Seattle,
Moses Lake, Omak,
Tri-Cities, Wenatchee)
Lesley University
(Tacoma)
Northwest University
(Kirkland)
Pacific Lutheran University
(Tacoma)
Saint Martin’s University
(Lacey, Ft. Lewis, McChord)
Seattle Pacific University
Seattle University
The Evergreen State
College (Olympia)
University of Puget Sound
(Tacoma)
University of Washington
(Seattle, Bothell, Tacoma)
Walla Walla College
Washington State
University
(Pullman, Spokane, Tri-Cities,
Vancouver)
Western Washington
University
(Bellingham, Bremerton,
Everett, Oak Harbor, Seattle)
Whitworth College
(Spokane)
WACTE/PEAB News!
Fall 2007
www.wacte.org
Welcome to the electronic WACTE/PEAB News! The News! is sent
electronically to all WACTE members, PEAB members, and various other
individuals. It is also available on our website (see the link above). If you receive
this and would like to have your name added to the e-mailing list, please contact
the News! Editor. The News! contains several sections: Spotlights describes
several different institutions from across the state – double click on the name of
the institution in Spotlights for a link to that site. To go to the websites for
institutions on the left – double click to enter the header, then click or ctrl &
click, depending on your computer’s setup. Features focuses on current
educational issues. Chainlinks provides important Links to websites; and Dates
will provide dates to remember for WACTE members. To view the News!, make
sure you choose print layout on the Menu. We hope you like the News! and we
welcome your feedback. We would especially appreciate your submissions if you
feel you have something of importance to share with colleagues in
Pat Naughton
News! Editor
pnaughton@cityu.edu
Spotlights……………………
Northwest University
Founded
in
1934,
Northwest University is a
regionally
accredited,
Christian institution of
the liberal arts awarding
associate, baccalaureate,
and master’s degrees
through the College of
Arts and Sciences; the schools of Education,
Ministry, Business, and Nursing; and a
nontraditional program for bachelor’s degree
completion. Graduate programs include
Master in Business Administration, Master of
Arts in Counseling Psychology, and Master in
Christian Ministry. In the fall of 2006, the
University added a Master in Teaching degree
leading to the Residency Certificate.
In addition to the United States and Canada,
Northwest University attracts students from
Asia, the Pacific Islands, Africa, Europe, and
Latin America. The university serves
approximately 1200 hundred students, with
about one-sixth in teacher preparation
WACTE/PEAB News!
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programs. Teaching candidates prepare for
the Residency certificate in eleven
endorsements: elementary education, health
and fitness, social studies, English/language
arts, biology, mathematics, choral music,
general music, instrumental music, theatre
arts, and English as a second language.
Northwest University commits faculty and
resources to support the proposition that “Every
child taught by a graduate of the Residency
Certificate program enjoys the right to have a
competent, highly trained teacher from the first
day of service.” To that end, the School of
Education provides learning experiences in
professional and content area courses and
extensive application in the classroom, which
equip candidates for the demands of public and
private education, kindergarten through the
twelfth grade.
The teacher preparation program demands that
its students commit to a work ethic centered on
community service and the educational needs of
each child. This commitment builds upon
Christian values important to our learning
community and upon civic principles important
to society. Moral and ethical values are highly
prized, and commitment to fairness, justice,
equal opportunity, inclusiveness, and the
consideration of others are deemed essential
qualities for those who aspire to serve the
community and its children.
Seattle Pacific University
Located on the north slope of Queen Anne Hill
in Seattle, SPU has about 3,900 students total.
About 800 are graduate students and the rest are
undergraduate students. The School of
Education offers Residency certification through
undergraduate and graduate programs with
about 120 students per year being
recommended. It also offers principal and
superintendent certification programs with about
30 principals and 15 superintendents
recommended per year. The school counseling
program recommends about 15 students per
year for certification. SPU also has degree
programs in Curriculum and Instruction at the
masters level (M.Ed.) and a doctor of education
program (Ed.D.). The professional certification
program (pro-cert) is very large with about 1500
students in the program at some point. SPU has
recommended more than 12,000 candidates for
certification since the founding of the School of
Education
SPU is well known for its Christian identity.
One of the few Christian universities in an
urban area, the vision of SPU is to “Engage
the Culture and Change the World.” The
strength of this vision comes directly out of
the commitment to social justice prominent in
its Wesleyan heritage. SPU is also known for
its partnerships, including more than 20
partnerships with districts and Educational
Service Districts across the entire state serving
the pro-cert program. In addition, on-campus
programs have partnerships with Dearborn
Park Elementary in the Seattle School District
and Zion Prep Academy. International
partnerships through the International Center
for Curriculum Studies provide interactions
with schools in Guatemala, Russia, China, and
Spain. These opportunities for travel can
enrich the lives of our professional education
candidates whether graduate or undergraduate
students.
Another important aspect is the sense of
community as faculty work collaboratively
with their students on teaching, research, and
service projects. Partly because of its size,
SPU faculty know their students and treat
them as individuals offering careful custom
academic and individual advice.
Seattle University
One of 28 Jesuit Catholic universities in the
United States, Seattle University draws upon
WACTE/PEAB News!
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the Jesuit educational philosophy to develop
critical thinkers and compassionate leaders. In
fall 2005, there were 7,061 enrolled at Seattle
University of which 569 were graduate
students in the College of Education.
Enrollment in professional education
programs was 402. The College of Education
houses the 11 graduate programs, including 9
professional educator programs: Teacher
Education, Curriculum and Instruction,
Educational Administration, Counseling,
Literacy for Special Needs, Special Education,
School Psychology, Student Development
Administration, Adult Education, Teaching
English as A Second Language and
Educational Leadership.
Needs is the only reading program in the state
focused on special needs students. The School
Psychology program offers coursework in
serving Hispanic students, which includes a
month of study and field experience in
Mexico.
Educational Leadership, a cohort-based
program, recruits applicants from higher
education, K-12 education, medical and health
services, for-profit-business, not-for-profit
services and consulting. The Master in
Teaching (MIT) program, a team-taught
program, enables students to earn a master in
teaching degree and initial teaching
certification within four academic quarters.
Students have multiple field experiences
including placement in partnership schools in
the Seattle and Shoreline School Districts.
MIT students may also choose to earn the
endorsement in special education through six
quarters of study. The programs in Literacy
for Special Needs, Special Education, School
Psychology, and School Counseling share
faculty and courses across their programs.
Students may pursue dual degrees and dual
certification in School Counseling and School
Psychology. The Educational Administration
program offers mentors to every graduate
serving in a high need school.
The Evergreen State College
All of the programs include a demonstration
of positive impact on student learning. For
example, MIT candidates in special methods
classes design an instructional unit to teach to
their internship class, select a sample of
diverse learners within that class, design a
pretest and posttest on the unit’s learning
targets, and assess the impact of their teaching
on the learning of the student sample.
The Evergreen State College (TESC) serves
approximately 102 students in professional
educator programs annually, 88 in Master in
Teaching (MIT) and 14 in Professional
Certificate (ProCert). It is the higher
education partner of Lincoln Elementary,
Olympia, one of the founding members of
The League of Small Democratic Schools.
TESC's MIT Program (residency certification)
and ProCert Program (advanced certification)
both explore the central question: “How can
public education meet the needs of the
diverse peoples who live in this democracy?”
The programs stress understanding and skills
in cultural sensitivity and advocating for the
diverse needs of all students.
The MIT program embraces a theme of
“Developing teachers who can put principles
of effective and meaningful classroom
teaching into practice, and who can create
classrooms that are culturally responsive and
inclusive, democratic and learner-centered,
developmentally appropriate and active.” The
MIT program is a two-year, full-time,
The Special Education program's major
emphasis is on children with learning and
behavioral disabilities from diverse linguistic
and cultural backgrounds. Literacy for Special
WACTE/PEAB News!
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interdisciplinary
professional
preparation program.
teacher
prepare educational leaders and school
administrators, teachers, school psychologists
and special education teachers. The School of
Education offers the following programs
(average number of students graduated each
year in parentheses): Principal Preparation –
Danforth (29), School Psychologist (30),
Leadership for Learning – School District
Leaders (25), Early Childhood Special
Education
(30),
Emotional/Behavioral
Disabilities
(16),
Elementary/Secondary
Teacher Education (60/60), Learning
Disabilities (18), and Moderate/Severe
Disabilities (12).
MIT Approach

Integrated – Faculty team from multiple
disciplines provides a fully integrated
learning experience rather than separate
courses

Reflective – Intensive thinking, critical
reading and writing required throughout
the program and master’s project

Collaborative – A community of learners
developed (45 students annually), with
many group activities

Field intensive – One day a week in the
schools in year one, two full-time student
teaching experiences during year two
including one in a diverse, urban setting

Performance-based – performance and
portfolios assessed continually and
documented in narrative transcripts
UW Seattle operates a wide variety of
programs designed to provide a continuum of
learning opportunities for professional
educators at the graduate level. Each of these
programs represents an effort to bring the
resources of the public research university to
bear on educational problems of importance
to the communities of Washington and to the
nation. UW Seattle programs are organized
around the following values and principles:
The MIT Program develops effective teachers
who can assume leadership roles in
curriculum development, child advocacy,
assessment and anti-bias work. The placement
rate for 2003 graduates was 81%, the best
among all teacher education programs in the
state. The 2004 placement rate was even
stronger at 86%.
MIT received the 2003 Richard Wisniewski
Award by the Society of Professors of
Education in recognition of outstanding
contributions to the field of teacher
education.

Educators, especially classroom teachers,
must have strong subject matter
knowledge to prepare P-12 students
effectively to understand and participate
in “real world” activities related to the
academic disciplines such as mathematics,
history, science, and literacy

Educational decisions should be grounded
in knowledge from contemporary
research, drawing on multiple sources of
evidence (not single test scores) as a
context for decision making at every level

Education should be understood not
simply as a technical matter, but as a
moral endeavor in which both
fundamental goals and the means for
achieving them command ongoing
community debate and deliberation
University of Washington (Seattle)
The University of Washington, Seattle serves
39,251 students. Eleven thousand of these
students are at the graduate level—and all of
the University’s programs for professional
educators are graduate programs. UW Seattle
College of Education has programs, which
WACTE/PEAB News!
Page 4

UW Seattle programs for professional
educators share with other WACTE
institutions a strong commitment to
increasing the diversity of the professional
education workforce, including teachers,
school psychologists, special educators,
and administrators
and to develop new knowledge, useful for
programs and practitioners around the state
and nation. This twin investment in research
and teaching permits the University to
contribute new ideas and practical techniques
which address issues and needs such as those
for new instructional approaches for teachers
in math and science, improved techniques for
teaching children who are learning English,
more effective early intervention programs for
children who have autism or other disabilities,
and many others.
The rich investment of state and private
resources in UW Seattle faculty and programs
allow it a unique capacity both to prepare
prospective teachers and educational leaders
Features
The Features for this edition include a commentary from WACTE’s President and a recent
PESB action in response to an out-of-state provider. Future editions will cover topics of
current interest or current news in the education field. We welcome all ideas and
suggestions!
President’s Corner
Many issues are coalescing around teacher
education this fall. Major initiatives in
mathematics education, redefinition of
elementary endorsement requirements, music
endorsements controversy, implementation of
the new Standard V, concerns about out-ofstate providers, development of a legislative
agenda, continued concern about how
professional educators are prepared, etc. etc.
I’m sure that I missed some important issues.
Just keeping track of them is difficult;
responding in a coherent fashion and
presenting our own initiatives sometimes
seem very daunting. Frankly, it seems like a
struggle; sometime I wonder if it is worth it!
One of the things that contributes to that
sense of discontent with the job is a focus that
is too narrowly on “compliance” issues. That
is where I live much of my professional life!
The accreditation questions for my area of
responsibility are always pressing! How can
we demonstrate our endorsement
competencies so that the state is satisfied?
How will we structure our programs to help
students demonstrate their competence? Can
we find a way to get an extra PEAB meeting?
WACTE/PEAB News!
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Sometimes it seems like the most pressing
issues focus on meeting the letter of the law.
It’s kind of interesting to me that I floundered
in this state of discontent and almost
depression as long as I did before I realized
that others had struggled with similar issues!
St Paul nearly 2000 years ago articulated my
thinking when he said “. . . by dying to what
once bound us, we have been released from
the law so that we serve in the new way of the
Spirit, and not in the old way of the written
code.” (Romans 7:6). To me, that means that
we should lift our eye from the letter of the
law and focus on the spirit behind the law.
So what does that mean in the context of
professional education? Does that mean we
ignore the letter of the law? Of course not! If
we do, in this situation we run the risk of
losing our accreditation! To me, trying to
“…serve in the new way of the Spirit…”
means that we must go beyond the law. In a
way, the letter of the law is the starting place –
a necessary but insufficient requirement for a
good professional education program. We
must figure out what the spirit behind the law
is and build our programs to serve that end.
So what are some practical suggestions for
discerning the spirit of the law? Getting back
to the basics has served to refocus some of
my thinking. Here are some specific topics for
reflection that have served to refocus my
attention:

Remembering why I entered this field
(hint—it wasn’t for money!)

Asking others why they want to be or are
professional educators

Remembering important professional
educators in my life

Thinking about professional educators
that I admire (some of you are in my
mind!)

Working with students on practical
problems, but also asking them why they
want to serve as a professional educator
So, here’s the irony in the situation. I have
actually found hope and meaning by doing
more than is required! By seeing the law as a
minimum rather than the ultimate
requirement, I find myself liberated to do
what I believe is really important.
Frank Kline, President
PESB Letter to Grand Canyon University
On December 3, 2007, PESB sent a memo to
Washington state Superintendents and
personnel Directors and a letter to Grand
Canyon University regarding the latter’s
representation of their teacher education
offerings. PESB expressed concern over
Grand Canyon’s misrepresentation of their
status as a provider of programs approved by
the state of Washington for “…licensing,
certification, and added endorsement to …
existing credentials.” Course offerings by out-
of –state institutions, which do not adhere to
Washington state requirements, has been an
ongoing concern for WACTE institutions. In
this case, Grand Canyon’s solicitation of
educators in the Mukilteo School District
came to the attention of the PESB, resulting
in a quick response. To view PESB’s memo to
Superintendents and Personnel Directors,
letter to Grand Canyon, and Grand Canyon’s
solicitation effort, see the PESB web site.
WACTE/PEAB News!
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Chain Links: Linking us
together to improve the
education for all children…
American Association of Colleges of Teacher Education http://www.aacte.org
Association of Washington School Principals http://www.awsp.org
National Council for Accreditation of Teacher Education http://www.ncate.org/
Office of Superintendent of Public Instruction http://www.k12.wa.us/
Professional Educator Standards Board http://www.pesb.wa.gov/
Teacher Education Accreditation Council http://www.teac.org/
Washington Association for Colleges of Teacher Education http://www.wacte.org/
Washington Education Association http://www.washingtonea.org/
Washington State Board of Education http://www.sbe.wa.gov/
Washington Association of School Administrators http://www.wasa-oly.org/
Dates to Remember
OSPI
15th Annual
January Conference
Spokane Convention Center
Spokane, WA
January 29, 30, and 31, 2008
WACTE Calendar
January 16-17, UW Tacoma
April 23-24, Heritage University
See WACTE Calendar for additional
meeting dates 2008 - 2011
PESB
Upcoming Meetings
January 16-17, Comfort Inn, Tumwater,
WA
March 19-20, Red Lion Hotel, Sea-Tac,
WA
WACTE/PEAB News!
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