Early Childhood Education
COLLEGE OF EDUCATION¬ Georgia State University
Department of Early Childhood Education
College of Education
Georgia State University
Academic Program Review Self-Study
Period of Review
(Fall 2002 – Spring 2005)
Dr. Barbara Meyers, ECE Department Chair
Dr. Julie Dangel, APACE Review Chair for ECE
with the Program Advisory Committee
Submitted November 28, 2005
ECE APACE Report, 2005
Early Childhood Education
COLLEGE OF EDUCATION¬ Georgia State University
W
elcome to the Department of Early Childhood Education. This is an exciting place to be! We are one of the largest departments devoted to early childhood education (defined as Birth to 5th grade) in the state. We are proud of our accomplishments both nationally and within the state of Georgia. Our faculty members are very active in professional activities and organizations in the university, the community, the state and the nation. We are actively involved in scholarship in many areas including constructivist theories, literacy, teacher development, mathematics, children’s play, urban education, inclusion, and multicultural issues. Our programs are exceptional and our graduates are welcomed into the education community as teachers and leaders.
The following sections describe our department according to the template prescribed for APACE self-study. Section A provides an assessment of our strengths and areas for improvement, Section B provides historical and contextual information for the department, Section C describes our progress toward goals and objectives, Sections D, E and F provide data regarding curricula, faculty and student quality, respectively, Section G describes the adequacy of our resources and Section H presents our goals and objectives for the future. In many places in this report, data are summarized in tables to make reading easier and highlight data from the voluminous amount of information collected. Complete data are available in appendices and on CD.
Table of Contents
Introduction i
Section A: Unit Assessment of Strengths and weaknesses 1
Program Quality 1
Survey Data 1
Course Evaluation Data 2
Faculty Productivity 2
Centrality of the Programs to the University 3
Viability of the Programs 4
Strategic focus 5
Financial Resource Analysis 5
Section B: Historical and Contextual Background for the Department 7
History 7
Contextual Background: Summary of Department Programs 9
Initial Preparation Programs 9
Advanced Preparation Programs 9
Summary of Current Major Departmental Projects 10
Evidence of Program Relevance and the Degree to which Community, Student and Professional Needs are Served by the Programs 11
Faculty 12
Number by Rank 12
Tenure Status 12
Gender and Underrepresented Group Status 12
Governance 12
Faculty Productivity in Teaching 13
Faculty Productivity in Research 13
Section C: Progress toward Goals and Objectives Since the last Academic Program Review 15
1995 Self Analysis 15
Responses to issues raised by external and internal reviewers 19
Section D: Curricula Quality 21
Evaluation of Curricula Quality based on Evidence of Student Learning 21
Evaluation of Curricular Quality Based on Surveys 22
Summary of Undergraduate Student Survey Findings on Program Quality 22
Summary of Graduate Student Survey Findings on Program Quality 22
Section E: The Quality of the Faculty 25
Section F: Student Quality 27
Input Quality Metrics 27
Output Quality Metrics 28
Licensing exams 28
Placement of Students in Professional Positions 29
Section G: Resource Adequacy 31
Faculty Resources 31
Administrative Resources 31
Technological Resources 32
Space Resources 32
Laboratory Resources 33
GSU Foundation Resources 33
Section H: Goals and Objectives 34
Strengths and weaknesses of ECE 34
ECE Program Goals and Action Plans for the next APACE Review Cycle 35
ECE APACE Report, 2005 Page 113
Early Childhood Education
COLLEGE OF EDUCATION¬ Georgia State University
For ease of navigation press Ctrl + Click the Appendix or Table to follow the hyperlink
List of Appendices
Appendix A-1: Mission statement for Georgia State University
Appendix A-2: Mission statement for the Department of Early Childhood
Appendix B-1: Rationale for choices of peer programs
Appendix B-2: Organization of unit governance and committee structure
Appendix B-3: N/A (Unit by-laws)
Appendix B-4: Current faculty roster with rank, tenure status and full/part-time status
Appendix B-6: Center report from the Child Development Center
Appendix B-7: Summary of Current Major Departmental Projects
Appendix D-1: Learning outcome plans and reports (on CD)
Appendix D-3 and 6: Degree requirements, admission and advisement procedures
Appendix D-4: Course offerings for 2002-2004
Appendix D-5: Summary results of surveys
Appendix E-1: ECE Notable Service and Honors
Appendix F-1: Definition of graduate faculty and criteria for selection
Appendix F-2: List of graduate faculty
Appendix F-3: Current curriculum vitae (on CD)
Appendix F-4: Description of faculty involvement in self study process
Appendix F-5: External grants for 2003-2005
Appendix F-6: Awards, Achievements, or scholarly work by students
Appendix G-1: Summary of data on student/faculty ratios and credit hour generation
Appendix G-2: University library report
List of Tables
Table B-1: Number of faculty by rank, tenure status, gender and underrepresented group status
Table B-2: Faculty research productivity
Table B-3: Number of enrolled students and graduates by program
Table B-4: Credit hours generated by faculty type
Table B-5: Average number of faculty by rank and status
Table D-1: Departmental course offerings
Table E-1: Mean graduate admission test scores and GPAs
Table E-2: Selection Ratio of Applicant/Accepted Graduate Students
Table G-1: Student/tenure-track faculty ratios
ECE APACE Report, 2005 Page 113
Early Childhood Education
COLLEGE OF EDUCATION¬ Georgia State University
Section A: Unit Assessment of Strengths and weaknesses
This section provides an overview of our department, including the strengths and weaknesses of the programs, using five categories identified by the Program Review Committee: program quality, centrality of the programs, viability of programs, strategic focus and financial resources. You will find more detail about the history of the department, programs, faculty and students in sections following this overview.
Program Quality
Early Childhood Education is the major that supports the preparation of educators, scholars and professional leaders for students in pre-kindergarten to 5th grade (P-5) settings. The preparation of these professionals requires rigorous programs of study designed by faculty who recognize that knowledgeable teaching is a complex act based on deep understandings about children and learning and subject matter and pedagogy. ECE students learn not only how these areas of understanding interact in the teaching-learning process but also why this synergy matters. An essential focus of our teacher preparation programs is the cultivation of educators who reflect and think critically about practice and policy. Ultimately, fostering the learning and development of the whole child are the goals of teacher preparation and they are central to our work in the department.
The Early Childhood Education major is offered at four (4) degree levels: the Bachelor of Science in Education, the Masters in Education, the Education Specialist and the Doctor of Philosophy. While each degree program varies in its emphasis and balance of academic content, field experiences and scholarship, all programs in the major share a common mission, conceptual framework and commitment to professional standards at the state and national level. See http://education.gsu.edu/coe/content/advanced.htm to view the conceptual framework.
Sections D, E and F describe the quality of curricula, faculty and students in more detail, however, all programs in the department are accredited by the Georgia Professional Standard Commission (PSC) and the College of Education is fully accredited by the National Association for the Accreditation of Teacher Education (NCATE).
Besides being accredited through ongoing rigorous review, data from a survey of undergraduate and graduate students in fall 2004, course evaluation data, and faculty productivity data provide three indicators of the quality of programs and instruction.
Survey Data
When surveyed about whether or not they considered ECE’s programs to be academically challenging, a majority of both undergraduate students (72.9%) and undergraduate alumni (93.6%) agree or strongly agree that ECE’s programs are academically rigorous. Most undergraduates (current, 61% and alumni, 74.5%) believe the faculty of the department are appropriately prepared for their classes. In a related question, 73.5% of the undergraduates and 91.5% of the undergraduate alumni either agree or strongly agree that ECE faculty prepare them for their professional career. Graduate students are even more positive with means ranging from 4.09 to 4.37 on a five point scale on six indicators of program quality. More information is provided in Section D, Curricula Quality. As we move toward our goal of more tenured and tenure-track faculty and fewer part-time instructors, we are confident that data on program quality will improve.
Course Evaluation Data
While not a perfect measure, course evaluations provide one piece of information, the students’ perspective, about the program quality. We sampled course evaluations from the last two years, and the data is summarized below. Question #13 requires students to make an overall statement of the course and faculty quality, using a 5 point Likert scale.
Student Ratings of ECE Courses on Item #13 of the COE Course Evaluation Form
Frequency range / Spring 2004 / Spring 20034.0-5.0 Excellent / 38 / 31
3.0-4.0 Above Average / 10 / 13
2.0-3.0 Average / 1 / 0
1.0-2.0 Below average / 1 / 0
Total number of courses evaluated / 50 / 44
Virtually all courses were rated in the above average or excellent range. In 2003, seventy percent of courses were rated in the excellent range and 29.5% were rated above average. The percentage increased to 76% in the excellent range in 2004.
If course ratings fall below average, there is a process for improvement which includes peer observations, video-taping, and coaching.
Faculty Productivity
On first glance, if you look at the number of publications per tenure-track faculty member as an indicator of productivity, the average number of publications per faculty member has decreased from 3.3 in 2003-04, to 2.7 in 2003-04, to 1.6 in 2004-05. However, over these three years the number of new faculty has increased greatly, and they are developing their research agendas and may have only one publication, and in some cases, no publications. Most of the senior faculty have between two and five publications per year. According to the 2004 survey, the percentage of faculty (55%) presenting seven or more papers at conferences is commensurate with the university percentage (54.5%). Annual reports and faculty vitae indicate that faculty average four presentations per year at state and national conferences. During this same time period, the number of credit hours taught by faculty has also increased. External grants average $3,820, 818.00 per year for the period of this review. The quality of faculty and research productivity are described in more detail in Section E, Quality of Faculty.
ECE APACE Report, 2005 Page 113
Early Childhood Education
COLLEGE OF EDUCATION¬ Georgia State University
Centrality of the Programs to the University
Centrality refers to the alignment of program with and contribution to achieving the mission and goals of GSU (see Appendix A1), the college, and the department (see Appendix A2). The BSE, M.Ed., Ed.S and Ph.D. degree programs in Early Childhood Education are clearly central and contribute to the goals of GSU, the College of Education and the Department. These are programs of long-standing and are consistent with both the traditions and future direction and mission of the university. With annual enrollments of over 200 undergraduate and post-baccalaureate pres-ervice teachers, the BSE major is a significant source for the early childhood teachers in P-5 classrooms throughout the greater Atlanta metropolitan area. This major is in high demand from program applicants and program graduates are in high demand from school system hiring personnel. Several new initiatives, the math and ESOL endorsements, the dual certification program for early childhood and special education, a Birth to Age 5 teacher certification program, and the urban Professional Development School work, position us to be in greater demand. Of course, these endeavors also require additional resources, including faculty time and expertise.
Initiatives in our department contribute to several strategic goals: nationally recognized programs, urban partnerships and an international focus. One strategic goal of the university is to build on programs that have demonstrated quality and are nationally recognized (GSU Strategic Plan, 2000). The Bachelors of Science program, the GTAPP program, the Master’s Degree and Educational Specialist Programs are recognized in national publications for their innovative approach to adult education. The BSE program is recognized for its developmental approach to teacher education, and the GTAPP program (post-baccalaureate certification plus master’s degree) is known for its urban focus. The Collaborative Master’s Degree (CMP) program focuses on strengthening teacher literacy and mathematics instruction, the two key areas of focus in elementary schools today. The Educational Specialist Program (Ed.S.) emphasizes teacher leadership and boasts graduates who are principals, curriculum coordinators, and technology specialist in the local schools. Both the CMP and Ed.S. programs have 100% graduation rates for the last three years and serve as models for constructivist graduate teacher education. The Ph.D. in ECE is gaining visibility, resources and increased enrollments (12 newly enrolled in 2003-05; 24 total). This program offers the potential to support the research mission of a comprehensive research institution.
Urban Professional Development School Partnerships (PDS) are another way that programs in this major advance the mission of university, college and department. Collaborative efforts to improve pupil learning, teacher preparation and induction, professional development and inquiry are central to our shared mission and involve our faculty and students at all levels. These partnerships contribute to both the University and the College commitments to P-16 partnerships with an urban focus and fulfill guidelines from the Board of Regents.
Two strategic goals for the university are 1) to be recognized as an institution with a global perspective and 2) to capitalize on its location in a vibrant, international city. The department supports an International Student Teaching Initiative with the Netherlands and is planning to expand this program to sites in China. More detail on our international work can be found in Section B.
In summary, there is an unprecedented need for competent, committed and professional educators, particularly in urban settings. The urban mission of the programs in the ECE major, particularly the BSE and GTAPP programs, is consistently reflected in culturally relevant coursework and field placements in urban and other high-need schools. The Early Childhood Education majors specifically contribute to the university mission of a P-16 educator preparation, through the following activities: