Boilerplate Language for the College of Education
This language is updated as additional information is developed for specific proposals.
If you have questions or suggested improvements,
please contact COE’s Research Coordinator for Proposal Development.
Overview
Texas State University’s College of Education is first and foremost a professional school; therefore, resources are largely focused on supporting its superb faculty as they implement innovative curriculum, instruction, supervision, and research.
Texas State is home to one of the largest traditional university-based teacher preparation programs in the United States, as befits an institution that began in 1899 as a teachers’ college. Each year, 700-800 candidates are recommended for state teaching certificates and during the 2016-17 academic year, 4,532 students were enrolled in teacher certification programs. As a result, teacher education constitutes a significant portion of programming in the college and remains a university-wide endeavor. Faculty housed in academic departments across the university teach subject-area content knowledge and content-based pedagogical courses designed for future secondary teachers, and the Department of Curriculum & Instruction’s 120+ faculty members teach pedagogical and other courses necessary for state certification. Reflecting Texas State’s status as a Hispanic-Serving Institution, 37% of students seeking certification are Hispanic.
In addition to preparing teachers, the College of Education delivers certification and licensure programs other school personnel, including master reading and mathematics teachers, reading specialists, school counselors, school psychologists, principals, and superintendents, and graduates of these programs are employed in student support and school leadership positions across the state. The college also prepares students for careers in professional counseling, marriage and family therapy, athletic training, exercise and sports science, adult fitness, health and wellness promotion, physical education, and recreation therapy and administration.
Finally, the college of offers four doctoral degrees: PhD in Adult, Professional, and Community Education; PhD in School Improvement; and the first PhD and one of the few EdD degrees in the nation in Developmental Education. In August 2015, Texas State University awarded the first-ever PhD in Developmental Education in the United States.
College enrollment for Fall 2016 was 6,237 students and during the 2015-16 academic year, the college conferred 1,320 degrees.
Fall 2016Enrollment / 2015-16
Degrees Conferred
Curriculum & Instruction (C&I) / 2,266 / 555
Counseling, Leadership, Adult Education,
and School Psychology (CLAS) / 597 / 164
Health & Human Performance (HHP) / 3,374 / 601
Current research in the College is as broad as our program offerings and faculty interests, and include enhancing teaching and learning in science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM); postsecondary persistence and success; play and animal therapy; student behavior and school safety; health, nutrition, and wellness; and muscle functioning.
College Capacity for Grants Administration
The College of Education is experienced in administering large multi-year, multi-million dollar research projects, including recent grant awards from the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, National Science Foundation, U.S. Department of Education, Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board, and Texas Workforce Commission. The college’s Office of Research and Sponsored Programs (COE ORSP) provides a full-time staff member to support the processes associated with administering external research funding. Our Research Coordinator for Post-Award Administration assists with grant administration and management, including purchasing, payments, hiring, travel, and monitoring expenditures. In addition, a university-level Senior Grant Accountant assigned to the college also helps to ensure proper stewardship of all funded research, including that all award activities and internal and external reports comply with applicable federal, state, and university regulations.
Support for Dissemination of Findings
Two COE ORSP staff members support the preparation of research findings for dissemination to researchers, practitioners, policymakers, and the general public. The Senior Research Analyst is available to assist the research team with data analysis and interpretation for publications, conferences, and other platforms used to communicate project findings. The Research Coordinator for Proposal Development, who also is charged with assisting faculty in disseminating findings, has over 25 years of experience working in legislative, state agency, higher education, policy, non-profit, and advocacy settings. This experience, coupled with her strategic writing and editing expertise, will help ensure findings are effectively communicated to all targeted audiences.
Teacher Preparation
Texas State’s teacher preparation program consists of baccalaureate and post-baccalaureate elementary, middle, secondary, and all-level options leading to certificates in over 30 different areas. The program produces professional educators with a strong understanding of the subject matter they teach as well as effective instructional skills to meet the needs of the increasingly diverse learners in their classrooms. The program is approved by the Texas State Board for Educator Certification and nationally accredited by the Teacher Education Accreditation Council. Grounded in evidence-based teacher preparation and induction practices closely aligned with the Council for the Accreditation of Educator Preparation’s standards and recommendations, the program produces teachers who are knowledgeable, effective, and caring.
Since implementing a professional development school model in 1992, Texas State has been a national leader in field-based teacher preparation that instructs teacher candidates in the context of real classrooms. The College of Education has exceptional, long-standing partnerships with area school districts that provide the clinical settings for instruction. The field-based program is currently delivered on over 20 public school campuses located in multiple Central Texas school districts. Candidates spend approximately half of their time at the school working in classrooms with teachers and students; the other half is spent at the school engaged in classes delivered by Texas State faculty in collaboration with school staff.
The College’s Office of Educator Preparation (OEP), which oversees the teacher preparation program, works closely with approximately 80 school districts across the state to provide student teaching placements and identify cooperating teachers for 350-400 student teachers each semester. The student teaching experience provides teacher candidates with opportunities to apply in authentic settings what they have learned in their courses while being mentored by experienced teachers. University supervisors trained in a valid and reliable research-based evaluation protocol observe student teachers in their classrooms and provide feedback and support throughout the semester-long experience. The OEP also hosts two teacher job fairs each year that are attended by representatives from approximately 150 Texas school districts.
PhD and EdD in Developmental Education
The College of Education at Texas State University offers two doctoral degrees in developmental education, the first-ever PhD and one of the few EdD degrees in the country. Students complete highly personalized, multidisciplinary degree plans with core coursework focused on developmental education theory, research methods, and professional development. With specializations in developmental literacy, developmental mathematics, and learning support, all graduates are equipped to respond to the needs of students enrolled in developmental education programs; the complexities of motivation, teaching, learning, and assessment in developmental education settings; and the political, cultural, and social systems that create inequities in educational settings.
The doctoral program in developmental education provides its student-scholars with the necessary tools to critically examine the current state of developmental education, define its essential role in postsecondary education, and create new research-based theories and innovative practices. The program’s vision transcends narrow, static views of teaching and learning as well as deficit-oriented views of students that have traditionally dominated the field. By providing its doctoral students with rigorous research, scholarly, and professional experiences in an apprenticeship model, Texas State’s developmental education program aims to effect change in multiple areas of developmental education and meet the urgent need for advanced practitioners and researchers in a rapidly expanding field.
Department of Health and Human Performance
The Department of Health and Human Performance (HHP) is a leader in preparing students for careers in adult fitness, athletic training, exercise and sports science, health and wellness promotion, physical education, and recreation therapy and administration. The department provides a rigorous and diverse Physical Fitness and Wellness (PFW) program of courses, activities, and workshops for Texas State students, faculty, and staff as well as school district and city clients. HHP faculty are nationally and internationally known and recent visiting scholars to the department have come from Brazil, Egypt, and Korea. HHP offers undergraduate and graduate majors in Athletic Training, Biomechanics, Exercise and Sport Sciences, Recreation, and Teacher Education and many graduates continue their professional training in kinesiology, medicine, and physical and occupational therapy. HHP is located in the Jowers Center, which is undergoing substantial renovations to expand and update facilities to accommodate significant enrollment growth in many HHP programs.
The Translational Neuromuscular Physiology Laboratory is housed under HHP and located in Jowers Center. The 800-square foot space is divided into a wet lab and a clinical exam room, which is used for human subject testing and data collection. The primary focus of the lab is muscle metabolism and neuromuscular response using muscle physiology and neuromuscular physiology techniques to examine muscle adaptations due to inactivity, training, and fatigue. Special emphasis is placed on how these changes translate to muscle function. Muscle biopsy, blood chemistry, neuromuscular electrical stimulation, electromyography, and Western blot procedures can be performed using equipment located in the lab.
LBJ Institute for STEM Education and Research
Named after former U.S. President Lyndon Baines Johnson – a 1930 graduate of Texas State University (known then as Southwest Texas State Teachers College) – the College of Education’s LBJ Institute for STEM Education and Research was created in 2013 to address the fact that 80 percent of the fastest growing occupations in the United States depend upon mastery of mathematics and scientific knowledge and skills. The mission of the LBJ Institute is to transform science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) education to increase the participation and success of diverse communities of educator and students through fostering collaborative communities, conducting rigorous research, providing evidence-based professional development, and improving STEM teaching and learning.
Under the leadership of director Dr. Araceli Ortiz, the LBJ Institute in just four years has established itself as a national leader in delivering and researching programs designed to equip future STEM employees through improved teaching and learning in the STEM disciplines for students from kindergarten to graduate-level college studies. Its researchers have been awarded over $20 million in funding from the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, National Science Foundation, and U.S. Department of Education to target STEM teaching and learning in community, school, and university settings.
The signature program of the LBJ Institute is the NASA STEM Educator Professional Development Collaborative, a five-year (September 2014-August 2019) $15 million grant led by Texas State University in collaboration with NASA and other Minority-Serving Institutions around the nation. The largest grant award in Texas State’s history, this critical initiative is a transformative, comprehensive, diversity-focused national network system grounded in educational theory and best practices. The NASA STEM Educator Professional Development Collaborative builds upon the best of existing NASA professional development offerings to pilot and subsequently implement other innovative, high-impact approaches to extend NASA professional development services to STEM educators at all levels, including university teacher preparation faculty and students, K-12 teachers, and informal educators. LBJ Institute researchers coordinate the delivery of these learning experiences through a highly expert staff of Texas State University Education Faculty Specialists located at each of NASA’s 10 Research and Space Centers.
Clinic for Autism Research, Evaluation and Support (CARES Clinic)
The Clinic for Autism Research, Evaluation, and Support (CARES Clinic) – directed by Dr. Russel Lang, Associate Professor of Special Education in the Department of Curriculum and Instruction – provides services for individuals with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) and their families, while training school and agency personnel to apply research-based practices. Services include diagnostic assessment and evaluation, clinic- and home-based educational programs founded in applied behavior analysis (ABA), social skills groups, job-coaching, functional behavior assessments, behavior intervention planning, consultations, and leisure skills training through its popular summer camp for children with ASD. To help address the overwhelming number of children on waiting lists to receive services, the CARES Clinic has been funded by the Texas Department of Assistive and Rehabilitation Services and the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board to develop and implement evidence-based parent training protocols, enabling them to provide interventions for their child’s targeted behaviors.
Tomás Rivera Mexican American Children’s Book Award
The College of Education created the Tomás Rivera Mexican American Children’s Book Award to honor authors and illustrators who create literature that depicts the Mexican American experience. The award was established in 1995 and was named in honor of Dr. Tomás Rivera, the first Mexican American selected as a Distinguished Alumnus at Texas State University. During his career as an educator and university administrator he published extensively, including his landmark novel …y no se lo tragó la tierra (…And the Earth Did Not Part) as well as short stories and poetry. Dr. Rivera, known as the Dean of Mexican American Literature, travelled extensively, reading and promoting Mexican American Literature. His writings, in both English and Spanish, mainly deal with the difficult lives of Mexican American migrant farm workers, emphasizing their enduring, highly resilient human spirit. He also focused on the lives of Mexican American farm working children, as his foremost and unwavering concerns were for their education and liberation from oppressive living conditions. The Tomás Rivera Mexican American Children’s Book Award honors his commitment to education and keeps alive his challenge to us to build healthy and responsible communities. This children’s book award also sustains his vision for the education of Mexican Americans in the Southwest and the greater United States.
Center for P-16 Initiatives
Texas State University’s Center for P-16 Initiatives -- housed in the College of Education and led by Dr. Michelle Hamilton, Associate Professor of Exercise & Sports Science in the Department of Health and Human Performance – provides opportunities for students in Central Texas to increase college access and success. Programming is centered on the beliefs that successful pre-kindergarten experiences provide the roots for educational success, economically disadvantaged children can be successful if they have the necessary community-based supports, and college success is possible for all students. Through mentoring, after-school, and summer programs, the Center