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Multnomah University Response to Accreditation Areas for Improvement

June 2015

As an institution of Christian higher learning, Multnomah University’s mission is “to equip Christian students through higher education to become biblically competent, academically proficient, spiritually formed, and culturally engaged servant leaders, shaped to be a transforming force in the church, community, and world.” Functioning as a Christ-centered university with a commitment to integration of faith and academic disciplines, the University encourages the development of a biblical worldview in the context of lifelong learning. Multnomah University believes it has a responsibility to encourage scholarship and knowledge development that incorporates multiple perspectives from various backgrounds. Furthermore, a diverse campus cultivates a rich and dynamic environment that values the interaction between cultures, ethnicities and nations, gender, denominations, socio-economic classes, and generations. Education within such a setting prepares students to succeed in an increasingly complex, pluralistic society by fostering mutual respect and understanding as it challenges stereotypes and preconceptions (MU Diversity Mission Statement).

Multnomah has made deliberate movement towards multiculturalism since 2007 with the hiring of a Multicultural Advisor. In 2011, a Cultural Diversity Task Force was formed with the purpose of engaging culture and becoming a more diverse campus. In keeping with this mission, our president, Dr. Craig Williford has chosen to lead this task force. During his first year, Dr. Williford has initiated conversations with diverse populations in the surrounding community. He has also been working with the MU Multicultural Student Advisor Ashley Bell, and leading dialogical seminars on campus for students. The Multicultural Student Association seeks to help Multnomah students connect with diverse cultures in a way that reflects Christ's character. As we foster a safe environment for students to interact with each other in a multicultural context, we are able to provide educational opportunities that raise cultural awareness on our campus, in the city of Portland, and throughout the global community.

During the summer of 2014, Multnomah held an all faculty training workshop titled “More Than Guests.” This recommended faculty training from the Diversity Taskforce included video simulations, articles, group discussion and dialogue surrounding diversity issues within the higher education workplace. Ninety-two percent of the fulltime MU faculty completed this training. An additional eight adjunct instructors and five staff members also participated.

Multnomah Teacher Education

The TSPC accreditation site visit to Multnomah University on March 17-19, 2014 resulted in two AFI's in Standard 4. Dr. Debi Miller, then the Teacher Education Director, submitted a rejoinder on June 11, 2014, which addressed the AFI’s and suggested remedies for their improvement. These remedies were in keeping with the Multnomah Teacher Education Program mission "to develop Christians who think critically, respond compassionately, and work strategically from a biblical worldview, equipped to serve in a variety of settings as qualified, effective professional educators.” In an effort to prepare our candidates to be excellent educators, we are continuing to work strategically in an effort to provide opportunities for our students to engage culture both while on campus and in their field experiences. These efforts to address the AFI’s of Standard 4 are described below.

AFI #1: Standard 4: Candidates have limited/no opportunities to interact with diverse candidates. TSPC Rationale: “The unit has not provided data to show that education candidates interacted with other diverse candidates at the university.”

Multnomah’s commitment to diversity extends to the process of exposing perceptions, attitudes, and actions that contribute to such inequalities. However, we realize that due to our low overall numbers in the undergraduate and graduate programs we have limited opportunities for our education candidates to interact with other diverse students at the university. This lack of diversity in our student population is a campus- wide issue and Multnomah is becoming more intentional in its recruitment of culturally diverse students and faculty. More specifically, two remedies, one natural, one imposed, was put in place for the 2014-15 school year and will be continually re-evaluated for 2015-16.

Diverse Student/Faculty Population: First, numbers in the undergraduate program for fall 2014 enrollment showed an increase in diverse candidates. Of the seventeen new undergraduate education students, 29% were non-white candidates. Diverse enrollment in the MAT program remained at 13% for the 2014-15 school year. Although students apply throughout the summer, currently for the fall 2015-16, 14% of our BA students are culturally diverse and the MAT candidates are still being admitted and it is still early to report.

Furthermore, efforts to increase the diversity of faculty are proving to be effective. For the 2014-15 academic year, our Cultural Competency course was taught by an adjunct instructor who is a Pacific Islander. His ethnic and cultural background helped provide a rich discussion and personal testimony to the candidates. All student evaluations of this instructor were positive and highlighted that his personal life experiences helped prepare them to work with students from diverse backgrounds. Additionally, Multnomah recently hired an African-American faculty member to teach our Educational Psychology course. This transplant from the New York school system brings a rich cultural and ethnic diversity while sharing her unique life experiences.

Second, Multnomah has a full-time Multicultural Student Advisor who supports its Multicultural Student Association. For the 2014-15 school year, she hosted two Diversity Dialogues: the first, held in February, was a discussion led by a current student of color, about the Christian community’s response to events in Ferguson, MO. The second dialogue; held in March, was a forum for students of color to talk about their experience at the University. This dialogue was led by Multnomah’s president, Dr. Craig Williford. Approximately 5% of MU's students of color attended the first dialogue and 20% attended the second. The plan for the 2015-16 school year is to continue to have Diversity Dialogues once a month (4 each semester). Each dialogue will be centered around a current event and the issues of diversity that are of particular interest. The time and place for these discussions will be conducive to a variety of students that make up Multnomah’s student body. The teacher education candidates in our program will be encouraged to attend. The first dialogue of the fall semester will be held on September 2, 2015.

Integration of Diversity and Cultural Awareness: Multnomah University faculty members seek a campus environment of equity through ongoing dialogues that foster inclusion and respect, moving beyond tolerance to embrace and celebrate our differences. With this in mind, the Teacher Education Department along with other faculty from the School of Arts and Sciences integrate issues of diversity through university coursework that give opportunities for multiple perspectives from various backgrounds, cultures, ethnicities, gender, and socio-economic status. The Teacher Education faculty include objectives in every course syllabus related to cultural diversity with the aim of fostering a rich learning environment. More specifically, a 28 hour practica is connected to our Cultural Humility course (EDU441/506), a requirement for both our BA and MAT programs, where there is a direct link from theory to practice concerning issues related to diversity. Readings from a variety of authors with diverse perspectives that stimulate critical thinking and self-reflection are not limited to only one course, but are encouraged in all coursework. We encourage our candidates to challenge stereotypes and preconceptions they and others might have. The following Program Objectives are an example of our integration throughout our curriculum. Additionally, the Reference List added to the end of this document is an example of some of our diversity-related readings incorporated into our Teacher Education courses.

Specific Program Objectives Achieved Related to Diversity and Inclusion:

ED 1.1 Know how to assess, evaluate, and plan instruction based on the nature of the learner

ED 1.2 Know and apply major educational theories, including cognitive development, social learning,

cooperative learning, etc…

ED 1.3 Understand and plan learning that takes into account all aspects of human development…

ED 1.4 Analyze educational trends in light of research; use research to determine strategies

ED1.6 Understand and apply research principles to continue to broaden and deepen content knowledge.

ED 1.7 Know and apply pedagogical best practices with regard to planning and instruction, creating

classroom environment, and assessing learning.

ED 1.8 Understand and exhibit what it means to be a professional educator

ED 1.9 Know what it means to be a culturally competent educator

ED 1.10 Think Biblically relative to all aspects of teaching and learning; be able to articulate a worldview

which reflects a unity of truth

ED 2.1 Develop sensitivity to students with special needs

ED 2.2 Be committed to the success of all students

ED 2.3 Value the differences in culture and communities

ED 2.4 Embrace the worth of all students/people

ED 2.5 Appreciate the involvement of parents and other community members

ED 2.9 Embrace the role of teacher/learner relative to fulfilling the Great Commission

ED 3.1 Exhibit professionalism toward parents, students, colleagues, and others in the community

AFI #2: Standard 4: Data is not provided to show candidates provide equitable learning experiences with each student in the clinical experience. TSPC Team Rationale: “The unit did not provide evidence data was being collected to demonstrate candidates were providing equitable learning experience for each student during clinical experience."

Multnomah University’s Teacher Education faculty seek to empower our candidates to identify and analyze student differences as it relates to continuous learning improvement. As part of teaching our candidates to truly know their students, we require our candidates to report on Work Sample Student Learning Gains disaggregated by subgroups including gender, whether or not students were ELL's, and ethnicity. Also if students on IEP's were included as part of their work sample class, data for students on IEP's was disaggregated as well. This requirement began in the fall of 2013 and continued until the elimination of the work sample requirement spring of 2015. The following is a snapshot of data for 2014-15.

The first column in each chart shows the overall learning gains by class for each student teacher. The columns then break out the learning gains by subgroup. The columns labeled “1” and “2” indicate which work samples the data reflects.

BA 2014-15 Learning Gains Analysis Disaggregated
WHOLE CLASS / BOYS / GIRLS / ELLs / ETHNIC MIN (<5) / MISC OTHER
WS1 / WS2 / WS1 / WS2 / WS1 / WS2 / WS1 / WS2 / WS1 / WS2 / WS1 / WS2
A / 6% / 18% / A / 5% / 14% / A / 7% / 19% / A / 7% / 22% / A / n/a / n/a / A / 7% / n/a
B / 69% / 28% / B / 72% / 28% / B / 72% / 24% / B / n/a / 33% / B / 53% / 31% / B / n/a / n/a
C / 42% / 28% / C / 44% / 32% / C / 40% / 23% / C / 48% / 29% / C / 43% / 22% / C / n/a / n/a
D / 25% / 8% / D / 18% / 10% / D / 32% / 8% / D / n/a / n/a / D / 30% / 5% / D / n/a / n/a
Avg / 36% / 20% / Avg / 35% / 21% / Avg / 38% / 19% / Avg / 28% / 28% / Avg / 42% / 19% / Avg / 7% / n/a
MAT 2014-15 Learning Gains Analysis Disaggregated
WHOLE CLASS / BOYS / GIRLS / ELLs / ETHNIC MIN (<5) / MISC OTHER
WS1 / WS2 / WS1 / WS2 / WS1 / WS2 / WS1 / WS2 / WS1 / WS2 / WS1 / WS2
A / 73% / 21% / A / 72% / 16% / A / 75% / 16% / A / 47% / n/a / A / 74% / 23% / A / n/a / 19% / IEP
B / 68% / 45% / B / 61% / 45% / B / 53% / 45% / B / 19% / n/a / B / 40% / 35% / B / 88% / 46% / IEP
C / 45% / 32% / C / 47% / 35% / C / 42% / 30% / C / n/a / 42% / C / n/a / 33% / C / 43% / 37% / Hispanic
D / 61% / 66% / D / 65% / 67% / D / 58% / 64% / D / 66% / 66% / D / 54% / 66% / D / n/a / n/a
E / 52% / 48% / E / 52% / 43% / E / 53% / 55% / E / n/a / 39% / E / 44% / 44% / E / 60% / n/a / SCIP
F / 25% / 81% / F / 28% / 26% / F / 24% / 36% / F / 18% / 40% / F / 23% / 39% / F / n/a / n/a
Avg / 54% / 49% / Avg / 54% / 39% / Avg / 51% / 41% / Avg / 38% / 49% / Avg / 47% / 40% / Avg / 64% / 34%

Candidates are also evaluated by their university supervisors and classroom mentors by observing their ability to differentiate and provide equitable learning. This evaluation is done over a period of observations, video clips, one-on-one discussions, and observation summary reports. Furthermore, a Professional Disposition Evaluation on each student teacher is completed by each cooperating teacher, practica teacher and MU faculty. Each of the twenty dispositions is rated on a 1-4 scale. Of the dispositions evaluated, 20% are related to the candidate’s ability to provide an equitable learning environment. This score is then compiled over time and discussed with the student throughout their program.