Governing Board Meeting

February 28, 2013

Present: Charles Duke, Robin Groce, Randy Bledsoe, Donnie Johnson, David Burleson, Jeff Cox, David Kafitz, Marti Hemric, Margaret Gregor, Monica Shepherd

Approval of minutes: Dr. Charles DukeDr. Charles Duke, welcomed everyone. Motion made to approve minutes- Jeff Cox seconded by Robin Groce- Minutes approved

Election of GB Chair Dr. Charles Duke

Randy nominated Jeff Cox and everyone was in favor. Jeff is now our new Governing Board Chair

Library Resources Ms. Margaret Gregor

Margaret works with teachers, student teachers and administrators in the Public School Partnership. There are over 53,000 in the IMC that are related to teaching. The mission is to provide research materials. Margaret asks the board to encourage media specialists and teachers to make use of the resources. With new common core and essential standards, and the restraints on materials and resources, we can loan materials to the teachers and administrators to borrow. The idea factory is a wonderful free resource room- we are open 7:30-5:00 M-F if we have advanced notice we can open at night and even on weekends. We can provide parking passes.

We have many different types of models from which to choose. We have a copy of every textbook used in North Carolina because we are a North Carolina textbook repository. We also have global trunks- these include all type of learning items based on the country. These can be used with multicultural activities and can be checked out for up to 3 weeks. We are closely connected with Bolivia. Margaret can do workshops for teachers. We are very interested in having your teachers use the resource center. More information can be found at For questions about the IMC, please contact Margaret Gregor. Email: Phone: 828.262.8088

Beginning Teacher Support Dr. Monica Shepherd

Monica addressed the relationship between Public Schools and DPI. Educator Effectiveness is the new division in DPI. She works with a team of 8 across the state. She passed out a packet that included information about a first meeting of the recent BT Coordinator meeting. Policy ID # TCP-A-004 was also in the hand-out.

Monica is on hand for every peer review program. The language and rubric looks the same for the beginning teacher support.

Robin asked the question: “When a teacher comes back under due process, do we create the plan and the program of study?” The college can speak with the LEA when an action plan is formed and then the college will need to prescribe what coursework is needed to fill the deficiencies. Dr. Duke proposed that we are trying to guarantee our graduates. The grand plan is to cover the UNC teaching program. We wanted them to be able to access the nearest university system for assistance.

If a cooperating teacher is not willing to be a reference for a student teacher, then they should not be signing the evaluation as a passing one. We are serious about standing behind the certification of teaching capacity. Do the cooperating teachers understand that there is a semester of professional development if a student teacher cannot pass the certification? We do have a plan in effect to support the student teachers who have deficiencies. We are working across the board to improve our system and offer support for those who need it, but also have systems in place to prevent those who are not ready for going into the schools. Elementary Education by its own nature does not have a content field. We have doubled the early field experience for everyone and we have learned how to do a better job of intervening with students in early field experiences and then tie it back to classes so we can connect the two. We have also tried to make sure that the field experiences have been putting students in touch with diverse experiences. The second field experience is now focused on diversity where the classrooms actually have specific diversity and the students can then learn how to work directly with diversity in the classroom. The two biggest areas we are working with in secondary majors are English and Social Studies. Those students are not always as well prepared to deal with classroom management. They need more experience with pedagogy and classroom experience. The supervisors have identified those two service areas and there is a book that is called “Teach like a Champion”. These are used to close the gap in the classroom. We are awaiting feedback to our current approach on this.

Co teaching training, Jim Brooks, from Wilkes, is helping us with our cooperative teacher training. We believe that this work with the students and cooperating teachers will develop a more symbiotic and efficient relationship. Randy Bledsoe posed a question about how many students do we actually have graduating as teachers that are looking for teaching jobs in the public schools. The student population in NC is not decreasing and the state does have the responsibility to teach these students. While we have seen a decline in some areas, we try to promote the needed areas of Math & Science. We are hoping that the media changes the views of the public eye by promoting education and wonderful schools.

CEU’s Dr. Robin Groce

A couple of counties have requested our MLU- we had an example of our agreement. The handout explains early core, methods and internships. This is working well working with Human Resources and office of field experiences. We now have zone supervisors who are getting to know the counties and teachers and supervisors. One thing we ask is that you do not do the interviews. Once the students are placed and you find that they are not suitable we can move them. Not interviewing them protects the students and the counties. Cooperating teachers do receive a stipend of $100 for the fifteen weeks. They are going to receive also discounts with our bookstore and more. Many of you offer different CEU’s – we decided to give them a certificate and to leave the CEU’s to the counties discretion. We will be doing zone training and we are working on a way doing it via a video on CT training. The supervisors will be bringing this to the superintendents. Donnie Johnson asked about a question of placement. The college does the criminal background checks but if the county has issues with the background check then the county can run their own. We do try to clear the charges and send the letter along with the HR materials for the placement. If we do not feel that they can be successfully placed or we are concerned, we do not even place them or allow them into teacher education. An agreement was passed around. We need to include a line about the substitute policy with regard to student teachers. David Burleson asked if we would have a teacher education recruiter come and talk with the students at his schools.

Partnership UpdateDr. Linda McCalister

Linda just came back from Pakistan. We are connecting students and teachers working on common projects identifying our standards and comparing and contrasting. We are hoping to be able to take students to Pakistan. We are also working on a faculty resource site- we want to share resources across the university and into the counties. Linda is diligently working on the STEM site – Jeff told us that one of his teacher’s received a BourroughsWellcome Fund Award for Science- the teacher received a 10,000 stipend each year. Another 5000.00 is held in escrow for the next five years. The DPI extends their contract for the summer over the 5 year period and in addition they get 10,000 per year to use in the classroom and then another for Professional development. More information about the award can be found here : . On March 14th Avery county is having a safety summit.

Dean’s UpdateDr. Charles Duke

Alexander’s superintendentBrock Wombel has asked if Alexander schools come back in. David Burleson made a motion to include Alexander and Marti seconded. Unanimously voted in. This will be Dr. Duke’s final semester working with the Partnership as he retires as Dean after 18 years of service to the College of Education.

Meeting adjourned

Next Meeting : May 7, 2013- Dean’s conference room 417 COE building