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Education

Content Knowledge for Other Professional School Personnel

Candidates for other professional school roles know their fields and can explain principles and concepts delineated in professional, state, and institutional standards.

The other professional school personnel degree programs offered by Chadron State College are:

Master of Education in Education Administration--Elementary

Master of Education in Education Administration--Secondary

Master of Education--School Counseling

The assessment system is applicable to all school personnel programs, but assessments are more program specific than at the initial level, and much of the data collection and decision making are completed at the department level. As a result, data presented throughout the report is frequently program specific.

School personnel seeking an initial administrative certificate who do not hold a Nebraska teaching certificate and seeking certification in Nebraska are required to pass the PPST (if they do not have three years of previous teaching experience), as well as requirements in special education and human relations. Candidates in Education Administration programs are required to hold a valid teaching certificate or complete 18 to 24 semester hours of undergraduate credit in professional education courses as a prerequisite for admission to Graduate Study for the Master of Education degrees. School Counseling program candidates must complete the Master of Education degree requirements and must have at least two years of verified teaching experience. (Complete degree requirements, CSC General Bulletin, 2005-2007, p. 190-206).

As Nebraska does not require a content area exam for other school personnel programs leading to licensure, test data are not available. Content knowledge of Education Administration and School Counseling candidates is demonstrated through the NDE evaluation of programs, coursework assessments, field experiences, graduate portfolio, comprehensive oral examinations, exit GPA requirements, and follow-up studies.

Education Administration and School Counseling candidates are required to document adequate preparation in the proposed area of specialization as described in the candidate’s plan of study (Elementary, Secondary, School of Counseling, EDAD). Content knowledge is developed through the common courses comprised of 6 credit hours of research and writing (Introduction to Graduate Studies) and Educational Philosophy. School Counseling candidates complete 6 credit hours of research and writing (Introduction to Graduate Studies) and COUN 637 Advanced Developmental Psychology. School Counseling program candidates are interviewed at the time of admission to the programs. The EDAD Initial Review Committee, through questioning and evaluating the candidate’s experience and application, identify areas of strength and weakness.

Content knowledge for each program is developed through specific coursework required in each program and through selection of elective coursework with the approval of the candidate’s advisor and committee members. Content knowledge of candidates in Education Administration and School Counseling programs is specifically related to Chadron State College, Nebraska Department of Education, and national standards. Course syllabi validate that content knowledge is related to the conceptual framework and applicable standards and link GPA to program outcomes.

All Education Administration and School Counseling candidates are required to complete an advanced field experience activity. Field experiences for advanced candidates are defined as an internship or a practicum. These include demonstrations of content knowledge in authentic settings contained in field experience/practicum portfolios. The master’s level Education Administration practicum professor evaluates the evidence using a checklist (Table 1.8: Content Knowledge, Professional Knowledge and Skills Demonstrated in the Practicum Portfolio by Education Administration Candidates in Field Experience Activities) (Documents Center). Candidates are supervised and evaluated by practicing school professionals. Data provided in Table 1.9: Mean Ratings of Content Knowledge, Professional Knowledge and Skills Demonstrated by Education Administration Candidates in Field Experience Activities (Document Center) indicates that master’s level EDAD candidates are well-prepared in content knowledge and professional knowledge and skills. On observed items supervisors rated candidates at 4.55 for (5-point scale). Aggregated comments also indicate that candidates are meeting or exceeding the expectations of practicing school professionals during the candidate’s practicum experience (Documents Center). The data provided in Table 1.9: Mean Ratings of Content Knowledge, Professional Knowledge and Skills Demonstrated by Education Administration Candidates in Field Experience Activities also apply to Professional Knowledge and Skills for Education Administration Candidates (NCATE Standard 1.B).

School Counseling field experiences are developed and assessed by the standards from the Council for Accreditation of Counseling and Related Educational Programs (CACREP) and Rule 24 of the Nebraska State Education codes. The candidate completes the required 3 credit hours in practicum and 3 credit hours in internship according to Rule 24 from the Nebraska Department of Education. School Counseling candidates who wish to be endorsed at the elementary level complete one Internship (COUN 633) at the elementary level under the supervision of a fully endorsed elementary school counselor and the CSC Internship instructor. School Counseling candidates who wish to be endorsed at the secondary level complete a second Internship (COUN 633) under the supervision of a fully endorsed secondary school counselor and the CSC Internship instructor. Competencies practiced and evaluated in internship experiences are summarized in Table 1.10: Content Knowledge, Professional Knowledge and Skills Demonstrated by School Counseling Candidates in Field Experience Activities (Documents Center).

Education Administration and School Counseling (Tables/Table 1.13 SCOral exam.doc) candidates are required to demonstrate content knowledge through a formal comprehensive oral examination and presentation of a graduate portfolio. The portfolio contains major assignments from graduate courses with reflections on the candidate’s learning tied to the conceptual framework. At the time of the comprehensive oral exam, the committee reviews the portfolio. The committee judges the portfolio as well as the performance on the oral exam on a pass/fail basis. Candidates who do not pass the oral exam or present a sub-standard portfolio must complete a plan of remediation developed by the committee, before continuing toward degree completion.In addition to the oral exam and professional portfolio requirements. The comprehensive written examination focuses on questions directly related to the Interstate School Leaders Licensure Consortium (ISLLC) standards. A faculty panel evaluates the examination and uses a rating scale (1-10) to evaluate specific answers. Candidates are required to be re-examined on any question rated below 7.

Content knowledge of Education Administration and School Counseling programs is assessed by grade point averages of coursework taken as a part of their programs. Coursework in each program is aligned to Nebraska standards (Rule 24) that are based on appropriate national standards (e.g. ISLLC, ASCA). Course syllabi and program matrices show alignment between course content and standards, providing a link between GPA and content standards. Because almost all coursework taken at the advanced level has some component of content knowledge as well as professional knowledge and skills, the overall GPAs of program graduates provide evidence of content knowledge as well as professional knowledge and skills (NCATE Standards 1.A and 1.B). Table 1.11: Mean Exit GPA for Other Professional School Personnel Graduates shows candidate GPAs at the time of graduation for Education Administration and School Counseling programs from December 2001 through May 2005. Mean scores indicate that EDAD and School Counseling as groups exceed the exit GPA requirements.

Table 1.11: Mean Exit GPA for Other Professional School Personnel Graduates

Assessment of the quality of programs and graduates of Education Administration programs is conducted using follow-up studies. Graduates and employers of Education Administration programs are surveyed. Items that relate to content knowledge are listed and data summarized in Table 1.12: Mean Ratings of Content Knowledge & Professional Knowledge and Skills Demonstrated by Education Administration Graduates from Follow-up Studies (Documents Center). The data provided in Table 1.12 also apply to Professional Knowledge and Skills for Education Administration Graduates (NCATE Standard 1.B). Item clusters are based on ISLCC cluster components (Hackmann, Schmitt-Oliver, & Tracy, 2001)

Table 1.12a: Mean Ratings of Content Knowledge & Professional Knowledge and Skills Demonstrated by Education Administration Graduates from Follow-up Studies (Summary)

Scale 5-high; 1-low

Results indicate a high level of satisfaction of both graduates and employers of EDAD program completers for content knowledge and professional knowledge and skills. For EDAD program completers the overall means were 4.47 and 4.43, respectively for both graduates’ self-evaluation  Individual items ranged from 3.83 to 4.5 for graduates; while the employers’ ratings ranged from 3.25 to 4.5.

School Counseling graduates and the program are assessed through collecting data from the oral examination using a rubric based on CACREP (2001) standards. Results are described in Table 1.13: Content Knowledge & Professional Knowledge and Skills Demonstrated by School Counseling Candidates by Oral Examination (Documents Center). The data provided in Table 1.13 also apply to Professional Knowledge and Skills for School Counseling graduates (NCATE Standard 1.B).

In the area(s) of Content Knowledge, Professional Knowledge, and Skills Demonstrated by School Counseling Graduates, candidates demonstrated their best knowledge of the American Counseling Association Code of Ethics in the years 2005, 2003, and 2002. In 2004, student scores were varied and indicated that this concept was less well taught. The concepts of Human Growth and Development (Understanding major lifespan developmental issues and Understanding individual and familial developmental stages) were assessed to a greater degree in 2002, and assessed far less often in 2003, 2004, and 2005. Changes in oral examination procedures were made based on this finding. The Content Knowledge area of Career Development appeared to be assessed with some students, but not assessed with others. Students now discuss their career development theory of choice during the orals examination. Additionally, faculty focused more of their orals questioning in the areas of Appraisal and Research and Program Evaluation. The increased frequency with which students are able to successfully discuss appraisal concepts such as reliability and validity is evident in the scores for 2004 and 2005.

Candidates for other professional school roles know their fields and can explain principles and concepts delineated in professional, state, and institutional standards.