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Education

Personnel

Personnel resources are adequate to enhance the delivery of high quality academic programs at Chadron State College. The number of full-time faculty in the unit directly supporting educator and other related service personnel preparation is 23.

Consistent with the unit’s conceptual framework and guidelines for promotion and tenure, unit workload policies and practices encourage faculty engagement in teaching, scholarship, service, and collaboration with P-12 schools. The standard semester workload for tenured and tenure-track faculty is comprised of 15 workload credit hours, consisting of 12 hours of instructional load and three (3) hours of service. Workload policies are established through the negotiated agreements between the Nebraska State College Board of Trustees and the State College Education Association. These agreements, described in the State College Education Association Negotiated Agreement 2005/2007, Article V: Program & Working Conditions, 2005-07 SCEA Negotiated Agreement, specifies the Faculty Load in Section 5.2, page 3, as follows:

"…a faculty member shall be assigned no more than thirty (30) credit hour adjusted workload, of which no more than twelve (12) credit hours plus or minus one (1) credit hour each semester will be instructional credit hours…instructional loads with fewer than twenty-three (23) credit hours will be assigned additional duties…reasonable workload adjustments may be made…to take into account…student teaching supervision…"

When determining faculty "instructional load" hours, there is a differentiation between undergraduate/initial and graduate/advanced course hours. Faculty with all of their courses being taught at the advanced level are given a maximum semester instructional load weight of nine (9) credit hours per semester, resulting in a total 18 instructional credit hours for an academic year. Faculty with all of their courses being taught at the initial level are given a maximum semester instructional load weight of twelve (12) credit hours per semester, resulting in a total of 24 instructional credit hours for an academic year. Faculty who teach courses at both the initial and advanced levels are given a maximum academic year load weight of twenty-one (21) credit hours - 9 credit hours for one semester, twelve (12) credit hours for the second semester. A minimum student enrollment of 12 candidates is expected in order for initial level courses to "make", while advanced level courses need a enrollment of 9 students to "make". A copy of the SCEA Negotiated Agreement is provided in the Documents Center.

Efforts of the faculty to collaborate closely with P-12 colleagues and partners are recognized in workload practices and in the Service portion of their Professional Activity Record (PAR). The PAR is part of the annual faculty evaluation procedure. The workloads of faculty actively engaged in partnership activities, field-experience supervision, and collaborative activities are adjusted to accommodate the time-intensive nature of these important initiatives. Program directors immediately involved in partnership activities are typically awarded three (3) hour release each semester. College Teacher Intern Supervisors are awarded one (1) credit hour of instructional load for every six supervision visits made to Teacher Intern School sites.

Table 6.6 identifies the Unit's "Special Methods Faculty" members and the number of candidates (within their respective content endorsement areas) completing their Teacher Internship experience, whom they supervised from 2002 to fall 2005. Table 6.7 identifies Education Department "Teaching and Committee Assignments.

During the 2004-05 and 2005-06 academic years, the Unit has been assigned two graduate assistants who are housed in Hildreth Hall, and provide approximately 20 clock hours of work assistance per week to the unit. One graduate assistant assignment is to work specifically with the Director of Field Experiences in assisting with the coordination and logging of candidate Observation and Participation (field experience) hours. An additional graduate assistant is assigned to work with NCATE Coordinators to assist in the collection, analysis and aggregations of unit assessment data.

Adequate levels of support personnel are provided to the Unit. One full-time (40 clock hours per week) Office Assistant is housed in Hildreth Hall, whose assignment and function is to assist and support the Director of Field Experiences and the Department Chairperson.