Education program changes explained
Mary Petrides
Issue date: 9/24/09 Section: News
Hillsdale College this week released more details about its choice to pursue a partnership with Spring Arbor University instead of seeking national accreditation for its education program.
After the Michigan Department of Education issued a memo mandating that all teacher preparation institutions - including Hillsdale College's education program - be nationally accredited by 2013, Hillsdale elected not to pursue national accreditation.
Instead, the college will collaborate with Spring Arbor University's education program, possibly beginning next year.
"We fully intend to continue Hillsdale's long commitment to teacher education," stated a memo the Provost's office issued on Sept. 17.
Details of the collaboration are still being worked out, but Associate Professor of Teacher Education Jon Fennell said he hopes most of the details will be worked out by next year.
"Our objective is for it to be fully in place so that students who enter next year will have a path," Fennell said.
Director of Admissions Jeff Lantis said although education is one of the most popular academic departments for prospective students, recruiting will not be aversely affected.
"I am very optimistic and very comfortable with the arrangements that Dr. Fennell has made to address this potential concern," he said.
Fennell said he didn't know whether numbers in the education program would change.
"That's hard to predict," he said. "I think that some people who would have [joined the program] won't, but some that wouldn't have might."
At least for the time being, no courses or professors will be added or removed from the education department.
The college decided not to pursue national accreditation in part because the labor involved is too expensive for the school at this time.
"For a streamlined teacher education program, the work required to prepare the new reports is forbidding," the provost's memo states.
A teacher preparation institution pursuing national accreditation has two options: Teacher Education Accreditation Council or National Council for Accreditation of Teacher Education.
Assistant Professor of Education Daniel Coupland said though TEAC is less intrusive, the council has come closer to resembling NCATE's standards over the past few years.
"Regardless of which organization you go with, it is laborious and expensive," Coupland said.
Institutions pursuing national accreditation must first file a preliminary study on the education program and the college as a whole, including administrative structure and resource allocation.
The institution must then file a report with appendices, good for five years.
One appendix must show that the education program is as qualified as claimed; another appendix must show that the methods of measuring quality actually work.
The school must also file a report every year addressing accreditation standards.
A sample five-year report in Fennell's office was 50 pages long with even longer appendices.
"Pages are not the way to measure this," Fennell said. "The way to measure this is the amount of time it takes to do this. It never ends."
Some institutions hire a full-time staff or have an office of accreditation in order to collect and report necessary data. Smaller schools often cannot afford to do this - Hillsdale responded to the current economic crisis with a hiring freeze.
Kalamazoo College, with a student body of about 1375, offers some education classes, but students must finish the education and certification process elsewhere - usually Western Michigan University, Michigan State University or University of Michigan. Students can take education classes at Western while studying at Kalamazoo, and the Western classes go on their Kalamazoo transcript.
Kalamazoo has one part-time education professor who teaches education classes and coordinates the partnerships. About three or four students are taking the classes and expecting to finish edu-cation programs elsewhere, Lanny Potts, associate provost of academic affairs at Kalamazoo College, said.
He said the MDE decision has affected his college as well.
"We have asked the same question here," he said. "I think it's really a challenge for a traditional liberal arts college to meet all the requirements for an education program."
Despite differences in size and resources, all Michigan colleges must undergo the same process.
"There isn't a liberal arts college approach and a mega-college approach," Coupland said.
Potts said he thinks students should consider pursuing a good liberal arts degree then continue with an education program elsewhere.
Fennell suggested that in the future, a handful of small colleges might band together in a larger collaboration so only one college must be nationally accredited. He said education programs might become five-year programs, another difficulty for four-year schools like Hillsdale.
"I predict that more and more schools will find it harder and harder," Fennell said."It's a ques-tion each school must answer."
-Maria Schmitt contributed to this report.
After the Michigan Department of Education issued a memo mandating that all teacher preparation institutions - including Hillsdale College's education program - be nationally accredited by 2013, Hillsdale elected not to pursue national accreditation.
Instead, the college will collaborate with Spring Arbor University's education program, possibly beginning next year.
"We fully intend to continue Hillsdale's long commitment to teacher education," stated a memo the Provost's office issued on Sept. 17.
Details of the collaboration are still being worked out, but Associate Professor of Teacher Education Jon Fennell said he hopes most of the details will be worked out by next year.
"Our objective is for it to be fully in place so that students who enter next year will have a path," Fennell said.
Director of Admissions Jeff Lantis said although education is one of the most popular academic departments for prospective students, recruiting will not be aversely affected.
"I am very optimistic and very comfortable with the arrangements that Dr. Fennell has made to address this potential concern," he said.
Fennell said he didn't know whether numbers in the education program would change.
"That's hard to predict," he said. "I think that some people who would have [joined the program] won't, but some that wouldn't have might."
At least for the time being, no courses or professors will be added or removed from the education department.
The college decided not to pursue national accreditation in part because the labor involved is too expensive for the school at this time.
"For a streamlined teacher education program, the work required to prepare the new reports is forbidding," the provost's memo states.
A teacher preparation institution pursuing national accreditation has two options: Teacher Education Accreditation Council or National Council for Accreditation of Teacher Education.
Assistant Professor of Education Daniel Coupland said though TEAC is less intrusive, the council has come closer to resembling NCATE's standards over the past few years.
"Regardless of which organization you go with, it is laborious and expensive," Coupland said.
Institutions pursuing national accreditation must first file a preliminary study on the education program and the college as a whole, including administrative structure and resource allocation.
The institution must then file a report with appendices, good for five years.
One appendix must show that the education program is as qualified as claimed; another appendix must show that the methods of measuring quality actually work.
The school must also file a report every year addressing accreditation standards.
A sample five-year report in Fennell's office was 50 pages long with even longer appendices.
"Pages are not the way to measure this," Fennell said. "The way to measure this is the amount of time it takes to do this. It never ends."
Some institutions hire a full-time staff or have an office of accreditation in order to collect and report necessary data. Smaller schools often cannot afford to do this - Hillsdale responded to the current economic crisis with a hiring freeze.
Kalamazoo College, with a student body of about 1375, offers some education classes, but students must finish the education and certification process elsewhere - usually Western Michigan University, Michigan State University or University of Michigan. Students can take education classes at Western while studying at Kalamazoo, and the Western classes go on their Kalamazoo transcript.
Kalamazoo has one part-time education professor who teaches education classes and coordinates the partnerships. About three or four students are taking the classes and expecting to finish edu-cation programs elsewhere, Lanny Potts, associate provost of academic affairs at Kalamazoo College, said.
He said the MDE decision has affected his college as well.
"We have asked the same question here," he said. "I think it's really a challenge for a traditional liberal arts college to meet all the requirements for an education program."
Despite differences in size and resources, all Michigan colleges must undergo the same process.
"There isn't a liberal arts college approach and a mega-college approach," Coupland said.
Potts said he thinks students should consider pursuing a good liberal arts degree then continue with an education program elsewhere.
Fennell suggested that in the future, a handful of small colleges might band together in a larger collaboration so only one college must be nationally accredited. He said education programs might become five-year programs, another difficulty for four-year schools like Hillsdale.
"I predict that more and more schools will find it harder and harder," Fennell said."It's a ques-tion each school must answer."
-Maria Schmitt contributed to this report.
Viewing Comments 1 - 1 of 1
kevkak08
posted 9/28/09 @ 5:52 AM EST
Are you kidding me? We are partnering with Spring Arbor's education program? If that were a joke, it wouldn't be funny. Just what is the administration thinking partnering with Spring Arbor when there are actually GOOD education programs at schools like MSU, UM, and CMU? Oh wait, those are big bad public schools, we can't associate with them is that it?
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