Self-Study 2005

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Addendum to Self-Study (August 2006)

          An initial draft of this self-study was completed during the summer of 2005 by a task force convened by Dean Sandra Damico and given the charge of assessing the College’s progress in attaining the goals outlined in its 2000-2005 Strategic Plan. The task force was comprised of faculty from all four departments in the College: Dennis R. Maki (Chair; Counseling, Rehabilitation, and Student Development), Rebecca Anthony (Educational Placement Office), Dan Clay (Psychological and Quantitative Foundations), Anne DiPardo (Teaching and Learning), and Marcus Haack (Educational Policy and Leadership Studies). Assisted by staff member Jennifer Jones of the College’s Center for Evaluation and Assessment and Center for Advanced Studies in Measurement and Assessment, the task force met weekly throughout the summer, with each member taking primary responsibility for researching the College’s progress toward a specific goal as articulated in the Strategic Plan. The task force submitted a preliminary draft to Dean Sandra Damico in early September, 2005.

           We begin with a brief overview of the College, detailing the mission and structure of its academic departments, centers, and administrative offices. We then present an extended discussion of our 2000-5 strategic goals and progress in meeting them, drawing on a range of data gathered from faculty, staff, and administrators, as well as from Web sites and past reviews. We conclude with consideration of some key challenges and opportunities confronting the College and of the complexities of pursuing our multiple missions—here at the University of Iowa, within our larger academic communities, and among the various external constituencies that our programs, faculty, and students serve.

          Founded in 1872, the University of Iowa College of Education is highly regarded nationally and internationally for its teaching, research, and innovative educational training. U.S. News and World Report has consistently ranked the College among the top graduate schools in the nation; in the 2005 edition of America’s Best Graduate Schools, for instance, the College was ranked 11th among all colleges of education in the country (6th among public schools). Several programs/specialties within the College also received high rankings, including Rehabilitation Counseling (ranked 3rd), Counseling/Personnel Services (13th), Curriculum and Instruction (13th), Secondary Education (15th), Elementary Education (15th), Educational Psychology (16th), and Higher Education Administration (17th).

          The administrative team of the College consists of Dean Sandra Damico, two Associate Deans (one for Teacher Education and Student Services, a second for Academic Affairs) and the four Departmental Executive Officers (DEOs). The Dean meets bi-monthly with an Administrative Council consisting of College administrators and center directors, and also confers with the College’s Faculty Advisory Committee, comprised of elected faculty representatives from all departments. A standing Diversity Committee that includes faculty, staff, and students fosters a number of efforts to enhance sensitivity to diversity issues in the College and supports recruitment and retention efforts.

          The College is divided into four departments: (1) Counseling, Rehabilitation, and Student Development (CRSD), (2) Teaching and Learning (T & L), (3) Educational Policy and Leadership Studies (EPLS), and (4) Psychological and Quantitative Foundations (P & Q). Over the 2004-5 academic year, approximately 171 students received graduate degrees in the College (Ed.S., M.A., or Ph.D.), while approximately 348 completed one or more teacher-licensure programs. The College currently offers 42 degree programs (M.A., M.S., M.A.T., Ed.S., Ph.D.), as well as certification and licensure-preparation opportunities for undergraduate and graduate students. Our undergraduate programs include a major in elementary education as well as licensure-preparation in a secondary-school discipline, while our graduate-level programs prepare students for careers as K-12 teachers, community college/college/university professors, counselors, testing specialists, administrators, psychologists, and in other education-related fields. At the conclusion of FY 05, the College had 93 tenured, tenure-track, and clinical faculty members and three permanent lecturers.

In addition to its four academic departments, the College is also home to several research

and development centers:

• The Iowa Testing Programs (ITP) has long been regarded as an international leader in the field of educational testing and measurement. The Iowa Tests of Basic Skills and the Iowa Tests of Educational Development, both developed by ITP, are widely used throughout the United States and Canada. Iowa City has become the site of a thriving testing industry thanks to the contributions, research, and expertise of ITP personnel and the College.

• The Center for Advanced Studies in Measurement and Assessment (CASMA) pursues interdisciplinary and international research-based initiatives, leading to advancements in the methods and practice of educational measurement and assessment. As one of Iowa's interdisciplinary testing centers, CASMA performs, promotes, fosters, and disseminates high-quality research in measurement and assessment. CASMA’s primary focus is to develop new measurement procedures and psychometric methodologies that are responsive to contemporary needs and initiatives in testing; and to advance the technology of how testing and assessment programs are created, delivered, evaluated, and validated.

• The Center for Evaluation and Assessment (CEA) conducts a wide variety of program evaluations in collaboration with faculty across the University of Iowa campus and with school systems, colleges, and universities throughout Iowa and the United States. The mission of the CEA is to (1) improve the quality of evaluation theory and practice, (2) provide high-quality skills development and training activities for graduate students, (3) contribute to research on program evaluation and outcomes assessment, and (4) provide high-quality services to clients in need of program evaluations, evaluation consultation or technical assistance, and outcomes-assessment consultation. Project evaluations conducted by the CEA range from higher-education minority recruitment-and-retention programs, to science, history, engineering, technology, and health-care training and curriculum projects.

• The College is also home to the Connie Belin and Jacqueline N. Blank International Center for Gifted Education and Talent Development (Belin-Blank Center). Founded in 1988, it is the most comprehensive center in the United States dedicated to research, training, and service in gifted education. The Center trains teachers to work with gifted students in their classrooms or to become Advanced-Placement teachers. Summer workshops provide an enriched curriculum for the state's gifted students. Recently, the Belin-Blank Center added a focus on international education for the gifted, and now offers training workshops for foreign educators and scholars.

• The Center for Research on Undergraduate Education (CRUE) is dedicated to the study of undergraduate education in America, from how academic and social experiences affect students to the methods schools use to improve students' chances for success in the classroom and beyond graduation. CRUE brings a methodologically balanced approach to the study of undergraduate education.

          In addition, the College is currently in the process of establishing two new centers—an Institute for Ethics in Disability Policy and Rehabilitation Practices and an Iowa School Counseling Research Center.

Students and faculty in the College also draw upon the support provided by several on-site service centers:

• The Curriculum Resources Laboratory makes the most current instructional materials available for evaluation and use, including over 30,000 books for children and young adults; activity kits, videos, games, audio cassettes, and pictures; CD-ROMs; K-12 textbooks; curriculum guides from school districts and State Departments of Education; activity and idea books for teachers; bibliographies; and reference books.

• The Education Technology Center (ETC) provides access to a variety of services for students, faculty, and staff; resources include an open computer lab, three computer classrooms, an Iowa Communications Network (ICN) classroom, wireless laptop technology within Lindquist Center, Assistive Technology software and hardware for students with disabilities, AV equipment for checkout, digital video-editing suites, and an ePortfolio™ Support Center.

• Our Educational Placement Office (EPO) serves University of Iowa students and alumni seeking teaching and related positions at all levels, from K-12 to college and university, and maintains follow-up records concerning graduates’ employment histories, perceptions of their educational experiences at Iowa, and levels of job satisfaction.

• A Grant and Research Services Center (GRSC) provides support for faculty, staff, and students by identifying funding sources and providing support services for the development, implementation, and utilization of research, training, and service projects in the College.

• The Iowa Center for Assistive Technology Education and Research (ICATER) provides services for persons with disabilities, technical assistance to the community, as well as educational and research opportunities for faculty and students.

• Finally, the Office of Teacher Education and Student Services provides assistance in all matters pertaining to teacher licensure, including admissions, field placements, and state requirements.

         While the College’s most widely known efforts are in teacher education, we are a varied and complex entity in which faculty, staff, and students pursue a number of diverse but ultimately complementary aspirations. This report reflects this institutional complexity, presenting evidence of the College’s robust productivity and progress over the past five years and exploring the many issues that will shape our future.

          Drafted in response to our 1998 College review as well as our own consensus concerning needed directions, the 2000-5 Strategic Plan of the College consisted of five primary goals:

1) An undergraduate experience that enables students to fulfill their intellectual, social, and career objectives;

2) Premier graduate and professional programs in a significant number of areas;

3) Distinguished research, scholarship, and artistic creation;

4) Interdisciplinary interaction as a core focus in teaching, research, and service;

5) A highly productive work and learning organization that supports the mission and values of the College of Education.

          We take up each of these in turn, drawing on evidence gathered from faculty, staff, administrators, Web sites, and past reviews.

          Although Goal 1 of our Strategic Plan primarily referenced teacher education—and that will be our main focus here, as well—no treatment of our undergraduate education efforts would be complete without mention of two additional programs in the College. Each semester we offer large introductory statistics courses taught by faculty in our renowned Statistics and Measurement program. A general-education course (7P:25/22S:25, Elementary Statistics and Inference) that our faculty teach (along with colleagues from mathematical statistics) enrolls approximately 300-400 students each semester; and faculty in our College serve as the sole instructors of an advanced undergraduate course (7P:143/22S:102, Statistical Methods) that enrolls approximately 250 students from across campus each semester, approximately 80% of whom are undergraduates. We also offer an undergraduate minor in Human Relations; approximately 60 students have completed this program over the past few years, enrolling primarily in courses taught by CRSD faculty.

          Our teacher-preparation programs continue to comprise the College’s most visible endeavor in undergraduate education. Although we have taken steps to limit the size of these programs, they continue to represent the College’s largest clinical training effort, with a total enrollment of students seeking teaching licensure along with baccalaureate degrees currently standing at nearly 800 (down from a high of close to 900 in the year 2000). We currently offer eight major licensure areas—including an undergraduate major in Elementary Education, as well as secondary programs that supplement undergraduate majors in the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences (e.g., in Art, Mathematics, Music, Science, English, Foreign Language, and Social Science, with the latter four programs also offering MA programs leading to licensure; since our last review, we have closed our Speech Communication/Theater secondary teaching option, rendered Journalism a teaching minor only, and closed admission to our Early Childhood specialization program). We also offer a number of teaching minors (known as licensure “endorsements”) across a range of specializations (e.g., coaching, English as a second language, journalism, reading, physical science, general science, talented and gifted, hearing impaired, and special education), as well as a host of opportunities for elementary-education students to pursue curricular specializations. Responsibility for the teacher-education mission of the College rests with the Department of Teaching and Learning (formerly the Division of Curriculum and Instruction), with other departments (Educational Policy and Leadership Studies, Psychological and Quantitative Foundations) that also offer required TEP courses, and with the Office of Teacher Education and Student Services. The DEO of T & L works in close collaboration with teacher-education program coordinators as well as with the College’s Associate Dean for Teacher Education in overseeing these efforts. Established in 2001, an advisory Teacher Education Committee brings together key players across our teacher-education programs to set policy, provide guidance on issues, and assist in preparing for our periodic Department of Education reviews.

         Our last such review took place in 2004, resulting in re-approval of our teacher-education programs. The Institutional Report that we submitted to the DOE in preparation for that process emphasized the challenge confronting faculty endeavoring to sustain pedagogic as well as scholarly excellence amidst the added clinical demands that our externally accountable field-based programs entail. Our teacher-education cohorts remain larger than those on many comparable Research I campuses, and the challenge of meeting the needs of our undergraduates while also maintaining strong T & L graduate programs is formidable.

         These demands are further intensified by the fact that over the past five years, a number of T & L faculty members have retired, entered phased-retirement, or accepted positions elsewhere, resulting in a net loss of 17 individuals (11 tenured, 4 phased, 1 clinical and 1 lecturer). Although our teacher-education programs have made major strides forward over the past five years, we also find ourselves at a time of transition, as we strategically limit our student enrollments while also redoubling our efforts to promote principled classroom practice—that is, conceptually rigorous approaches to instruction guided by insights from published research as well as teachers’ own theoretically grounded habits of reflection and systematic observation. As teacher educators at Iowa’s only Research I institution, we have strengthened our commitment to infusing our professional preparation programs with scholarly energy, preparing teacher-leaders across a number of licensure areas as we continue to seek further integration of our instructional and scholarly responsibilities.

         In the account that follows, we turn primarily to our teacher-education efforts, focusing on four themes with regards to undergraduate education identified in our 2000-5 Strategic Plan:

• Fostering a more personalized, welcoming environment for new students;
• Utilizing our resources to enhance teaching and learning;
• Enriching the undergraduate experience through promotion of diversity;
• Promoting planning for life after graduation.

 Theme 1: Foster a more personalized, welcoming environment for new students.

           Since our last review, our College has grown more selective in its admissions criteria, resulting in what is arguably the strongest TEP student cohort in the College’s history. The strength of our student cohorts are further ensured by our decision to establish minimum cut-off scores on the ETS Praxis I admissions examination, to raise the minimum GPA for admission, and to require documentation of 10 school-based volunteer hours as part of each application file. We have endeavored to enrich the personal attention we provide to the select students we admit, and we have incorporated technology and digital communication into virtually every aspect of our programs.

          We have enhanced our system of undergraduate advising, adding staff to our Elementary Advising Center and establishing a centralized Secondary Advising Center as well. In addition, we have instituted a new one-semester-hour course (“Orientation to Teacher Education,” 7E: 90/7S:190) that provides a comprehensive guide to the process of moving through our programs and seeking state licensure. Students may also peruse extensive online information regarding admission, program requirements, and up-to-date licensure requirements, or access our extensive handbooks for elementary and secondary student teachers.

          Since instituting a new ePortfolio™ system to document students’ demonstrated proficiencies as they progress through our programs (see Theme 2, below), we have also developed support systems to ensure that all are able to use these tools to optimal advantage. Students are now required to take a two-semester-hour technology course (“Technology in the Classroom,” 7E/7S: 102) during their initial semester of coursework; here they establish ePortfolios, learn digital design principles, and acquire proficiency in uploading documents and multimedia materials. Throughout their time in the program, students have access to individual assistance through our ePortfolio™ Support Center, centrally located adjacent to our first-floor Education Technology Center.

          Because the overall number of teacher-education students has been reduced in recent years while sections of many of our key courses have remained relatively static, the number of students enrolled per sections has been somewhat reduced. These smaller courses—most range from 22-30—have provided opportunities for more individual attention and, in several instances, for field-based opportunities to apply new knowledge and insights in tutoring experiences. We are now monitoring our students more closely throughout their time in our programs, both in terms of their academic progress and the degree to which they are acting as professionals; faculty discuss issues with particular students as they come up, and document any persistent concerns on a “red flag” form developed in consultation with University counsel. An external Department of Education review team gave us high marks for these various efforts, noting that “Students reported a high level of satisfaction with the quantity and quality of faculty attention and advising,” and observing that this is “impressive given the size and scope of this institution.”

Even as our overall student numbers have gone down, participation in the undergraduate Honors Opportunity Program (HOP) through the Belin-Blank Center is up, with a record enrollment of 18 in the spring 2005 honors seminar. Designed to attract students of high ability to teaching and to provide mentoring relationships with university researchers, the HOP program engages future teachers in scholarly activity and leads to an undergraduate degree with honors. HOP education students participate in honors research seminars, work closely with faculty sponsors, and design and carry out scholarly research projects.

          The recent reduction in student numbers has also allowed for more personalized attention in the process of securing and overseeing students’ field placements, particularly in the critical student-teaching semester. We have convened program committees to review requests for off-site student-teaching placements, taking care to verify that any students who may need supplemental support and supervision remain within commuting distance. Following the conclusion of student teaching, we now bring our students back to Lindquist Center for a week of reflection, conversation, and closure, and to put the finishing touches on their ePortfolios.

          To ensure the close coordination of these various efforts, our new Teacher Education Committee includes members from virtually every office in the College that serves our TEP students. Additionally, the College has initiated annual meetings with advisors in the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences to share information and to discuss any issues arising in our respective programs.

Theme 2: Utilize our resources to enhance teaching and learning.

           Our teacher education programs have undergone a number of significant changes since our last review, constituting a decisive movement toward a more conceptually grounded, carefully considered, and coordinated approach to preparing tomorrow’s teachers. A commitment to exploring the theoretic, philosophic, and empirical foundations of effective classroom practice remains the hallmark of our programs, as we both introduce our students to the big conversations in their fields of specialization and invite them to participate in the inquiry process through their own research and observations in classrooms and schools.

           Since our last review, we have adopted a proficiency-based system of assessment, guided by a set of standards developed by the Interstate New Teacher Assessment and Support Consortium (INTASC). Faculty worked in program groups to identify those standards matching the content of their various courses, and each identified particular assignments that students would upload to their ePortfolios to provide evidence of their proficiencies, knowledge, and accomplishments. Beyond serving to demonstrate the pre-existing breadth and depth of our teacher-education efforts, these discussions also helped us see patterns of overlap as well as gaps across our respective courses and to enhance our view of the overall scope of students’ studies in our programs. As a result of adopting these standards and implementing the ePortfolio™ model, we believe that we are not only doing a better job of documenting what our students have learned, but also of monitoring the larger sweep of their growth over time and ensuring that the whole of what they take away is larger than the sum of its many parts.

           The advent of the ePortfolio™ has also helped generate something of a technological renaissance in our College. Our ETC Director has ensured that teacher-education students enjoy abundant support as they learn to negotiate the ePortfolio™ system and master the kinds of technological understandings and skills that will serve them well in their own classrooms. Our faculty are strong role models in the effective use of classroom technology, developing course Web sites in unprecedented numbers and providing abundant opportunities for students to develop multi-media digital artifacts to document their inquiry and learning.

           The closer coordination of our teacher-education efforts—a consequence of our adoption of the INTASC standards, the introduction of the ePortfolio™ model, and the establishment of a Teacher Education Committee—has also resulted in more effective troubleshooting and proactive enhancements. The past five years have seen marked improvements, for instance, to the various field placements our students experience. We have hired several full-time clinical faculty, who secure and coordinate practicum and student teaching placements, and who recruit, train, and oversee the supervisors who mentor our students in the field. (One of these new colleagues oversees an intensive pre-student-teaching field experience now required of all elementary education majors, an ambitious initiative that has been progressively refined over the past several years through input from a faculty advisory committee as well as from the veteran classroom teachers who serve as field supervisors.) We have developed coordinated strategies for supporting, evaluating, and documenting the work of the part-time instructors and graduate assistants who teach a number of our courses, verifying that each is observed by a full-time faculty member on a regular basis, maintains up-to-date files of student evaluations, and records his/her reflections regularly in self-assessment essays.

          Given our ongoing need to maintain strong working relationships with the most expert classroom teachers we can find—public-school colleagues who serve as student-teaching and practicum mentors, and who teach part-time in our programs—we have sought ways to better reward their efforts and to draw on their expertise in improving what we do. In the fall of 2003, we increased the stipend for teachers who host a full-time, full-semester student teacher to the equivalent of one semester hour of graduate tuition. Additionally, in collaboration with the Cedar Rapids Community School District, the College was awarded a Carver grant to assist in training beginning teachers in using the ePortfolio™ system to document their progress toward fulfilling the state’s new-teacher standards.

           Although we have made major strides in enhancing our teacher-education programs, in light of recent faculty departures, we currently face equally formidable challenges. Several of our programs have sustained multiple losses in recent years, and if these faculty are not replaced in the near future, these programs—in Curriculum and Supervision, English Education, Mathematics Education, Science Education, and Special Education—will remain in peril. Smaller, research-infused teacher-education programs are clearly our future—but such programs will stand as vibrant exemplars only given faculty support adequate to impart to our teacher-education efforts the scholarly spirit appropriate to a flagship research institution.

Theme 3: Enrich the undergraduate experience through promotion of diversity.

          The second of our new teacher-education program standards (see “Diverse Learners,” Standard B) has served to reinforce our already strong commitment to enhancing attention to the needs of diverse students across our courses and programs. Students now demonstrate their understandings of diversity and their commitment to serving diverse learners effectively through multiple artifacts uploaded to their ePortfolios across a number of different courses. In light of Iowa’s growing linguistic and cultural diversity (and longstanding socioeconomic diversity), our students enjoy an expanding array of opportunities to complete fieldwork in diverse settings locally. Pre-service teachers may also request student teaching placements at several special sites—in California, Texas, Nevada, and Colorado; and here in the Midwest, in Des Moines, Waterloo, and Chicago—where they would work with students from a range of cultural and linguistic backgrounds. Additionally, students in many of our teacher-education programs may request overseas student-teaching placements; around a dozen students take advantage of this option each year in about as many countries (in responding to a formal final evaluation, these students have unanimously indicated that their international placements were an exceptionally rewarding part of their overall educational experience). Regardless of where they student teach, all are expected to plan conceptually rigorous lesson plans that demonstrate sensitivity to the needs of diverse learners, and to work effectively with students from a range of backgrounds in their classroom interactions.

           The many outreach efforts in which our teacher-education faculty are involved provide further opportunities for our students to experience diverse settings and enhance their understandings of diverse learners. For instance, Art Education students serve as volunteer teachers in a school for at-risk youth and in community agencies serving homeless families; English Education students provide one-on-one tutoring through the Broadway Neighborhood Center and a longstanding Adult Literacy Project in West Liberty; elementary-education students tutor low-income children in a new program established as part of a partnership with the Iowa City Community School District; Social Studies Education, with extensive grant funding, has for years provided opportunities for civic preparation and scholarship through faculty work with emerging democracies in the former Soviet Union; and Special Education continues to focus on the interaction between disability, SES, and ethnicity.

           Recruiting more diverse faculty and students to our teacher-education programs remains an area of continuing challenge, this despite a number of efforts we have continued or initiated since our last review, and our relative success when compared to our campus peers. While the percentage of minority faculty has grown slightly over the past five years, we remain firmly committed to our efforts to attract diverse scholars to our College through our minority post-doctoral fellowship program, and through our ongoing involvement in the Holmes Scholars Program, a national effort to recognize and support young minority scholars in education. Our College Diversity Committee is also exploring strategies for attracting more minority candidates to our teacher-education programs as well as sponsoring an array of events each semester that foster greater sensitivity to issues of diversity among our currently enrolled students. The committee includes an undergraduate student representative, and facilitates a number of events of interest to undergraduates, including opportunities to learn from invited speakers from around the country and to talk informally with the Dean concerning issues related to diversity in the College. Additionally, we are currently considering strategies for ensuring that every teacher-education student has at least one field experience in a diverse setting and for documenting what they have learned as a result.

           In their final report, the Department of Education reviewers remarked that “Diversity is a clear priority” within our teacher-education programs, a characterization that continues to hold true as we look to our future. In the 2005-6 academic year, for instance, the College Diversity Committee will partner with College of Liberal Arts and Sciences faculty to visit school sites in southeastern Iowa (including Waterloo, the Settlement Schools at Tama, Cedar Rapids, West Liberty, Davenport, and Columbus Junction) to discuss our teacher-education programs with prospective students and distribute a new College DVD. Our plans include inviting interested students to come to campus to spend the day to attend classes and meet with current TEP students from underrepresented groups.

Theme 4: Promote planning for life after graduation.

         Our Educational Placement Office (EPO) provides support to teacher-education students throughout their studies and well into their professional careers. EPO staff meet with new students in our orientation classes to provide advice on building the sort of record that will ultimately make a positive impression on prospective employers. As our students near the completion of their programs and prepare to seek employment as K-12 educators, the EPO helps them prepare a special version of their ePortfolios geared to the job-search process, presenting examples of their best work to demonstrate their standards-based competencies. Individual career counseling and interview coaching continue to be available in person or over e-mail on an as-needed basis, and the EPO also hosts job fairs that offer opportunities for on-site interviews with school-district personnel. In addition to providing such materials as model resumes and ePortfolios for students’ perusal, the EPO also hosts a Web site with up-to-date job listings that receives over 1 million hits annually. Not surprisingly, the large majority of our students—about 80% in recent years—are successful in their search for K-12 teaching positions. Graduates of our programs who wish to seek employment at a new school later in their careers also enjoy ongoing access to EPO services.

          In summary, we can boast of many successes in our teacher-education efforts over the past five years, including externally acknowledged, often dramatic strides forward in terms of coordination, focus, technology, and outreach. While we are in many respects poised to build on these accomplishments over the coming five years, our continuing vitality is contingent on our ability to hire sufficient faculty to fulfill our mission as scholars and teacher educators. Although our last Department of Education review occasioned strong praise for our teacher-education efforts, the evaluation team did provide a number of recommendations for further development, noting concern with the size and quality of our classroom facilities, and asking that we develop strategies for documenting our students’ interactions with diverse students in their field placements. If we are to continue to garner praise from external evaluators, we will need both the human and material resources that will allow us to act on such recommendations, to maintain our current strengths, and to develop new initiatives in accord with changing times.

          All post-baccalaureate programs in our College qualify as graduate and professional programs, and each of our four departments offers such programs. It is the continuing goal of the College to cultivate and enhance its graduate and professional programs by enhancing the quality and diversity of its faculty, staff and students; to advance the research and scholarly enterprise; and to develop research-based curricula and teaching practices. Toward that end, the College has addressed five themes with regards to graduate and professional programs:

• Improving the quality and diversity of faculty, staff, and students in graduate and professional programs in a significant number of areas;
• Improving graduate and professional education programs;
• Employing best practices and emerging technologies to prepare graduate students to enter the global marketplace;
• Promoting pre- and post-graduation relationships with students through participation in career development services, alumni activities, foundation activities, advisory councils, and cultural activities;
• Increasing the visibility and reputation of College of Education graduate and professional programs.

Theme 1: Improve the quality and diversity of faculty, staff, and students in graduate and professional programs in a significant number of areas.

         Recruiting and retaining highly qualified and diverse faculty, staff, and students requires a support system that is competitive with peer institutions, including financial and professional incentives to attract, promote, and recognize excellence.

Faculty

         Premier programs are built by faculty who design and deliver curricula based on research and knowledge of effective practices. That we have a quality faculty is evidenced by recognitions from the College, University, and professional organizations, as well as the success of our graduates. Since 2000, awards have been given to College faculty in recognition of our teaching, research, and service. The College is consistently well represented at the President’s Convocation, which honors leadership and recognition by one’s peers.

         Over the past five years, the number of clinical-track professors in the College has increased from one to seven. While this increase in clinical appointments has meant that the actual number of tenure-track faculty has dropped from 102 to 83, it has also allowed tenure-track faculty to devote further energies to their scholarship (by, for example, the reassignment of student supervision, teaching, service, and outreach responsibilities). The number of female faculty (tenured, tenure-track, clinical, and permanent lecturers) has remained constant, while the male faculty decreased. In fact, in 2005, females accounted for 45% of the College’s faculty (compared to 27.7% campus wide).

          Ethnic minority representation on the College faculty has increased only slightly since 2000. We have, however, been successful at retaining and promoting our minority faculty, losing only two since 2000 (one to another institution and another to death). The College’s Minority Post-Doctoral Research Scholar Program, which provides support for emerging scholars for two years as they develop their research agendas and participate in the life of the College, is a prime faculty-recruitment effort (two of the College’s current tenure-track minority faculty were initially drawn to Iowa through this program). A survey conducted in conjunction with the 2004 decanal review indicated that most members of the College believed that Dean Damico had provided strong leadership and resources in support of the recruitment and retention of a diverse faculty.

           In addition to recruitment, retention of faculty is necessary to maintaining and improving our graduate programs. A number of University-wide as well as College-sponsored programs are available to faculty to support their professional development and scholarship. A few examples of these programs include the following:

• The Center for Teaching, which assists faculty of all ranks in enhancing their teaching effectiveness.
• The Old Gold Summer Fellowship, an entitlement for all new faculty in their first summer to support their research productivity, with a competitive second-year opportunity.
• Internal funding for faculty research, including a College fund (up to $500 annually toward research costs for individual faculty); and the Iowa Measurement Research Foundation, which provides competitive funding opportunities.

            The College has also initiated two programs to assist faculty in preparing for promotion. Until a few years ago, junior faculty (unlike their counterparts in other colleges on campus) were not eligible for pre-tenure developmental leaves. Assistant professors who have had successful third-year reviews are now awarded a semester-long release from teaching in order to focus on their research. A second program was announced in 2004—the Dean’s Scholars Program for associate professors, which provides research money to support mid-career scholars’ progress toward promotion to full professor. The recent decanal-review survey also indicated agreement that Dean Damico had provided leadership and resources in support of an effective faculty mentoring program to facilitate career development of junior faculty. A majority of faculty also reported that they believed the dean had made fair and reasonable promotion and tenure decisions.

        To be competitive with peer institutions in the recruitment and retention of faculty, the College must provide adequate financial incentives. In 2003-2004, the Provost's Office sponsored a study comparing University of Iowa faculty salaries with those at peer institutions, finding that Iowa salaries ranked in the bottom third. Recent years have seen dramatic reductions in state support that directly impact the ability of the College to be competitive with salaries offered by peer institutions.

          Adequate graduate-assistant support is also crucial to enhancing faculty productivity as well as graduate assistants’ learning opportunities. Since 2000, our College has seen a million-dollar increase in graduate assistantships although it is important to note that the cost of hiring a half-time graduate assistant has increased with each COGS agreement. The impact of the restructuring of the Bloc Grant Program will need to be factored in as the College attempts to be competitive with peer institutions. In light of recent faculty losses, the College must be particularly vigilant in resisting a tendency to over-rely on graduate teaching assistants rather than replacing critical tenure-track lines.

          In summary, our faculty is well qualified and recognized nationally. Continuing challenges with regards to faculty vitality include increasing our diversity, bringing salaries in line with those at our peer institutions, and ensuring that vacancies are filled on a timely basis.

Staff

          The College’s effective and efficient staff is essential to delivery of our graduate and professional programs, many of which entail the added challenge of orchestrating field placements and external licensure requirements. Currently there are a total of 109 support staff in the college, including both Professional and Scientific (P & S), and Merit. Of these, six persons are ethnic minorities and the majority are women (81%). Over the past five years, Merit staff lines have decreased 11% while P & S have increased 11%.  The number of staff positions supported by external funds has increased by10% over this same time period.

          Our College’s staff members have been recognized for their contributions in a number of ways over the past several years, including Improving Our Workplace Awards, State Board of Regents Staff Excellence Awards, and UI Outstanding Staff Awards. Many staff members serve on governance and advisory bodies, such as the COE Diversity Committee, the COE Staff Social Committee, UI Staff Council, UI Council for the Status of Woman, and other UI charter committees. Annually, the College celebrates the contributions of staff at the College Merit Staff Appreciation and Awards Ceremony. In addition, staff members recently formed a Reward and Recognition Committee to explore new avenues for celebrating the contributions of their colleagues.

Students

          Student recruitment efforts have typically been program-level initiatives, supplemented by a number of collaborative recruitment initiatives with the Graduate College and other University-based programs. For example, qualified students may be supported by Graduate Merit Fellowships and University-wide competitive fellowships such as the Presidential Scholars program. The College is also utilizing technology to a great extent in recruitment efforts, as collegiate and program Web sites permit the most up-to-date information to potential applicants and provide opportunities to apply online.

           The most notable admissions trend over the past five years has been a decrease in the number of applications and admissions, with an increase in grade-point averages and combined verbal and quantitative GRE scores; that is, while the quantity of students is down, the academic quality indicators are up. Since 2000, four graduate programs have been closed (Rehabilitation Psychology, Substance Abuse Counseling, Marital and Family Therapy, and Instructional Design and Technology) while others have decreased enrollment due to loss of faculty.

           Minority-student representation has also decreased slightly overall since our last review although we are slightly ahead of the University as a whole in this regard. It is interesting to note that in 2004, White students represented 67% of the College’s graduate and professional students (a decrease from 71% in 2000); simultaneously, international students doubled to 19% (as opposed to 7% University-wide). Three graduate programs in the College (Counseling Psychology, Rehabilitation Counseling, and School Psychology) are currently among the most diverse on campus. For example, two programs have received national recognition of their successful track record of recruiting and graduating students of color: The School Psychology program won the APA Suinn Minority Achievement Award in 2003, while the Counseling Psychology program was cited in its 2005 accreditation review for its "seamless integration of training excellence and...commitment to diversity."

          With generous support from the Graduate College, the College has recently recruited six graduate students of color to masters programs in School Counseling, Educational Administration, and various areas in the Department of Teaching and Learning. These students will receive full tuition support to complete their masters degrees, which will enable them to return to their local school districts and assume leadership positions as teachers, school counselors, administrators, and directors of curriculum development. They will also assist the College in our future recruiting efforts.

           Another characteristic of premier programs is students’ timely progress toward their degree goals. The time to completion of the requirements for a Ph.D. campus-wide averages 6.7 years; from 2000-2005, about three-quarters of the Ph.D. graduates of the College who entered with masters degrees completed doctorates in 6 years or less. Over the past five years, the College has awarded 1,022 (725 Masters, 24 Ed.S., 273 Ph.D.) graduate and professional degrees, reflecting a record of graduating students in substantial numbers and in a timely manner.

           But perhaps the surest proof of the strength of our graduate programs is the graduates themselves. Of the 192 students receiving their doctoral degrees since 2000, 93% are working in academic and professional employment. Over 60% are now working in college or university contexts, many in tenure-track positions. The remainder work in community colleges, K-12 public school districts, in testing or curriculum-development projects, or in health or private-practice settings. What our graduate students learn in our programs is valuable and marketable, and the proof is in the professional success they achieve when they complete those programs.

In order to recognize the achievement of exceptional graduate students, the College has established a number of student awards programs. There has been a marked increase in the number of students recognized as well as the dollar amount of the awards presented since 2000. In total, 142 awards have been presented to 282 individual students from 2000-2004, while the total value of the awards increased from $46,800 to $105,800.

           In summary, while diversity remains an area for continuing attention and growth, we have made important steps forward in terms of attracting strong students, providing support throughout their studies, and ensuring timely completion of their studies.

Theme 2: Improve graduate and professional education programs.

          As previously noted, several of our graduate and professional programs are highly ranked while others are well positioned to garner similar recognition. Both internal and external reviews of the four academic departments are consistent in pointing to the research productivity and professional visibility of the faculty working within them. Accreditation by the American Psychological Association, the Council on the Accreditation of Counseling and Related Educational Programs, and the Council on Rehabilitation Education, for example, have resulted in full accreditation. Taken together, the reviews of the College's graduate programs portray a faculty engaged in a wide range of ongoing professional discussions about research and practice in education—a faculty whose voice counts in such discussions and whose contributions matter. Other evidence of the visibility of our graduate programs and faculty is readily available. Faculty across departments are consistently invited to serve as editors and reviewers for academic journals, consultants for projects in educational assessment, developers of educational policy, and curriculum experts whose research can refashion the content and delivery of instruction. Faculty have been equally successful in increasing external grant monies for research and development (more fully discussed in Goal Three, below).

          One of the suggestions that emerged in our last external review concerned the lack of cohesion among the various doctoral programs in the Department of Teaching and Learning (then called “Curriculum and Instruction”). In response, department faculty developed and approved a new core curriculum required of all doctoral students across T & L programs; graduate students now choose a minimum of two core courses from a menu of three (in teacher education, curriculum studies, and understanding a range of research methods).

          The evidence suggests that the College has established graduate programs that are already strong—in some cases, the best of their kind—and has also established a professional culture that supports and rewards excellent research from both faculty and graduate students. It is through these efforts that our programs will continue to improve.

Theme 3: Employ best practices and emerging technologies to prepare graduate students to enter the global marketplace.

          As noted earlier, the College is widely recognized for the development of its ePortfolio™ model, a Web-based system that provides the architecture within which students can demonstrate competencies and showcase their strengths to a range of relevant audiences. Besides the tools for prospective teachers mentioned earlier, the model also provides two templates of particular interest to graduate students—one for professionals at the masters level such as teachers, counselors, or administrators, and a second that allows doctoral students to provide examples of their scholarly work and to highlight academic strengths and achievement. As a result, our doctoral graduates now can enter their new careers with a set of integrated digital tools that afford short-term job-seeking advantages and long-term professional benefits.

          Graduate programs provide encouragement and support to students for attendance or presentations at local, national, or international conferences and professional-development programs. In addition to other potential funding sources available on campus, Iowa Testing Programs provides funds for students who have had a paper accepted for presentation at a national meeting, and our Technology Center provides technical support and equipment services to students preparing presentations. Students’ travel to professional conferences is also supported by faculty research and training grants.

Theme 4: Promote pre- and post-graduation relationships with students through participation in career-development services, alumni activities, foundation activities, advisory councils, and cultural activities.

          The College promotes both pre- and post-graduation relationships with students through participation in a variety of activities. Students first develop relations through their particular programs; for example, most programs have student organizations, often affiliated with national professional organizations. In addition, several have Advisory Boards comprised of students and alumni. At the collegiate level, student organizations for graduate as well as undergraduate students provide input and plan events. Programs, however, serve as the primary basis for both student and alumni relationships.

          The College also maintains dialogue with graduates throughout their professional careers through such events as the alumni reception at the annual meeting of the American Educational Research Association and the Alumni Reunion Tailgate at Homecoming. Additional dialogue is promoted through the College’s biannual alumni magazine, Education@Iowa, which is sent to all alumni and also available online. Alumni also receive correspondence from our Dean through the UI Foundation’s annual mailings.

Theme 5: Increase the visibility and reputation of College of Education graduate and professional programs.

          The annual rankings in the U.S. News & World Report’s guidebook is the most frequently cited source of national rankings for graduate and professional schools. As noted earlier, in its 2005 report on the country’s best graduate schools, U.S. News & World Report ranked our College 11th in the nation—up 16 spots from its ranking five years ago. Among public institutions, the College’s rank jumped to 6th. Specialty programs also continue to rank highly.

          The College provides incentives and support for activities which will further enhance the quality and reputation of the programs offered. For example, release time is available for faculty to prepare and implement research and training grants. The Office of the Provost’s Career Development Program provides periodic release from teaching (at 10-semester increments). Faculty are also encouraged and often given support for holding leadership positions in professional organizations as well as service as journal editors.

          In summary, the College is home to premier graduate and professional programs, a number of which have received national recognition. The College is committed to developing additional funding and support strategies to support faculty, staff, and graduate student research and service that will increase the visibility and reputation of its graduate and professional programs.

          The College boasts a highly productive, creative faculty and graduate student body that provide substantial professional contributions to their respective professions. Our scholarly endeavors are as varied as our programmatic missions and academic fields of study, producing new knowledge through efforts as diverse as basic research, test development, and inquiry conducted in collaboration with practitioners in the field.

We turn here to the three aspirations our College identified with regards to research, scholarship, and artistic creation:

• Cultivating a distinguished and diverse community of active researchers and scholars;
• Increasing sponsored and non-sponsored research and creative activity;
• Upgrading the infrastructure supporting research, scholarship, and creative activities.

 Theme 1: Cultivate a distinguished and diverse community of active researchers and scholars.

          The College’s intellectual and programmatic diversity is reflected in its scholarly endeavors, characterized by a range of urgencies, theoretic perspectives, and approaches. The numerous disciplines within the College are engaged in applied as well as basic research, employing both qualitative and quantitative methodologies to further advance knowledge and practice in their respective disciplines.

          In light of growing interest across the College in qualitative and mixed-methods approaches, our qualitative research group, comprised of faculty from all four departments, provides introductory as well as specialized training in data collection, analysis, and interpretation. Likewise, the Educational Measurement and Statistics graduate program faculty teach numerous quantitative approaches to research, including design of experiments, educational measurement, as well as beginning, intermediate and advanced statistics. More specialized and advanced approaches to statistical analyses are taught in graduate courses such as factor analysis, structural equation modeling, and multivariate statistical methods.

          Faculty and graduate students in the College are also involved in interdisciplinary research (see Goal 4 narrative for a more thorough review of these activities), involving collaboration among disciplines within and without the College. (the latter include intercollegiate partnerships with Law, Medicine, Nursing, Liberal Arts and Sciences, Pharmacy, and Business, to name a few). For instance, one program of research examines medication administration in K-12 schools and how medication errors impact social and medical outcomes for children with chronic health problems; this specific program of research involves faculty from the COE, Nursing, Pharmacy, and Medicine.

          The diversity of research, and, specifically, the focus on diversity as an area of research, is a major strength of the College. Several faculty and graduate students in each of the four departments are involved in major programs of research that focus specifically on diversity-related variables in education and human well-being. Example of these programs from each department include investigating the development of career aspirations in low-income and minority students in Iowa Schools (P & Q), examination of racial intolerance and intercultural education (EPLS), studying relationships between culture and early literacy development (T & L), and racial-identity development and student retention (CRSD). Collectively and individually, these programs of research related to diversity are helping shape essential scientific and professional advancements as our society becomes more multicultural.

Theme 2: Increase sponsored and non-sponsored research and creative activity by faculty, staff members, and students.

          This area perhaps best exemplifies the positive accomplishments of the College related to the Strategic Plan. Numerous structural changes within the College, efforts at increasing incentives, and clear messages from administration regarding expectations and incentives have resulted in significant improvements in the quality and quantity of scholarship for the College for the last five years. The College has demonstrated a strong commitment to the development of an infrastructure and culture that supports scholarly work and external funding through allocation of funds.

          The clearest example is the creation and growth of the Grant and Research Services Center (GRSC). Created in 2000, the GRSC provides in-house support for faculty, staff and students interested in applying for external funding to support research, training or service projects. The GRSC offers critical support for grant-writing tasks such as developing budgets and budget justifications, identifying funding sources for existing ideas, helping faculty further develop ideas that match current funding priorities, communicating and establishing relationships with program officers from funding agencies, and reviewing applications to ensure compliance with the RFP. The GRSC also provides critical support to faculty submitting grant-activity reports and requests for continuation of funding.

          Despite the decrease in tenure-track faculty resulting from budget cuts, the College has enjoyed unprecedented growth in external funding in the last five years. Examination of the available evidence reveals that despite an 11% decrease in faculty over the last five years, there has been a 15% increase in the number of grants applied for and an increase of 230% in dollar amounts successfully procured per FTE. In addition to faculty, graduate students have also been successful in procuring highly competitive external funding for training and research. The progress in this area represents a sincere effort on behalf of the administration, faculty, staff and graduate students to conduct meaningful work and remain highly respected nationally as a premier college of education.

          In addition to the increases in external funding noted above, our faculty are highly productive, publishing influential work in premier journals, giving scholarly presentations, and serving as journal editors and on editorial boards. One notable trend in these data is the slight decrease in numbers of refereed journal articles per faculty, which could well be a function of the increased service and teaching demands resulting from budget cuts. Although it is difficult for faculty across the University to balance service, teaching, and scholarship demands, it is particularly difficult in our College, due to the number of graduate and undergraduate programs that carry a heavy service component. For example, programs such as Teaching and Learning, Rehabilitation Counseling, Educational Administration, School Psychology, Student Services, and Counseling Psychology require extensive and intensive clinical placements in schools and agencies statewide. Because of accreditation and licensure requirements for these professions, clinical experiences must be highly structured and closely supervised, which places a significant burden on faculty from such programs compared to programs without such placements.

         Our faculty produce other important forms of scholarship and/or contributions in addition to those mentioned above. For example, Educational Measurement and Statistics faculty (EMS) are involved in extensive test development, revision, norming, and dissemination on the state, national, and international levels; EMS faculty have also been intimately involved with state and federal policy makers to develop policies that ensure that the state of Iowa complies with the No Child Left Behind Act. In addition, EMS faculty work closely with Iowa schools, conducting workshops on test interpretation, educational testing policy, and reporting and use of results.

Theme 3: Upgrade the infrastructure supporting research, scholarship, and creative activities.

          In addition to the creation and support of the GRSC as noted above, the College has demonstrated significant support for research endeavors through numerous additional means. For example, a research fund provides support up to $500 per tenure-track faculty member each year to support expenses such as participant payment, research materials, assessment instruments, and incidental costs. Support for external-funding proposals includes dedicated space for grant-funded research, cost-sharing, and provision of funds for necessary equipment. The combined effect of this added support over the last five years has undoubtedly increased the competitiveness of grant applications, and is at least partly responsible for the significant increase in external funding.

          A critical source of support for scholarly work within the College is the EMS Program. The faculty in this program provides free methodological and statistical consultation for all College faculty and graduate students. On external-grant applications, methodological and statistical support can be written into the budget on a cost-sharing basis, which indicates a real commitment by the College to devote resources to the research program and thereby renders applications more competitive. Likewise, EMS faculty provide significant methodological and statistical support for students, both for master’s projects and dissertation work as well as independent research projects. Additionally, the Iowa Measurement Research Foundation supports faculty research projects related to educational measurement, broadly defined. The IMRF grants are intended to provide seed money to research projects that show promise of external funding after preliminary work is completed. Another very important resource, provided by the Iowa Testing Programs, is the Blommers Measurement Resource Library, which is staffed by a full-time professional librarian and contains a collection of books, journals, and reference materials related to educational testing and assessment, an extensive collection of published and unpublished tests, and the most up-to-date reviews of tests as well as information concerning their availability.

          The positive and supportive emphasis on cutting-edge research and procurement of financial resources through external funding has contributed to a synergy and excitement in the College, thereby enhancing our faculty recruitment and retention efforts.

          The College recognizes the need to address the interrelatedness and the linkages among curricular and content areas, research agendas, and service projects that exist in contemporary society. Therefore, the College has consistently sought to create opportunities and to remove or reduce barriers that result in greater interdisciplinary planning and participation on the part of faculty and students. This emphasis on interdisciplinary programming focuses not only on the internal activities of the College, but on the building and maintenance of strong research and collaborative efforts with constituencies external to the College.

We focus here on three themes with regards to interdisciplinary work in the College:

• Lowering administrative barriers;
• Increasing involvement with external constituencies;
• Facilitating student involvement in interdisciplinary opportunities.

 Theme 1: Lower administrative barriers to participation in interdisciplinary activities.

          Recognizing the importance of interdisciplinary endeavors within the College, the Dean, the Associate Deans, as well as the DEOs have strategically focused on increasing the opportunities for such interdisciplinary participation through a wide array of engagements, activities, and processes in the areas of teaching, research, and service. The promotion of interdisciplinary participation has also addressed mechanisms for the reduction of administrative barriers that impede such participation.

          The results of these efforts related to interdisciplinary opportunities have been multifaceted, ranging from the alignment of the College’s tenure and promotion policies with those established by the Office of the Provost; to the hiring of a Coordinator of School Partnerships, whose responsibility it is to promote, develop, and coordinate relationships with local school districts and Area Education Agencies, and to serve as a liaison between the College and other educational entities.

         In addition, the College has made a commitment to appoint clinical faculty in several of its departments and programs. These faculty, working alongside tenure-track colleagues, establish and maintain networks and relationships with preK-12 practitioners in the field, thus providing a balance between scholarly research and effective clinical practice. The utilization of clinical faculty in this manner has strengthened the College’s ties with local school districts and Area Education Agencies.

         A number of College faculty hold cross-discipline or cross-departmental appointments and teaching assignments.  Currently, for instance, a number of College faculty hold joint appointments in the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences, as well as with the Center on Law, Health Policy, and Disability.

         Space allocation within the College has also been scrutinized relative to its impact on interdisciplinary efforts with office and conference space allocated for several of the College’s service centers, including the CASMA, the Coordinator for International Programs and Students in the Grants and Research Services Center, the CEA, and the Belin-Blank Center.

Theme 2: Increase involvement in research and collaboration with external constituencies.

           The College is engaged in an ongoing and focused effort to encourage the development of interdisciplinary and international research projects and activities in order to create an active community of scholars and practitioners, and to thereby expand collaboration with other University departments, with local school districts, and with other colleges and universities across the nation. These efforts also include support for the development of interdisciplinary research projects and creative activities throughout the College, including the provision of incentives for senior faculty members to involve junior colleagues in interdisciplinary and inter-institutional research, as well as the expansion of opportunities for faculty and staff participation in global research partnerships.

           Examples of these efforts are noted in the numerous activities and projects developed at the Belin-Blank Center, which has established international partnerships with the Gifted Education Research and Resource Center at the University of New South Wales in Sydney, Australia; with the Universidad Catolica de Chile in Santiago, Chile; and with the University of Calgary in Alberta, Canada. The Center has also established partnerships with a variety of departments and colleges on our own campus, including the College of Engineering for student programming and the Invent Iowa Convention, the College of Law for student programming, the College of Medicine for student programming, the Environmental Health Sciences Research Center, the Hygienic Laboratory, the Department of History, and the Center for Asian and Pacific Studies.

           The College also strives to broaden its presence and visibility in the local community, throughout the state, across the nation, and globally. Planning and programs designed to create this presence and visibility include the regular sponsorship of research colloquia, seminars, and invited speakers from other colleges and universities in order to build professional networks and to expose College faculty to contemporary research projects being conducted by nationally known scholars. In turn, the College provides support for faculty and staff to present their research at other institutions throughout the country. To support these efforts, the College offers incentives for research using technologies that reach a variety of external constituencies.

           Faculty and staff leadership in various state, national, and international professional organizations is encouraged and supported. These efforts provide opportunities for faculty and staff to strengthen existing efforts and to establish new national and international collaborative relationships in the areas of scholarly research and service.

Theme 3: Facilitate student involvement in interdisciplinary opportunities.

          The College continues to expand its interdisciplinary opportunities for students. A wide array of seminars and colloquia are offered which are designed to explore educational and social issues. These opportunities allow faculty and staff from in and outside the College, international students, and visiting scholars to work with and interact with our students.

           Numerous examples of these interdisciplinary activities, projects, and opportunities exist. EPLS supervises an office for the Peace Corps that recruits students for service abroad. The College also sponsors an International Day each fall involving over 200 high school students from surrounding school districts.

           Other programs provide opportunities for students to interact with international students and scholars. One such program is the International Center for Science, which annually sponsors international scholars. Similar opportunities have been provided in a variety of ways, including such presentations as the following:

• An international scholar from Japan who addressed issues on death and dying;
• The director of Latin American and Caribbean Regional Cooperation Center for Adult Education;
• A visiting professor from Japan who studied career guidance education;
• The Chief Executive Officer of the Family Institute of South Africa, in cooperation with the Department of Social Work; and
• A visiting professor from the Center for Vocational Education from Chennai, India.

          The College also seeks ways to expand interdisciplinary relationships in the content areas of Science, Mathematics, English, Social Studies, Foreign Languages, as well as other related areas. These efforts have resulted, for instance, in College faculty involvement in tutoring programs for students whose first language is one other than English in nearby school districts. Interdisciplinary relationships for students are also enhanced through special-site placements for student teachers in international settings.

          The College targets a specific number of scholarships and assistantships that are awarded to potential international students, particularly those interested in interdisciplinary education, international education, and educational diversity. These include a post-doctoral fellowship program; support for the White Privilege Conference held at Central College in Pella, IA; support for Holmes Scholars; and contributions from the College’s Diversity Committee.

        The vitality of our College as a learning community—an organization that promotes intellectual curiosity, creativity, collaboration, and participation—sustains our collective efforts and ensures wise use of available resources. In the ultimate interest of providing enhanced opportunities for teaching, research, and service, our College pursued four themes with regards to our work and learning organization:

• Fostering greater efficiency and effectiveness;
• Improving communication;
• Upholding an environment that facilitates, recognizes, and rewards effort;
• Maintaining a physical environment conductive to effective teaching, research, and learning.

 Theme 1: Foster greater efficiency and effectiveness in the College.

          The College’s organizational structure and administrative configuration has undergone many changes since the last review. As noted earlier, there are currently two Associate Deans–one for Academic Affairs, and a second for Teacher Education and Student Services. In 2001, an Assistant Dean’s position was eliminated and those duties allocated to the Associate Dean for Academic Affairs. Dean Damico has decentralized our administrative structure, placing greater responsibility and authority with the four DEOs. With this reconfiguration, faculty are encouraged to bring concerns and requests to their DEOs rather than directly to the Dean. Survey data gathered in conjunction with a recent decanal review indicate wide support for this approach (with 51% of the faculty agreeing, 13% disagreeing). Faculty and staff also clearly endorsed the administrative realignment of the two Associate Deans.

           In 2004-05, the College completed a process that resulted in the four “divisions” being designated “departments.” Each department selects a DEO and each area of study is directed by a program coordinator; for major educational offices or centers, directors oversee all responsibilities of their respective areas. Areas with directors include the following: Development, External Relations, Finance and Human Resources, Grant and Research Services Center (GRSC), Education Technology Center (ETC), Educational Placement Office (EPO), the Belin-Blank Center, Center for Advanced Studies in Measurement and Assessment (CASMA), Center for Evaluation and Assessment (CEA), Assistive Technology and Iowa Testing Programs (ITP). In addition to the administrative reconfiguration, the Dean’s office clarified the roles of the individuals in that office, making clear to internal users who is responsible for which functions or responsibilities.

           As part of the administrative review process, faculty members holding DEO, Director, or Associate Dean status are evaluated on an annual basis as part of the Merit-review process. P & S members and Merit staff are evaluated by their immediate supervisors. The university audits the number of staff who receive yearly reviews; in the College, 65% of P & S staff for fiscal year 2004-5 (30 of 46) and 76% of Merit staff for 2003-4 (33 of 43) have received annual reviews. The College would like to meet the University’s goal of 100% compliance in the next five years.

          Technological capabilities have been enhanced during the past few years, despite fiscal constraints. Resources have been used for professional staff as well as the technology infrastructure required to build on existing strengths and to embark on new initiatives. The ePortfolio™ initiative, now expanded to College doctoral students, requires design support, software and hardware support, and, of course, teaching support. The investment has created a project that has become a model for institutions both nationally and internationally and for centers and departments on the UI campus (such as Women in Science and Engineering, for instance). The College worked closely with the UI Patent Office and now holds the trademarks for the following terms associated with the Iowa ePortfolio™ model: Digital BackPack™, ePortfolio™, and Cyber ToolBox™. The College has partnered with several organizations to bring the ePortfolio™ model to Iowa school districts. Working with the Cedar Rapids Community Schools and the Cedar Rapids Education Association (teachers’ union), the College designed a standards-based ePortfolio™ based on the State’s eight standards and 42 criteria for early career teachers. New teachers from across the state have been trained in using the framework, and the templates can be downloaded free by any teacher or school district in the state. This outreach initiative continues with yet another new partnership of the College that involves the Cedar Rapids Community School District as well as two state organizations (School Administrators of Iowa and the Iowa Association of School Boards) in the development of a state-of-the art ePortfolio™ model based on six standards and 36 criteria now required of school administrators in Iowa. This shared enterprise provides all school administrators with free templates and a Cyber ToolBox™ with such items as technology guides, templates, streaming video of the evaluation process, notebooks, and evaluation forms. These initiatives, spearheaded by the College, touch every teacher and administrator in the state of Iowa. By sharing our vision, our knowledge of standards, our technological inventiveness, and of course, our teaching abilities, the College has given a contribution to the state that is impossible to measure in dollars.

          Students at all levels and in all programs, as well as College faculty and staff, have access to a range of technological resources. Technology resources are used in many courses: In July of 2005, ITS-Academic Technologies reported that the College faculty requesting Web space for instructional use included 17 Blackboard courses and 135 WebCT courses with an additional 11 WebCT courses for Guided Independent Study courses in the College. All students are provided with Web space, the tools to design standards-based or professional sites, and the personnel to support their questions or concerns. Graduate students and faculty have access to server space for research projects along with necessary and current editions of research software; faculty members are provided with one-on-one assistance when requested. New and expanded initiatives are planned for a state-of-the art Iowa Center for Assistive Technology. With further resources, additional classrooms could be fully equipped to deliver multimedia, and additional equipment for classrooms and the ePortfolio™ support center could be obtained; most importantly, the Education Technology Center could undergo remodeling to better utilize the space and equipment.

           Another technological resource that has aided our College over the past five years has been the addition of extensive data-based services. The College has made important steps in collecting and reporting essential bodies of data. Extensive faculty databases were designed to record teaching, research and service activities, and accomplishments. These data allow the College to accurately report the outreach and engagement activities of faculty in the state of Iowa as well as in national and international arenas; allow proper statistics to be reported to bodies responsible for rankings, such as the U.S. News and World Report; and ensured our recent positive Department of Education review of our school licensure programs. Databases are used to help our student support offices (the Office of Teacher Education and Student Services and the Educational Placement Office) track post-graduation plans and to gather feedback concerning the academic and professional preparation provided by our programs.

Theme 2: Improve communication within the College and between the College and major constituencies.

         The College has increased its attention to visibility through new and enhanced communication strategies. The range of the College’s initiatives, programs, and activities has been shared with internal and external audiences through various media—from television and the local press, to publications ranging from an alumni magazine to monthly news letters, to promotional flyers, specialized brochures, informational videos, electronic communication, and a comprehensive Web site. Through these media, alumni and members of the learning community are asked to send comments and feedback to the College. Envoys representing the College attend such events as the Iowa State Fair, UI alumni receptions in various cities in Iowa and elsewhere, UI recruiting fairs held in urban areas to assist in attracting a diverse student population, as well as political events at the state capital in Des Moines and in our nation’s capital. College administrators work closely with the University’s Governmental Relations liaison to advise lawmakers on K-12 and higher education issues. Many faculty and staff engage in state-wide service and outreach activities (adult-literacy programs, the Carver ePortfolio™ Project, school partnerships, neighborhood tutoring programs, etc.) sharing resources and expertise with relevant constituents. The vitality of the College is also strengthened by the number of service activities performed by College faculty. Through consulting, journal editorships, manuscript review, professional boards, and committee leadership, College faculty have logged thousands of hours completing more than 5,250 service activities during the past five years.

          Fundraising activities have helped to increase the visibility of the College. Various approaches are used by the College’s development officer and key administrators to contact potential donors. Private giving has fluctuated from year to year; the total for 2004 (Advancement Fund, tele-funds, solicitation and fund gifts) was $3,185,917.00. (of that amount, the Belin-Blank Center garnered $2,679,154). These numbers of givers has more than doubled in the last decade, with major gifts allowing the College to invest in new initiatives as well as scholarships for graduate and undergraduate students. Development efforts will continue to be important to the vitality of the College, even more so if state economic conditions continue to result in constrained budget appropriations.

Theme 3: Uphold an environment that facilitates, recognizes, and rewards the efforts of faculty and staff members in the College.

          The collective contributions of the faculty and staff are recognized using several venues. Merit staff are recognized and honored for their service during a special College ceremony, while faculty are acknowledged for their leadership achievements and individual awards during faculty meetings and other official ceremonies held in the College and in university-wide events. Professional-development opportunities are made available to faculty and staff. College administrators also avail themselves of retreats and professional meetings to refine skills, engage in strategic planning, and to gain new leadership strategies. All of these efforts are publicized and recognized in College publications.

          Many initiatives in the College have centered on activities that support and reinforce our commitment to building an inclusive community. Students, faculty, and staff work collaboratively to sponsor events that represent the diverse interests of the College.

Theme 4: Maintain a physical environment that is conducive to effective teaching, research, and learning.

          While there is a continuing need to find both additional and appropriate space for faculty meetings, large classrooms, and expanded research areas, the College has made incremental progress in this regard since our last review. Infrastructure issues are directly tied to recruiting and retaining students, staff and faculty. To support their teaching and research mission, faculty and research assistants need more appropriate space and as centers expand and new ones created, demand for a suitable infrastructure will grow.

          The physical facilities in north Lindquist Center have been enhanced by new carpet in many areas, replacement of windows, new ergonomic work stations for many staff, a newly installed fire alarm system, and new furniture in many offices and common areas. In addition, a restroom was renovated for accessibility, and additional parking was obtained for individuals with disabilities. A Building and Grounds Committee makes frequent reports to the Dean’s office and works with the UI Facilities Services Group to insure adequate upkeep of the grounds and facilities. Survey data report that faculty and staff agree that the physical facilities and the accessibility of the College have been remarkedly improved in the last five years.

           The College continues to build upon its many strengths over the past five years—excellent programs, prestigious national rankings, strong faculty, accomplished students, and enhancements to our infrastructure—and is in many respects well positioned to look to its future with generativity and vision. But the College is also at a crossroads, struggling with recent faculty losses, an intensifying workload for those remaining, and the challenge of meeting these new fiscal times with an enduring commitment to our core values. We conclude by highlighting several issues that are particularly key to our future vitality.

Faculty Lines

           It is simply impossible for faculty to increase their service, teaching, and administrative responsibilities on a continual basis while also maintaining top-flight scholarly careers. Because of the immediate consequences associated with service and teaching, College faculty must increasingly use research time to address such needs. While the negative impact on scholarship may not be immediately evident, delaying or neglecting research responsibilities could have very tangible and potentially destructive effects on external funding, graduate training, and faculty productivity. If we are to maintain and build upon our current strengths, faculty-line needs must be addressed in a strategic and timely manner.

Incentives for Grant Seeking

          Another important challenge in the College is developing further incentives for faculty research efforts. While incentives for faculty have clearly increased over the last five years and the culture has in many respects become more supportive of research, scholarly efforts must be recognized and rewarded above the current levels. Potential methods to promote, reward and recognize research include the following: 1) increase salary recognition of success in scholarly endeavors, including publications and funded grants, and 2) release time or summer salary to write major grants that would provide critical resources to the College. While budgetary constraints may limit the incentives available, research productivity and external funding will very likely increase with the implementation of incentives.

Honoring our Diverse Strengths

           As detailed throughout this report, while the College is united behind a central mission of enhancing knowledge and practice related to teaching and learning in all its guises, our programs and faculty are pursuing a richly varied array of scholarly, service, and pedagogic projects. While a new culture of grant-seeking permeates the College and has become central to the socialization of new faculty, even given further incentives to devote time to proposal development, grant dollars will always remain more available in some areas than others. Even as we acknowledge the accomplishments of faculty acquiring robust external funds, we must also remain cognizant of the contributions of those whose work is key to our mission in other ways, ensuring that their programs are adequately supported and their productivity acknowledged.

          Honoring our diverse strengths also means understanding and appreciating the varied scholarly activities of our faculty, which span a broad gamut from test-construction to storytelling performances, from developing conceptually rigorous professional development opportunities for teachers to basic research on human intelligence, from examinations of pre-school learning to research on the college experience and beyond. A number of our faculty are continually seeking ways to integrate their teaching, service, and scholarly activities, and for those engaged in clinical work, this often means developing projects that address field-based problems. Given the diversity of our scholarly efforts, the College continues to negotiate t