UNDERGRADUATE GOALS

1.      Increase annual enrollment of multicultural students by 10% using OU visitations (OU Up-Close), undecided majors data, EDTE 150, and other recruiting venues to distribute new brochures and provide personal follow-up information about opportunities in special education.

2.      Increase quality of advising by adopting an annual departmental TE undergraduate plan for DARs Fest (pre-registration advisement) as well as plans for equitable and efficient advising assignments by student rank and major. Establish a system of advisor backups after determining the roles and functions of Student Services.  Student feedback on advising processes will increase on the positive continuum by 15%,

3.      Increase retention rates by 5% and quality of the freshman experience through targeted advisement of freshmen enrolled in learning communities and EDTE 150 by connecting freshman to SCEC and upper class mentors. A future consideration for EDTE 150 and/or learning communities is to institute an early reading program (book club format) for special education majors tying these activities to an early service learning project initiated by SCEC and supported by faculty.  Seek external funding and/or partner with other disciplines or organizations that may support such a venture.

4.      Use and refine current and future (LiveText) systems of data collection for program improvement to more specifically identify: 1) student factors that may be used to refine Sp. Ed. Selective Admissions criteria and processes; 2) programmatic factors tied to Sp. Ed. Selective Admissions and student block performance; and; 3) student teaching performance data to student block performance. Data analysis of performance of 2005-06 cohorts will be compared to performance data for 2006-07 cohort. Recommendations from this analysis will be recorded in program area minutes.

5.      In conjunction with other teacher education programs, increase program oversight of Student Teaching, e.g. make recommendations for student teaching placements, provide supervision of supervisors and/or seminars, provide direct supervision of student teachers, develop systems of using cooperating teacher feedback and student assessment of student teaching for program improvement.  Compare student teaching performance between cohort 2006 and 2007 with recommendations.

6.      Participate with the COE in redefining/expanding the current singular nature of partnership districts/schools to determine the viability of multi school/district “Partnership” within a program such as special education that can’t be tied to a single school or district.  Identify sp. ed. teachers in Alexander School District that may wish to participate in a pilot tying early field students and student teaching.  Assess satisfaction and performance data of this group with other cohort students not involved in the pilot.