This administrative portfolio has been developed to reflect my professional goals, challenges, and accomplishments as Founding Dean of the College of Education and as the Unit Head (i.e., Chief Certification Officer) for teacher education (College of Education - Professional Education Unit or COE-PEU) at SUNY Fredonia since my arrival on July 1, 2004. Over the last five and a half years, there have been significant structural and programmatic changes and accomplishments related to the Professional Education Unit (PEU). In this portfolio, I hope to describe the institutional context, the scope of my responsibilities, the ongoing challenges, as well as the accomplishments of the COE-PEU. In this discussion, please remember that I see my leadership role as facilitating the work of the unit and constituents therein. Therefore my effectiveness as the leader of the unit, as the Dean, must be considered within the functions, challenges, and accomplishments of the unit.
Description of the Unit:
Enrollment in the College of Education includes 589 undergraduate students and 230 graduate students, for a total of 819 students. [1] As well, the College of Education collaborates with content departments in the Colleges of Arts and Humanities and Natural and Social Sciences in currently serving 494 Adolescence Education majors, 356 Music Education majors, and 34 Speech & Language Pathology majors across the university, for a total of 884 undergraduate majors in the affiliated programs of the Professional Education Unit (PEU). The Dean also serves a total of 127 graduate teacher candidates in the affiliated PEU programs. The College of Education Office of Field Experiences (OFE) is responsible for oversight of more than 750 student teaching placements and 455 early field experience placements each academic year. The Coordinator for the Office of Student Services (OSS) provides general teacher education advisement services to all 1830 teacher candidates on campus as well as advisement support for the TEACH Online certification process. The College of Education offers four undergraduate programs and seven graduate programs. The College of Education undergraduate and graduate students are served by 24 full-time tenure track faculty, 22 part-time faculty, and seven support staff members. The COE-PEU has 1,473 undergraduate teacher candidates and 357 graduate candidates for a total of 1830 total candidates on campus. For the 2008-2009 academic year, the COE-PEU had 321 initial certification program completers and 136 advanced program completers for a total of 457 program completers.
Description of Dean’s Oversight and Responsibilities:
Major Areas of Assigned Responsibility and Oversight
- Strategic initiatives: Directions of the College, Fredonia Plan, capital campaign, institutional grants, facilities planning, campus-community partnerships;
- Oversight of all personnel decisions: Hiring, personnel reviews, contract issues for faculty and staff;
- Budgetary oversight and authority of the Unit;
- Oversight of the two academic departments, the Office of Field Experience, the Office of Student Services, and Education Grants;
- Oversight of program development, implementation, assessment, and accreditation, including involvement with programs leading to certification but outside the College of Education;
- Oversight of teacher certification processes and information across campus;
- Oversight of policies for and resolution of student academic issues in the College of Education;
- Oversight of academic facilities, space, and equipment for the College of Education.
As Dean of the College of Education, I provide leadership for all strategic initiatives related to the Unit. I facilitate the shared vision for and development and implementation of action plans related to the ongoing directions of the College as well as the unit’s involvement in the university’s strategic plan, the Fredonia Plan. I have major responsibility for extramural fundraising for the College and work closely with the Office of Advancement and Alumni Affairs. I also have major responsibility for ensuring strong and meaningful partnerships with regional P-12 schools and related agencies as well as positive and functional relationships with SUNY Central and New York State Department of Education.
As Dean of the College of Education, I oversee the two academic departments (Curriculum & Instruction and Language, Learning, & Leadership), the two academic support offices (Office of Field Experiences and Office of Student Services), the work of the Associate Dean, and the education grants in my charge. As well, I am responsible for oversight of the operation of the Dean’s office and supervision of Dean’s office Secretary II.
These responsibilities can be divided into a number of mutually interactive categories:
Personnel Issues. I am involved in recruitment of qualified faculty and professional staff, ensuring that new and existing faculty and staff have the resources needed to do their jobs effectively (within the confines of the current budget). I am an integral part of the reappointment, promotion, and tenure process of faculty and am involved in recommending discretionary salary increases and sabbatical leave requests. As well, I am responsible for the supervision and oversight of the office professionals and educational grants. I oversee personnel issues of all faculty and staff in my charge.
Budget Issues. I have responsibility for the fiscal management of the unit. Although much of the day- to-day management is done through the chairs, heads of both support offices, and the project directors of the educational grants, I am responsible for oversight of the entire Unit operating budget, managing adjunct instructor/extra service compensation budget, the travel budget, and in allocating resources for equipment, structural enhancements, and special programs.
Academic Issues. New and revised curricula, courses, and degree programs approved by the departments are reviewed and approved at the Dean level, then move on to the Professional Education Council before further institutional review takes place. I ensure that all programs comply with state and federal regulations related to teacher education and certification. I oversee the academic rigor and curriculum integrity of all undergraduate and graduate programs in the COE-PEU. I also oversee the student grade appeal process, academic integrity issues, and other student issues.
Scholarship issues. All extramural grant applications are routed through the Dean's office. Discussion of special needs (release time, equipment, space, matching funds) are done in consultation with the appropriate Chair.
Communication Issues. I am also the conduit for communicating departmental and faculty concerns and achievements to university administration, and in turn I am the spokesperson and executor/facilitator of college policy as it pertains to the unit.
As the Unit Head and Chief Certification Officer for the COE-PEU, I have major responsibilities for ensuring that all teacher education programs are developed and implemented in accordance with New York state regulations and national accreditation standards. As Chief Certification Officer, I am the final institutional authority for recommending PEU graduates for certification to the state of New York. As the Head of the PEU, I serves as chair of the Professional Education Council (PEC), the governing body of the PEU, coordinating the operations of the PEU including the management, planning, and delivery of all programs in the Unit for the initial and advanced preparation of educators.
Strategic Challenges:
As Dean, I am responsible for facilitating the collaboration across various stakeholder groups on campus and in the community to implement effective teacher education programs and support the improvement of P-12 education for all students. This endeavor requires a very complex skill set, a deep and broad understanding of the learning sciences, knowledge of public policy and regulations related to teacher education and P-12 public education, understanding of organizational learning theory, and the ability to negotiate partnerships across a wide variety of constituencies.
The oversight of all teacher education programs on campus involves constant ongoing campus-wide communications and collaboration such as: advocating for teacher education with central administration, negotiating with the other academic deans and support staff to implement teacher education programs across campus, critically instituting data-informed decision making across the unit for program revision and improvement, and implementing changing state level regulations and national teacher education accreditation requirements.
My efforts to establish and enhance meaningful partnerships with regional P-12 schools are another significant challenge. Partnerships are critical in promoting excellence in both teacher education as well as P-12 schooling. Understanding the critical stakeholders in the community, analyzing how to negotiate and sustain authentic collaborations, and then participating in these activities are all time consuming but exciting.
Thus my greatest strategic challenges involve the work of going from vision of “best practices” to galvanizing the collective efforts across stakeholder groups to provide optimal learning environments and highly effective educators for our schools.