Introduction & program demographics
Founded in 1952, Dominican College in Rockland County with the mission of excellence, leadership and service, is an independent, four-year and master’s-level Liberal Arts College, that emphasizes high standards and attention to needs and potential of the individual student in their educational programs and services. Dominican College is located 17 miles north of New York City in Rockland County. It is chartered by the Board of Regents of the University of the State of New York and fully accredited by the Middle States Association of Colleges. The College enrolls approximately 1800 students.

Dominican College offers an array of degree opportunities in liberal arts and sciences, business, and the professions on the undergraduate and graduate level. The College’s academic programs are organized within six divisions, each containing several disciplines. The academic divisions include Allied Health, Arts and Sciences, Business, Nursing, Social Sciences, and Teacher Education.

The College Teacher Education Division (TED) is seeking TEAC accreditation for its teacher education program, which has options in Childhood Education, Childhood Education/Students with Disabilities, Adolescence Education (Biology, English, Mathematics, Social Studies), and Adolescence Education/Students with Disabilities. The program notes its distinctiveness in requiring study in literacy, technology and student exceptionalities and also that it is assessment-based, criterion-referenced, and field-centered.

Based on TEAC’s Accreditation Panel recommendations, the program implemented new assessments and goals in 2004 - 2005 to improve its quality control system and program. The principal innovation was the specification of twenty teacher competencies, which the faculty also aligned with the three components and cross-cutting themes of TEAC’s Quality Principle I.

TED has 6 full-time faculty and 6 part-time instructors and approximately 30 students.

Program’s claims
The program claims that their graduates can teach effectively and that they possess a comprehensive understanding of the knowledge and skills required to succeed in the teaching profession. More particularly, the program claims that the graduates satisfy the three components and cross-cutting themes of TEAC’s Quality Principle I and posses the twenty competencies and their components that they have embedded in the TEAC framework.

Evidence supporting the claims
Evidence to support the program’s claim is gathered from the following sources:

1. GPA’s including comparison of TED versus non-TED graduates grades
2. New York State Regents Examinations in the relevant secondary subjects
3. Self-reflective essay on the applicant’s teaching potential
4. Spontaneous essay on an educational topic (evaluated by three faculty)
5. Scores on the LAST for liberal education
6. Scores on the ATS-W as a measure of pedagogical knowledge
7. CST – Content Specialty Test as a measure of subject matter knowledge
8. Ratings of college supervisors and cooperating teachers of the student teachers on the 20 competencies
9. Rating by employers for alumni on the 20 competencies
10. Self-ratings by alumni on the 20 competencies
11. Curriculum Mapping project that shows where each competency is introduced, covered, and finally mastered
12. Course Review and Evaluation matrix that shows how the competencies are assessed in each course and the results of those assessments
13. Ratings of student teaching portfolios
14. Field-experience report/log
15. Ticket to Leave (A form of self-evaluation in conjunction with the Portfolio)
16. Reflection-Projection Report (in the Student Teaching Seminar)
17. Assessment of lesson plans

Reliability and validity of measures
The reliability and validity of some of the measures was investigated through the correlations among some of them and through an analysis of the significance of the differences in their outcomes. On the whole the analysis showed the measures were stable although the validity correlations were mixed with some showing a lack of relationship among expected measures (e.g., of subject matter). There was a moderate correlation among cooperating teachers and college supervisor ratings in the area of content knowledge (subject matter knowledge), but not among the college supervisors’ or cooperating teachers’ ratings and the CST, which the program felt was not surprising given the lack of correlation with the CST and most measures of content or subject matter knowledge.

Results
Fifty-three percent of the students were accepted without any reservations or contingencies into the undergraduate programs, 32% were admitted conditionally, and 15% were rejected. The Program Review and Evaluation and the Curriculum Mapping Project together were used as non-empirical evidence of student learning outcomes in individual courses. To gather empirical evidence for student learning outcomes, the new twenty competencies were incorporated into the supervisor and cooperative teacher rating forms (6–point scale) and the alumni and employer evaluation forms (5-point scale).

The supervisor and cooperative teacher ratings identified the students as above strong to superior in their mastery of subject matter. The passing rates and the mean scores on the CST test for all the three years 2003-2005 were well above the state’s passing score. Furthermore, the TED students’ GPA was found to be higher than non-TED graduates pursuing different majors like English, History, Math, and Social sciences.

With regard to pedagogical knowledge, the supervisor and the cooperative teacher ratings identified the students a little above strong. The mean scores for ATS-W were well above the state requirement.

With regard to the caring and teaching skill, multicultural perspectives, technology use, learning how to learn, and technology use; the supervisor and cooperative teacher ratings were well above strong to superior with one exception (technology). However, mean grades in the mandatory technology course were high (of 3.7/4.0) and the students employed varied and complex technology in their student teaching portfolios.

Plan for program improvement
As a result of developing the IB, the faculty plans to revise and improve the technology training of the students; monitor closely the admissions process, and the certification requirements; attempt to provide additional teaching experiences to students; and develop model classrooms for methods courses.

Quality control
The internal audit consisted of specifying the mechanisms dealing with curriculum quality, faculty, recruiting and admissions, and student complaints. The faculty randomly selected six students (two from each year) that had completed the Education program during 2003-2005 and followed a trail through the seven TEAC capacity dimensions.

The internal audit experience led to improved data storage and retrieval procedures. Students need to be encouraged to utilize the qualitative section of the end of the year course evaluation forms. A need for appropriately equipped classrooms for TED methods courses was realized. It was brought to the attention of the program by student responses that there was some discontent with the food services.

Dominican College commitment
On the whole the program conforms to the institutional norms with regard to the length of the curriculum, qualifications of the faculty, class sizes, office space, computers and professional development opportunities. They are more favorably placed with regard to budget per student credit hour, salaries, and smaller class sizes. The faculty members concluded that the institution is committed to the program.