Introduction & program demographics
Felician College was founded in 1923, by the Felician Sisters, as Immaculate Conception Normal School to prepare members of the order as teachers, and it admitted its first laypersons in 1967. It is now considers itself an independent co-educational Catholic/Franciscan College dedicated to promoting the Franciscan values of a love for learning, a desire for God, self knowledge, service to others, and respect for all creation. It encourages all faculty members to incorporate these values into their courses. Felician College offers programs in four areas: Arts and Sciences, Business and Management Sciences, Nursing and Health Management, and Teacher Education.
It is primarily a commuter college, currently enrolling 1654 undergraduate and 152 graduate students) from 23 states and 21 foreign countries, and has a faculty of 289 (87 full-time and 202 adjunct). Approximately 34% of the 1806 students are minority students.
The teacher education program enrolls approximately 357 students ( with 70-85 program completers each year) and has three options – undergraduate, graduate, and teacher education certificate program, which lead to New Jersey licensure in elementary education (K-5) – by itself or with an early childhood endorsement, a specialization (5-8) endorsement, or a teacher of students with disabilities endorsement – and teacher of mathematics (K-12). The program has eleven full-time education faculty members and 24 adjunct faculty members. The average student/faculty ratio in teacher education courses is 14 to one with all field seminar classes capped at 10 to one.
The program is designed around three components: (1) a liberal arts education grounded in the Franciscan tradition; (2) an academic major (30 credits); and (3) a professional studies, field experiences, and student teaching component that is aligned with the New Jersey Professional Teaching Standards and the Interstate New Teacher Assessment and Support Consortium Standards (INTASC) and is influenced by scholarly research in education.
Program’s claims
The faculty make the following three claims about its graduates and shows how each aligns with the New Jersey Teaching Standards and TEAC’s Quality Principle I:
- They have a foundation in the liberal arts; understand the central concepts, tools of inquiry, and structure of their subject area; and engage in life-long learning within their discipline(s).
- They have acquired the pedagogical skills to accommodate individual needs, differences in abilities, and learning styles of their students and engage in on-going mastery of the teaching/learning process.
- They can use varied instructional strategies including technology and the arts while recognizing and respecting the dignity, diversity, and worth of all children.
Method and categories of evidence supporting the claims
The evidence the faculty proposes for its claims will come from all teacher education students in the undergraduate, graduate, and certificate programs in the classes of 2007-2011. The claims are based on the following sources:
- Grades and grade ratios (overall GPA / major GPA / education GPA)
- Scores on the Praxis II content licensure tests
- Clinical evaluations by campus supervisors and cooperating teachers
- Portfolio ratings
- Surveys of first-year graduates’ teaching performance by principals
- Survey of self-evaluation by completers of student teaching
- Employers First Year Follow-up Study
- Alumni self-assessments
- Senior Research Project
- Masters thesis
Because this is an Inquiry Brief Proposal, the college describes what it will assess in greater detail than what it has discovered by examining existing evidence. The faculty has plans to determine the reliability and validity of these measures through various correlational techniques.
Results
Preliminary results show grades above 3.0/4.00 in all categories, passing scores on Praxis II for all but one or two students, and clinical and portfolio ratings of at least 3.00/4.00. Initial correlations among these measures range from .20 to .90.
Plan for program improvement
Although the faculty believes that continued study with larger sample sizes will produce results to validate its claims, it has identified a number of areas that require attention before it will be able to produce an Inquiry Brief. For example, the program will correct its system for tracking the use and results of various assessments (including the student exit survey); monitor results of correlations across all strands; revise teaching portfolio rubrics; encourage dialog with arts and sciences faculty; and better examine the quality of student support services.
Internal audit results
The Internal Audit was conducted in two parts between December 2005 and February 2006. The initial audit was conducted by a retired faculty member, two members of the registrar’s office, and a member of the office of student advising. They randomly selected 20% of the undergraduate students, 10% of the teacher education certificate students, and 20% of the graduate students by reviewing files chosen at a fixed interval for an unbiased sample. A second audit was conducted by six members of the Division of Teacher Education. Two faculty members audited all active students in the graduate program, two faculty members audited 10% of the teacher education certificate students, and two faculty members audited 10% of the undergraduate files. The second audit focused on students who completed the program in December 2005. The findings of individual faculty were combined and the final report was written by Dr. Donna Barron-Baker and Ms. Bernadette Casey.
Evidence of commitment and capacity
The Internal Audit team examined approximately 26 indicators of commitment/capacity with respect to the program and the institution overall. Overall, the audit revealed in very general terms the processes and procedures of the Division of Teacher Education. Courses and program reviews and approvals operated as designed. Areas of concern included student support services; data from the registrar’s office; technology needs; program data; lack of evidence in terms of student work; revisions on rating forms; tracking which faculty is teaching what course.
Program’s response to the auditors’ summary of the case
The Division of Teacher Education accepts the summary of the case with one adjustment. The discussion of results indicates that grades exceed a 4.00. This is not possible and is, therefore, not the case.
Audit visit logistics
The audit team was based in Sammartino Hall in the dean’s conference room and office. The conference room held the documents used to write the IBP. Interviews were conducted in the conference room or nearby classrooms.
Overview of the audit opinion and commitment finding
At all levels the Inquiry Brief Proposal earned a qualified audit opinion owing to the large number of inconsequential errors in the targets of the audit. Were it not for these the Brief would have earned a clean audit opinion as 98% of the targets were in fact verified. With regard to the Felician College commitment, the auditors were unanimous in their conclusion that the college was committed to the program. |
