Faculty Qualifications, Performance, and Development

 Qualified Faculty

Professional education faculty at the College of William and Mary have earned doctorates and/or exceptional expertise that qualifies them for their assignments.  One hundred percent of full-time instructional faculty and all three administrative faculty have terminal degrees and teaching and/or administrative experience appropriate to their responsibilities.  Excluding three faculty in higher education, 33 of 35 (97%) faculty had appropriate K-12 or agency experience in fields that they teach or supervise. Forty three percent hold current licenses as teachers, counselors, school psychologists, or administrators. One C&I faculty member is Nationally Board Certified. Vitae available on this site include complete information about earned degrees, licensure, professional experiences, teaching assignments, scholarly contributions, and service activities of School of Education faculty.  The vast majority of School of Education courses are taught by our full-time faculty. Looking at 2003 as a representative sample, 80% of the 432 total courses taught during spring, summer, and fall semesters had a full-time School of Education faculty as instructor.

In addition to its full-time faculty, the School of Education employs three types of part-time (adjunct) instructional faculty.  During the period of fall 2000-fall 2003, including summer sessions, seven part-time faculty (12%) had full-time instructional, research, or administrative appointments within the university and taught one or more courses for the School of Education.  Approximately 44 part-time faculty (75%) are currently employed or recently retired from K-12 schools or other universities.  Many of these part-time or adjunct faculty (19 of 44 or 43%) are employed as supervisors of student teaching.  The remaining group of eight part-time instructors (14%) are advanced doctoral students within the School of Education who bring strong expertise and recent experience to their teaching roles. Overall, all clinical supervisors and 91% of part-time faculty in the School of Education hold current professional licenses where applicable. All have contemporary experiences in the areas that they teach or supervise. Vitae documenting credentials of these part-time faculty are provided in the Evidence Room. 

Modeling Best Professional Practices in Teaching

Faculty in William and Mary’s School of Education have in-depth understanding of their fields and are active teacher-scholars who integrate what is known about their content fields, teaching, and learning in their own instructional practice.  For every continuing course in the School of Education, a course outline has been developed by program faculty, reviewed by the Curriculum Committee, and approved by the full School of Education Faculty.  Undergraduate courses have also been reviewed and approved by the Arts and Sciences Education Policy Committee. These course outlines include objectives, topics, and illustrative bibliographies that provide evidence of the current research bases and critical issues integrated into every undergraduate and graduate offering.  Course outlines also describe major instructional approaches and assessment strategies for the course.  Each semester, faculty develop their own course syllabi based upon the official course outlines.  Copies of both course outlines and syllabi are provided in the Evidence Room. 

In each program area, faculty address key components of William and Mary’s Conceptual Framework across teaching, clinical, and research experiences.  Specific approaches to instruction and assessment relative to the Conceptual Framework have been discussed with reference to Standards 1, 2, and 3.

School of Education faculty integrate diversity and technology throughout coursework and clinical experiences.  SPA reports clearly document attention to these critical needs within each program specialization.  (See SPA Reports in the Evidence Room.)  Additional ways that faculty incorporate diversity in the design, implementation, and evaluation of curriculum and experiences are described for Standard 4.

Infusion of technology into the teacher education curriculum has been accelerated with support from two Preparing Tomorrow’s Teachers to Use Technology (PT3) Grants from the U.S. Department of Education.  An initial Planning Grant in 1999, Advancing Creative Technology (ACT) and a three-year Implementation Grant, ACT2, enabled the School of Education to produce technologically-competent teachers who can seamlessly integrate technology into content areas by designing, developing, and assessing authentic student-centered learning activities. Specific accomplishments and comprehensive performance evaluations are detailed in ACT2 Annual Reports available in the on-line Exhibit Room. Beyond the Curriculum and Instruction (C&I) Area, School of Education faculty incorporate a variety of appropriate technologies into their teaching and supervisory activities.  One hundred percent of Education faculty have used Blackboard, the web-based software adopted by William and Mary, to extend and enhance learning experiences in and outside the classroom with a variety of on-line resources. Additionally, Jones Hall, which houses the School of Education and seven classrooms, offers wireless internet access throughout the building.  All classrooms are equipped with LCD projectors to facilitate use of multiple instructional technologies.  Further information on technology resources is presented for Standard 4. 

All courses and clinical experiences during fall and spring semester are evaluated by students using the standard School of Education instruments and procedures. Since Fall 2002, student course evaluations have been conducted electronically. (See the Unit Evaluation of Professional Education Faculty Performance for a more complete description.)  Student ratings of overall teaching effectiveness attest to the high quality of instruction within the School of Education.  Over the past five years using both paper-and-pencil and web-based formats, mean ratings of faculty’s overall teaching effectiveness have clustered consistently in the 4.3-4.4 range on a 5-point scale.

School of Education faculty have been recognized as outstanding teachers within the College of William and Mary and the profession, garnering six teaching awards since 1998.  A list of faculty teaching awards over the past five years is available on the web. Among the most prestigious honors are the University Teaching Chair and certification by the National Board for Professional Teaching Standards.

 

Modeling Best Practices in Scholarship

School of Education faculty produce scholarly work related to teaching, learning, and their fields of specialization.  All faculty on continuing appointments are actively engaged in research, and they disseminate their work through professional publications and presentations.  Review of Faculty Vitae provides strong evidence of scholarly productivity ranging from knowledge generation to exploration and questioning of the field to evaluations of teaching approaches.  Research and grant activities of School of Education faculty are summarized in a university-wide publication, Scholarly and Artistic Contributions of the Faculty, published annually until 2002.  Publication of this document by the Office of Grants and Research Administration was suspended in 2003 due to severe budget cuts, but a comparable listing of scholarly achievements has been compiled for School of Education faculty and is included with the 1998-2002 documents in the Evidence Room. 

Over the past five years (1998-2002), faculty have published 37 books and monographs, and over 261 book chapters and journal articles.  They presented papers at more than 759 international, national, and state conferences.  Since 1998, faculty generated over $25 million in funded projects, more than a 300% increase over the previous five-year period.  On an annual basis, School of Education faculty outperform all other departments on campus.  Indicative of the broad-based involvement of faculty is the fact that 18-21 different individuals are principal investigators on funded grants in any given year.

Scholarly accomplishments of faculty have been recognized within the College and professional communities.  Recent awards include a National Association for Gifted Children (NAGC) Distinguished Scholar award and an Association for the Study of Higher Education (ASHE) Research Achievement Award.  Research awards to faculty over the past five years are listed on www.wm.edu/education/DeansOffice/titlepage.htm.

The effectiveness of faculty as scholarly models and mentors is particularly evident in the accomplishments of students.  As noted in the Scholarly and Artistic Contributions listings, faculty have frequently published and presented papers collaboratively with their students.  Over the past five years, a number of students have received national research awards such as National Association of Gifted Children’s Doctoral Student Award and the David L. Clark National Graduate Student Research Seminar in Educational Administration and Policy from the American Educational Research Association.

Modeling Best Professional Practices in Service

School of Education faculty are actively engaged in design and delivery of instructional programs in both professional education and K-12 schools.  Again, vitae of faculty document the myriad ways in which faculty work with public and private school colleagues.  Beyond this extensive individual involvement, the School of Education hosts seven major centers and numerous outreach projects through which faculty and staff serve children, families, and practicing professionals.  Specific information about the goals, structures, and activities of the following School of Education outreach centers may be found at their websites:  The William and Mary School Leadership Institute, Center for Gifted Education, New Horizons Family Counseling Center, Project HOPE,  Special Education Training and Technical Assistance Center (T/TAC), The Virginia Educational Technology Alliance (VETA), and the Historic Triangle Substance Abuse Coalition (HTSAC).   Additional information about each Center is available in the Evidence Room. 

Through these centers and numerous other projects conducted by program faculty, the School of Education provides education-related services at the local, state, national, and international levels.  In recent years, more than 500 families, 1400 school-age children, and 20,000 practicing professionals have been served annually by School of Education outreach programs. 

Several recent programs exemplify the quality and extent of faculty engagement in the professional world of practice in K-12 schools.  In 1994, the School of Education in partnership with eight local school districts, the Virginia Department of Education, and the Virginia School for the Deaf and Blind, created the School-University Research Network (SURN) to improve teaching and learning for all learners through collaborative field-based research that informs the delivery of educational services.  Over the past eight years, SURN has grown to include 24 school districts throughout the Peninsula, Northern Neck, and Southside regions of the state.  An Advisory Board comprised of superintendents and key instructional leaders from the participating districts establishes common research and professional development priorities, and teams of faculty and K-12 personnel collaborate in the design and implementation of specific initiatives.  The SURN website and materials provided in the Evidence Room describe the range of programs provided.  In any given year, approximately one-third of the School of Education faculty is directly involved in SURN activities.

A second example is the Partnership in Leading and Learning in Rural Schools (PiLLiRS), a five-year project supported by the Jessie Ball duPont Fund (1999-2004), enabling the School of Education to work intensively with five, small, low-performing school districts in the Northern Neck region of the Commonwealth. This comprehensive, in-depth program has focused on critical needs identified collaboratively with K-12 school partners.  Project activities have involved school boards, superintendents, central office administrators, principals, and teachers in school improvement efforts.  Nineteen faculty and staff from the School of Education have worked with school colleagues on design and delivery of professional development programs, teacher and administrative evaluations systems, school climate analyses, curriculum and teaching assessments, and other initiatives.  PiLLiRS evaluation reports document the effectiveness of this school-university partnership in the improvement of student and school performance. 

School of Education faculty also impact the profession by serving in leadership roles for state, national and international associations.  Numerous faculty have held key offices (president, chair, board member, etc.) in international, national, and state professional organizations, including the Council for Learning Disabilities, the National Board for Certified Counselors, the International Test Commission, and the Virginia Association of Colleges of Teacher Education. Additionally, two faculty serve as editors of scholarly journals which are housed in the School of Education. In recognition of significant service contributions, faculty and staff have received 11 awards over the past five years from key professional organizations.  The list of awards includes the Floyd G. Hudson Award for Outstanding Service from the Council on Learning Disabilities (CLD) and the Virginia Counseling Association’s Post-Secondary Counselor of the Year.

Collaboration

School of Education faculty collaborate regularly and systematically with one another and with colleagues in K-12 schools, other colleges and universities, and the broader professional community to improve teaching and learning as well as the preparation of educators (see list with examples of ongoing partnerships and collaborative activities on the Dean's site) . The development of William and Mary’s Conceptual Framework, described in the opening section of this report, illustrates the inclusive and collaborative manner in which decisions are made in the School of Education.  The organizational structure of the unit itself -- three Areas with multiple specializations in each and certain faculty with dual-Area affiliations -- ensures cross-disciplinary interactions among faculty as they design and refine academic programs and research/service projects.  Active involvement of part-time faculty from other William and Mary units and from K-12 schools also enriches collaborative opportunities. (See, for example, Minutes of C&I and EPPL meetings in the Evidence Room for evidence of collaborative work.)  Beyond Area activities, many School-wide ad-hoc groups are formed to address specific cross-disciplinary concerns.  Two recent examples include a School of Education Portfolio Committee to share best practices across programs and a special Committee on Psychoeducational Assessment to explore common and unique assessment needs within graduate programs. 

The Clinical Faculty provide an especially powerful link with K-12 practice, as evidenced by recent efforts of the C&I Area to revise its student competencies.  A sub-group of C&I faculty from several specializations analyzed the alignment of program competencies with state, INTASC, and NBPTS standards.  Drafts were discussed and revised by the full C&I faculty prior to approval of the new competencies.  The 2003-04 cohort of Clinical Faculty are now engaged in developing performance indicators to be used for evaluation of competencies in practicum and student teaching. 

School of Education centers and funded projects are catalysts for collaboration.  The Center for Gifted Education, for example, is internationally known for its cross-disciplinary curriculum and professional development programs.  Faculty and staff of the Center work closely with faculty from relevant departments in Arts and Sciences and K-12 school personnel to design and field-test innovative, problem-based curriculum materials. Curricula developed by the Center are used by school systems in all 50 states and in 18 countries. The Center for Gifted Education has received seven awards from the U.S. Department of Education and the National Association for Gifted Children for its research-based curricula.

Special projects, such as the Evaluation of An Achievable Dream, engage teams of faculty and staff in intensive research and school improvement efforts.  An Achievable Dream is a partnership between the business community and Newport News Public Schools to give children who are at risk of failure in school due to socioeconomic factors a chance to succeed. A team of Education faculty, project staff, and graduate students has been working with Achievable Dream over the past three years to conduct an ongoing comprehensive evaluation of the academic program, co-curricular activities, family involvement, school climate and other factors with an emphasis on student performance data.  Mutual of America has selected An Achievable Dream as the recipient of its prestigious Community Partnership Award for 2003 in recognition of the quality and scope of collaborative work, including the William and Mary Evaluation Partnership.  Additional documentation of collaborative activities, including a comprehensive list of School of Education Partnerships, may be found within the center websites and information packets in the Evidence Room as noted above.

Unit Evaluation of Professional Education Faculty Performance

Policies and procedures of the College of William and Mary and the School of Education mandate systematic and comprehensive evaluations of faculty performance in the areas of teaching, scholarship, and service.  The William and Mary Faculty Handbook describes the university-wide system of Evaluation for Retention, Promotion, and the Award of Tenure (Section B.2) and Policy for Post-Tenure Review (Section B.3). Policies and Procedures for the Evaluation, Retention, Promotion, and Award of Tenure to Members of the Faculty of the School of Education specify the unit’s system in more detail.  The four criteria defined in Section 6 of the School of Education document -- professional development; teaching and academic advising effectiveness; research, scholarly, and/or creative achievement; and service as a professional -- are the bases for annual merit evaluations as well as scheduled reviews. 

Annual evaluations of all faculty with continuing appointments are conducted by the Dean of the School of Education.  Each February, faculty update their vitae with citations of publications, presentations, grants and other scholarly achievements along with information on service to the College, profession, and community. Additionally, they submit a Faculty Report of Professional Activities for the calendar year with supplemental evidence about their professional development and teaching effectiveness and personalized goals for the coming year.  All faculty are invited to meet with the Dean to discuss their annual merit evaluations.  The Dean assesses performance in each of the four criterial areas on a five-point scale as indicated on a Rubric for Faculty Annual Merit Evaluations.

Comprehensive scheduled reviews are conducted for tenure and promotion evaluations.  All tenure-eligible faculty are also evaluated at the mid-point of the pre-tenure period, which, unless otherwise specified in the initial contract, occurs at the beginning of the third year of appointment.  Each tenured member of the faculty is further evaluated through a post-tenure review following each six-year period of service.  A seven-year schedule for School of Education faculty pre-tenure, tenure, and post-tenure evaluations is provided on the Dean's site. 

College and School policies and procedures referenced above specify composition of the Faculty Evaluation Committee, procedures and timelines, criteria and documentation, and appeal processes.  For tenure and promotion reviews, faculty members prepare their individual portfolios that include vitae, a self-assessment narrative, and extensive documentation of their accomplishments in each of the four criteria areas.  External reviews of scholarly productivity are obtained from at least four professors from other institutions who are qualified to assess the quality and significance of contributions to the research literature in the specific field.  The elected Faculty Evaluation Committee considers all information available from the candidate and external reviewers and formulates its recommendation to the Dean.  The Dean then reviews the complete dossier, makes an independent recommendation, and forwards the dossier to the Provost.  On behalf of the President, the Provost reviews the dossier and recommendations from the Committee and Dean, and recommends action to the Board of Visitors.  The processes for pre-tenure and post-tenure evaluation are identical to those for tenure and promotion reviews with two exceptions: external reviews of scholarship are not required and the Provost’s decision does not go to the Board of Visitors for final approval. 

Unit Facilitation of Professional Development

As explained above, the School of Education has policies and practices that encourage all faculty to be continuous learners by engaging in ongoing professional development.  The inclusion of professional development as one of four critical areas for systematic assessment ensures attention to both individual and unit performance.  To meet professional development expectations, all faculty participate regularly in seminars, workshops, and conferences appropriate to their disciplines, assignments, and professional goals. Although faculty travel extensively to national and international events, rich professional development opportunities are also available in Williamsburg through the numerous conferences, institutes, lectures, and programs sponsored by the School of Education, its centers and projects. Additionally, many faculty are involved in more structured, semester- or year-long programs for professional development.

The College of William and Mary supports faculty development through a number of teaching and research programs.  For more than a decade, the College has sponsored the Teaching Enhancement Project that annually involves faculty from all schools and departments in a year-long program providing seminars and intensive peer support for course design, delivery, and evaluation.  Since 1995, 14 School of Education faculty have participated in this exemplary project. Ten of our faculty have served in leadership roles as members of the board and/or session presenters.  The Reves Center for International Studies sponsors study-abroad programs throughout the year.  Fifteen School of Education faculty have developed, led, presented at, or had other significant involvement in international programs, initiatives, or conferences since 1998. Of special note are recent programs in Bequia, India, Ghana, and Australia. 

The College actively supports faculty scholarship through three types of Research Grants.  For each of these programs, faculty develop proposals which are reviewed and funded on a competitive basis by a university-wide Faculty Research Committee.  The Faculty Research Awards enable faculty to take a semester leave at full salary or two semesters at 80% salary.  Nine School of Education faculty have earned Faculty Research Leaves since 1998.  Summer Research Leaves, particularly targeted to junior faculty, offer faculty a stipend to conduct research in lieu of teaching.  In the past five years, six Education faculty have had Summer Research Leaves.  The College also awards Minor Research Grants to cover actual expenses incurred.  A number of Education faculty and students have benefited from this program.

To supplement and extend the College’s programs, the School of Education offers additional professional development opportunities.  In recent years, all faculty have received a basic travel allowance of $1000 for participation in professional conferences.  The School of Education also provides mini-grants to support faculty research expenditures.  During the severe budget cuts of 2001-02, the School of Education had to suspend its travel and research allocations.  These have been restored effective 2003-04.

The ACT 2 Project described above has provided special professional development opportunities for C&I faculty to support technology integration.  Faculty who committed to participate actively in year-long technology workshops and activities were provided a new laptop, additional graduate assistant support, and a bonus point in the annual merit evaluation system.  In the culminating years of the Project, seven faculty have been awarded mini-grants on a competitive basis to support special technology initiatives. 

Since 1997, the School of Education has provided a $6,000 professional development fund for all new tenure-eligible hires to assist them in establishing their teaching and research agendas.  In consultation with the Dean, these faculty have chosen to use their funds for a variety of needs, such as semester or summer research leave, supplemental travel, and specialized technology.  For additional support, each pre-tenure faculty member is also asked to select two tenured faculty as mentors, at least one in their Area and preferably one who recently completed the tenure process. 

Other professional development opportunities are linked with individual goal-setting that is incorporated into the annual faculty evaluation process.  For example, the Dean agreed to pay the fees associated with a faculty member’s candidacy for National Board Certification and to support a course release for another to serve as a research fellow at the Smithsonian Institution. 

Beyond these structured professional development opportunities, the culture of the School of Education actively encourages sharing and collaboration among faculty throughout their teaching, research, and service work.  The extent of collaboration is evident in the co-design and co-teaching of courses, co-authorship of publications and presentations, and team involvement in outreach activities.