Re: State Regulation vs Academic Freedom

From: David H Kirshner (dkirsh@lsu.edu)
Date: Sat Apr 12 2003 - 14:51:05 PDT


Thanks, Bill.
The teaming up of the Louisiana Board of Regents (which governs higher ed) with teacher certification agencies to regulate non-certification (i.e., academic, rather than professional) graduate Education programs may be setting a dangerous new precedent in the U.S. for violation of academic freedom. That's why we're trying to determine whether colleagues in other U.S. states are subject to the sort of regulation we're grappling with here.

Replies on or off line appreciated (please "reply to all" to update my LSU colleagues).

David

_______________________________

On 04/12/2003 04:24 PM GMT, Bill Barowy said:

Hi David , you are right. This has to do with state certification -- which is
central to many of our offerings. Sorry for the misunderstanding -- too much
haste on my part. I'll read the rest of the conversation with interest.

_______________________________

XMCA Colleagues.

In parallel with many other U.S. states, we in Louisiana recently have
undergone extensive revision of our teacher certification programs
(undergraduate and graduate) to make them conform to new licensure
requirements promulgated by the Louisiana Department of Education and the
Board of Elementary and Secondary Education (BESE). Now the Board of
Regents which oversees higher education in Louisiana, in conjunction with
BESE, has issued a set of prescriptive guidelines for our non-certification
masters programs. These guidelines are intrusive, including prescriptions
for the structuring of specializations (which currently are
unstructured--negotiated individually), and for the inclusion of
"performance indicators" for each course description.

Our Department is struggling with how to respond to what appears to be a
clear infringement of our academic freedom. We would appreciate finding out
if colleagues in other U.S. states or other national jurisdictions are
grappling with similar problems.

Thanks.
David

_____________________
David Kirshner
Department of Curriculum & Instruction
Louisiana State University
Baton Rouge LA 70803-4728
(225) 578-2332    (225) 578-9135 (fax)
dkirsh who-is-at lsu.edu



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