Dear colleagues---
I need your help especially from those of you who work in School of
Education or Department of Education or College of Education in US (but all
others also help, please). I work at the School of Education, University of
Delaware and I'm sitting on Undergraduate Committee. Together with my
colleagues, we want to revise the policy of how our Elementary Teacher
Education (ETE) program admits transfer students to the ETE program (the
students transfer from other departments within the University and from
outside of the University -- students who enter the program directly as
freshman are not subject to this policy). I want to know what policies exist
in other Universities and what can be a better and fairer policy.
Each year we have a (unpredictable) number of slots that can be filled with
the transfer students and many more transfer students who want to get into
the program. Currently, the ETE program admission solely involves a GPA
cutoff (set at 2.5, but because of a lack of openings, effectively 3.0).
This is the primary admission criteria for the program (there is another
consideration--number of education courses and math courses taken to reflect
commitment to education--but it is secondary to GPA and does not currently
appear to play any significant role in consideration of admission, except
for considering those students for admission who are at the GPA cut-off).
The way how it works is: the students are sorted based on their GPA. The
students for the top of the list are going to be admitted depending how many
slots we have for the current year.
We are concerned about solely using GPA as program admission criterion for
several reasons: (1) it disproportionately affects minority and low-income
students; (2) GPA is not a reliable and sole predictor of becoming a good
teacher; (3) it affects those who are deeply committed to teaching, but do
not have high GPAs.
The current criterion is probably supported by the faculty and
administration because it's easy to explain to parents, students, and is not
burdensome to faculty and staff to administer. Most faculty and staff are
aware that GPA is, at best, related to being a good student in ETE courses
(and even that relation is tenuous). Recently we brainstormed and came up
with a tentative list of criteria we feel would better reflect those
characteristics that are associated with becoming a good teacher (better
than sole GPA that is, which predicts who becomes a good student in ETE
courses, if even that). Does anyone have anything they think is important
to add to this list? Anyone know of any other types of criteria used by
other schools of education or academic departments (and/or suggestions on
who to ask about that)?
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ETE enrollment criteria - initial draft from PIG meeting (discussion on 17
March 2003)
(Please ignore the order)
1) Institutionalized academic success (as measured by GPA in all
courses)
2) Commitment to teacher education (currently measured by number of
education courses already taken, number of math courses taken; other
possible factors: whether or not student took PRAXIS exam; writing an essay
or letter of recommendation)
3) Experience with kids (in community centers, day and summer camps,
schools, etc.)
4) Desire to work in schools from underserved populations
5) Experience with diversity (assessed through structured writing
essays)
6) Commitment to authentic learning (assessed through structured writing
essays)
Whom do we ask for advice?
1. Other departments at the University of Delaware
2. Other Schools of Education
3. Admission (both ETE and University)
4. Undergraduate ETE advisors
How can we get evidence?
How can we quantify?
What weight do we give to the measures?
Who are we concerned about? Minority students and enthusiastic teachers who
are excluded from current enrolment criteria based solely on GPA.
What is research evidence regarding teachers' GPA in college and quality of
their teaching?
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I'd appreciate your help and suggestions!
Take care,
Eugene
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Eugene Matusov, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor of Education
School of Education
University of Delaware
Newark, DE 19716
email: ematusov@udel.edu
website: http://ematusov.soe.udel.edu <http://ematusov.soe.udel.edu/>
publications: http://ematusov.soe.udel.edu/vita/publications.htm
<http://eamtusov.soe.udel.edu/vita/publications.htm>
office phone: (302) 831-1266
fax: (302) 831-4110
office location: Willard Hall hall 206D
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