(Turn your volume down to stop Ted's playing "Linus & Lucy")

November 2010 - Vol.1 No.1

Carolyn Rogers, Faculty Chair                                          Melissa McIntyre, Faculty Lead
            Phil Corkill, Core Faculty                                                     Doug DeWitt, Core Faculty                

                Ted Ray, Core Faculty                                                   Alma Rodriguez, Core Faculty          

Leadership in Education Administration - LEAnews

Hello all! This is my first attempt putting together this newsletter, so please let me know your thoughts and ideas to improve the content. For the first issue, I thought I should include my picture so all will know what I look like! This is me looking at the computer screen.

Our newsletters are intended to provide:

  LEA Faculty Meeting Minutes

  News About LEA Faculty

  News About LEA Learners

  Any Other Important News, Updates, Information

  Just For Fun (Anything!)

LEA Specialization Meeting Minutes - November 9, 2010 (or click here for the .pdf version)

Melissa McIntyre, Bill Wold, Lee Monroe, Debbie Schreiner, Claire Boyce, Sue Slater, Ted Ray, Bob Pohl, Steve O’Brien, Jerry Horgen, Phyllis Wilson, Laura Trujillo-Jenks, Phil Corkill, Linda Crawford, Alma Rodriguez, Carolyn Rogers, and Doug DeWitt.

IRB

Quantitative Studies: You received information about the new requirement to add research questions that align to hypotheses for quantitative studies. If your mentee has not had his/her proposal approved by IRB yet and the study is of a quantitative nature, please make sure you let them know about this change and ensure that the change has been made.

IRB Packet Not Ready: A couple of weeks ago you received information about the process that would be followed if an IRB packet was submitted, but was determined to be not ready for review. Please share this information with your mentees so that they are familiar with the requirements. Key points related to this process include the need to work with Adell Newman-Lee on any items that still need to be addressed. In addition, once approval has been granted from Adell Newman Lee, the IRB packet and all supporting documents will need to be uploaded for a second time in IRBNet for review.

Research Messenger: The research department is developing newsletter for mentors. It will be coming out later this year.

Changes: There will additional IRBNet changes happening in 2011 designed to benefit everyone. More information will be shared as it becomes available. Potential changes to IRBNet in 2011

Research Education Webinars: If you are interested in attending one of the research webinars, Please use the following information: (https://capella.webex.com). Search for Research Education Webinars under “Events”.

IRB Questions: If you have any questions about the IRB process, please email them to Melissa McIntyre. All questions will be compiled and forwarded to Courtney Jarboe, who will then provide answers.

Learners in IRB Process: If you have a learner in the IRB process more than three weeks, please contact Dr. Rogers. Also, if you need some help with IRB packet, please let us know so that we can offer assistance.

Colloquia

During a colloquium, we want our learners to be focused on that experience so they can gain the most out of their three tracks. As such, please consider being flexible with assignment due date if they are attending a colloquia.

Dissertation Mentoring

Mentoring Meeting: The next mentoring meeting is scheduled for November 16, 2010 at 8:00 pm CST. The meeting will be facilitated by Melissa McIntyre, Alma Rodriguez, & Sam Song. Call information is as follows: Phone Number: 888-227-5650 Access Code: 29213#.

Learner Outreach: Outreach to learners who appear to be ‘stuck’ in dissertation are currently supported via one of two processes: (1) milestone deadline comes due, or (2) learner is in the population identified within the doctoral completion project initiative. In the case of a milestone deadline coming due, the mentor is always involved in the conversation. And, any extension beyond two must be reviewed by the School. In SOE, the dean’s designee is Dr. Newman-Lee. Every time a learner approaches a milestone deadline, it presents an opportunity for the School to have a conversation with the learner. Learners who are identified as part of the doctoral completion project have significant financial aid debt in addition to a potential stall on their current milestone. These learners may be put on a milestone plan to ensure progress toward their upcoming milestone deadline. If the learner doesn’t meet the milestone deadline, s/he will follow the procedure outlined above.

What’s Happening?

We would like to showcase the great things that our faculty and students are doing. So, if you or your mentee, LEA learner, or alumni have gotten a promotion recently, presented at a conference, had an article published, please contact Ted Ray and share it with him by Thursday, November 11, 2010.

Safe Assign

There has been a lag in the SafeAssign processing time. They determined that the system was indeed behind. The outage was caused by a storage failure related to continued high submission volume. It took some time to identify the cause, but thereafter service was quickly resolved. As part of the resolution, Safe Assign has added storage capacity to be more reliable and robust. They believe the system is stabilized and papers are now being processed. There is still a backlog of papers that are queued for processing. This will occur over the next few days. The system is expected to be completely caught up by November 9, 2010.

Course Revision Meetings

Meetings have been scheduled for faculty teaching courses that will be revised in the next quarter. The dates and times are as listed below. Call information will be sent as soon as it is received:

• ED7541: SME is Claire Boyce (November 10, 2010 at 6:00pm CST )
• ED7820: SME is Ted Ray (November 15, 2010 at 6:00pm CST )
• ED7543: SME is Melissa McIntyre-Brandly (November 11, 2010 at 6:00pm CST )
• ED7852: SME is Alma Rodriguez (November 18, 2010 at 6:00pm CST)

E-Portfolio

There are some problems with the current system and faculty would like to explore other portfolio systems that are more user friendly (i.e., Google). In addition it might be helpful to look at the content of the portfolio. Sue is willing to forward the two portfolios.

There were also suggestions about adding detailed instructions for submitting items to the e-portfolio in the first course. An example included the first self-assessment that learners are required to do at the beginning of their program. Another suggestion was to have student create a folder for each course to post all relevant assignments.

Faculty & Learners - Great Things Happening!

Phyllis Wilson was selected as a member of the Illinois State Board Performance Evaluation Advisor Committee to be a part of the development of evaluation models for principals and teachers.
 

 

 

 

 

Ted Ray just attended the NCAIS (North Carolina Association of Independent Schools) Biennial Teachers Conference in Charlotte, NC. The leadership workshops were presented by Rob Evans ("Seven Secrets of The Savvy School Leader ").

 

 

 

 

 

Check out Jerry Horgen's book review published in The School Administrator—

In Instruction That Measures Up: Successful Teaching in the Age of Accountability, author W. James Popham evaluates the merits of in-class testing. Popham claims educators must “measure the dividends of classroom testing” and teach with an assessment frame of mind. They must determine what to teach, design the appropriate instruction and evaluate their instruction to demonstrate success.

 

Popham, an emeritus professor in the UCLA Graduate School of Education and Information Studies, has taught courses in instructional methods for 30 years and written more than 20 books. He touches on assessment terms such as reliability, validity, assessment bias, instructional sensitivity, aptitude tests, and achievement tests in a straightforward manner, and he presents statistics in an accessible and interesting form.

Educators should base their decisions on an “ends-means” model, in which the entry status of the student is used to design individual curriculum. The latter is reviewed for teachability, testability and success. The educator monitors and adjusts the material to ensure understanding.

Popham directs school leaders to address instructionally insensitive tests and to enhance their personal assessment literacy.

Reviewed by Jerry Horgen, adjunct professor, St. Cloud State University and Capella University, Henning, Minn.

Capella Receives NCATE Accreditation!

National Council for Accreditation of Teacher Education (NCATE) has accredited Capella’s Professional Education Unit without qualifications.

NCATE accreditation, which covers advanced educator preparation programs, is recognized by the U.S. Department of Education and the Council for Higher Education Accreditation for the preparation of P-12 teachers and other professional school personnel. This accreditation is the culmination of over three years of diligent preparation and a rigorous external review by various state and professional bodies.

We are honored to receive this recognition from NCATE and to join our fellow institutions who have led the way in creating high standards for educator preparation. NCATE-accredited programs are highly regarded by state licensing authorities, school boards and prospective learners for their academic standards and dedication to improving educational outcomes for school children. This accreditation recognizes and reinforces the Capella commitment to great teaching and learning for our learners as well as the students who are served by P-12 educators. ~Dr. Barbara Butts-Williams, Ph.D., Dean of the School of Education

 

Thank you to ALL who devoted so much time and effort to help Capella attain this vital accreditation status!

Dissertation Update

All are reminded to post the updated LEAD Way Dissertation Template in your dissertation courseroom. The new template requires that quantitative studies include both research questions and hypotheses—previously, quantitative studies required only hypotheses.

Waiting for Superman (got it all wrong??)

Just saw Waiting for Superman. Rick Ayers, former high school teacher, founder of the Communication Arts and Sciences small school at Berkeley Schools, and adjunct professor of teacher education at the University of San Francisco, says "Superman" got it wrong, and describes "a sometimes misleading and other times dishonest account of the roots of the problem and possible solutions." Thought you might be interested in his perspectives. The film depicted the AFT as a primary obstacle to meaningful reform. Yet, ten states do not recognize teacher unions, and their outcomes fail to demonstrate that removing this barrier to ridding our schools of ineffective teachers makes a any difference (see the NAEP math and reading score comparisons below). However, the film clearly portrayed the union as Michelle Rhee’s nemesis, halting her ambitious DC schools merit pay initiative; and, collective bargaining forces compelled NYC to spend $100 million a year on its infamous "Rubber Rooms." The rubber rooms are finally over, though—NYC has found another place for its incompetent and wrongdoing teachers.

Personally, I found Waiting for Superman thought provoking,  offering inspirational perspectives for school leaders and significant implications for all of us who work to prepare future education leaders. Definitely worth seeing!

AVERAGE 2009 NAEP SCORE BY STATE TEACHER CONTRACT LAWS

States with binding teacher contracts
4th grade: Math 240.0 Reading 220.7
8th grade: Math 282.1 Reading 263.7

States without binding teacher contracts
4th grade: Math 237.7 Reading 217.5
8th grade: Math 281.2 Reading 259.5

Rick Ayers's  article, from The Washington Post, is found at http://voices.washingtonpost.com/answer-sheet/guest-bloggers/what-superman-got-wrong-point.html

And, you might be interested, too, in Matthew Di Carlo's "The real effect of teachers union contracts," found at http://voices.washingtonpost.com/answer-sheet/guest-bloggers/how-states-with-no-teacher-uni.html

Dates

Fall Quarter Ends - Friday, December 17, 2010

Online Grading for Fall Quarter Grades CLOSES - December 26, 2010

Jacksonville Colloquium - December 27-30, 2010

Winter Quarter Begins - January 10. 2011

Just for Fun :<)

Dr. DeWitt and Dr. Corkill  provided this update from Anaheim Colloquium: This is to officially notify you all that Phil and Doug are behaving themselves & are not participating in any Mickey Mouse activities as was the case with the the LEA faculty that destroyed Atlanta. We are the models of civility and genteelness unlike the carousing mob that preceded us in GA.

 

Dr. Rogers requested that I embed music into this newsletter, so that's me playing the "Peanuts" song, "Linus & Lucy," on soprano sax in 1989. For the next issue, I'll need your YouTube videos, so please send me your links.