Friday, August 28, the first NCATE Steering Committee of this academic year, 2009-10,  was held. Acting Assistant Dean William Agnew reviewed the changes that are taking place in the NCATE process. A power point describing the summer work with transition points was presented. Our team is preparing some proposals to streamline the and improve our teacher education assessment system. Each of the teacher education program committees will need to decide if they want to complete their appropriate professional association’s SPA seeking program approval at the national level. A series of meetings have been scheduled beginning September 18 at 10:30 to assist those committees to develop the SPA. Program committees choosing to not do the SPA or those programs without a SPA process will complete a MoSTEP template. A series of meetings this fall have been established to assist in this process with the first meeting scheduled for September 4 at 9 am in Hill Hall 209.

During the spring of 2009 Charles Johnson, Family Literacy Council, presented his research using Laubach reading materials and teaching methods with special education students. We had been contacted by the Nixa School District for assistance to improve the reading achievement of their IEP students. We also made contact with several more rural schools districts about their interest in using the Laubach program materials with their IEP students. A pilot was completed in Ava during their summer school with very promising results. During August 47 teachers in Nixa, Republic, West Plains and Ava were trained to use the Laubach method and materials. Approximately 350 students are using this program with 85% of the students having IEPs. The other 15% of the students are at-risk students. Drs. Goodwin and Garrison-Kane are working with special education students to complete some research with this student population. Each of the four school districts are collecting pre and post test results with the SRI assessment. W Roy Roworth is the contact for this project and Drs. Garrison-Kane and Goodwin can be contacted regarding research studies being conducted.

Teacher Education Alliance (TEA) – Participants from the four colleges involved and Springfield Public Schools will be meeting August 31 to plan our panel presentation at the Accountability and Accreditation Conference in Washington, DC, September 12. Approximately 18 MSU students will be completing their practicum this fall at Westport, Bowerman, and Williams Elementary Schools. Students from Drury will be working in Boyd and MacGregor Elementary Schools, while students from Evangel will be in Watkins Elementary School. Baptist Bible College will be supplying practicum students to Weller Elementary School. Representatives from the Mathematics Department are working to place students at Hillcrest High School and practicum students at Reed MS in the spring. Discussions are continuing to place students at Reed MS this fall.