Submitted Fall, 2005
Introduction
This assessment report for the Fall of 2005 chronicles on the ongoing efforts of the Teacher Education Department to complete the renewal of its program, a task which began in 1999. The assessments addressed here are a result of the Department’s determination to meet the twin standards of accountability and veracity. Accountability refers to the Department’s commitment to demonstrate that candidates do receive the quality education that prepares them to be highly qualified teachers. Veracity is the Department’s commitment to demonstrate that these assessments do reflect a determined effort to renew teacher education to meet the high principles espoused by the National Network for Educational Renewal. Among these principles are to prepare candidates in three areas: diversity, technology, and democracy. Most important among these is the democracy component with its four subcategories of (1) stewardship, (2) enculturation of youth in a democracy, (3) nurturing pedagogy, and (4) access to knowledge. The renewal of this Teacher Education program is aimed at producing candidates who will be capable of renewing our democracy for generations to come.
Many of the assessments herein are as much more about commitment to these principles than to the mastery of a static body of knowledge.