SENT BY TELEFAX TO (916) 278-5014

December 12, 1997

Mr. Gary Hart

Co-Director

Institute for Education Reform

California State University

6000 J Street

Sacramento, CA 95819-6018

Dear Gary:

The summary of California State University, San Marcos' action plan which resulted from our participation in the Strengthening Teacher Education in the Undergraduate Years Conference held in San Diego on October 29-30, 1997 is attached for your use in preparing the report to be submitted to the Board of Trustees and for inclusion in the Conference Proceedings.

Our campus team members left the conference invigorated and enthused, ready to apply what we had learned from our participation in the conference. Thank you for your hard work, and that of your colleagues, for planning and organizing an event that will result in the improvement of teacher preparation.

I look forward to reviewing the Conference Proceedings.

Sincerely,

Richard H. Karas

Vice President for Academic Affairs

RHK:mab

Attachment

cc: Campus Team Members

San Marcos, California · USA 92096-0001 (760) 750-4050 FAX (760) 750-3150 Office of the Vice President for Academic Affairs

Summary of action plan which resulted from our participation in the Strengthening Teacher Education in the Undergraduate Years Conference held in San Diego on October 29-30, 1997.

1. We have initiated an inventory of current projects on campus that represent innovative collaborations between the College of Arts and Sciences (COAS), and the College of Education (COE). We have identified several activities which will lead to better prepared teachers. Among these collaborations are:

Joint projects between faculty from the COAS Biology, Chemistry, Mathematics, and Physics programs, and COE Science Specialist Faculty to improve the delivery of content, and refinement of pedagogical methodology have been developed. Project grants have been submitted to support these collaborative efforts.

Similar projects exist between COAS and COE faculty in History, Global Arts, Foreign Languages, and we expect to uncover more projects as we continue our inventory effort.

The COE and COAS have developed a joint proposal for an Arts in Education Endowed Chair to sponsor research and programmatic development in arts education. The chair will primarily support efforts that link CSU San Marcos with the California Center for the Arts, Escondido, and local public schools districts to support the fundamental role arts play in the education of our diverse, multicultural, and multilingual community.

2. We have created a retreat planning group composed of two faculty from COAS and two faculty from COE. These faculty will create the agenda for a Faculty-Administrator Retreat on Strengthening Teacher Preparation at CSUSM; currently, our plan is to hold the this event in January 1998. Projects we expect to discuss which hopefully will move to implementation include:

Serious examination of the feasibility of creating a curriculum that incorporates the last two years of the Liberal Studies major and the year-long credential curriculum into a single three year curriculum. This project will require careful coordination of staff and faculty efforts, development of advising staff infrastructure, and strategic deployment of resources. These design and logistics details need careful attention and will take some time and planning. This effort would be one of several pathways into our current credential program.

CSU San Marcos

Summary of Action Plan

December 12, 1997

Page 2

Discussion of joint research projects between faculty from COE and COAS. For example: History Program Faculty and Social Sciences Specialists Faculty have been working on a grant project entitled: "Building Communities Through History: A Collaborative Project to Reshape K-12 History Teaching." Another effort involving science faculty from the two colleges has already been submitted for funding. We hope to stimulate similar efforts in other academic disciplinary arenas, and it is our view that our retreat will spark these collaborations.

Discuss the enhancement of undergraduate advising infrastructure in COAS to insure success in three important arenas: students who commit to careers in education at the junior year, providing these students with the best possible teacher preparation teaching and learning, and insuring that this early committing cohort is ethnically diverse in composition.

Discuss ways to enhance the identification of highly qualified students who have not concentrated on pre-teacher education training, but who have outstanding potential as teachers. This student talent pool can significantly enhance the production of credential students; however, finding them, and facilitating their entry to careers in teaching will demand careful attention.

Discuss ways to involve COAS and COE faculty in professional development for K-12 teachers. Our goal is to have K-12 teachers work in collaboration with university faculty in mutually beneficial ways. These efforts would be coordinated through the North County Professional Development Federation.

Discuss joint coordination of curriculum efforts for single subject credentials.

3. A joint faculty meeting between COAS Liberal Studies and COE Social Sciences Specialists took place to debrief on the information presented at the Strengthening Teacher Preparation Conference, and to discuss ways to craft mutually useful ways to strengthen teacher preparation. We expect these two faculty groups will continue to explore this issue.

4. Social/Professional events have been planned involving COAS and COE faculty and staff to create the necessary culture which will lead to cooperative efforts and attendant benefit to teacher preparation. These events will allow personnel from the two colleges the opportunity to learn more about their respective expertise and create the opportunity for further collaboration.

5. We have committed to developing communication tools that will allow faculty from the two colleges to be kept up to date on developments in the area of strengthening teacher preparation. The deans will lead this effort to enhance communication between the two colleges.

CSU San Marcos

Summary of Action Plan

December 12, 1997

Page 3

6. We have initiated a frank and useful discussion on how best to deploy current campus resources, and resources connected with the Governor's Economic Improvement Initiative to insure that all campus units who participate in strengthening teacher preparation will feel recognized and supported in their efforts. In our view, failure to recognize all parties working to advance teacher preparation will result in less than full success.

7. We hope to engage the administrator and senior faculty in a discussion and commitment to make sure that efforts by untenured faculty in enhancing teacher preparation are aligned with our campus faculty reward system. This will be a complex and strongly debated issue; however, without the linkage of faculty efforts to teacher preparation, we will not see serious and sustained commitment to this effort by faculty.