Starting in the early 1980s California State University, Bakersfield worked systematically and successfully to improve its multiple and single subject preparation programs. Accepting the recommendations from the Morey Report, CSUB made teacher preparation a university-wide responsibility. The Academic Vice President accepted the leadership for this effort, becoming the Chair of the University's Teacher Education Advisory Committee and working closely with the responsible deans and program chairs. The impetus from the Morey Report carried the campus through the curricular revisions required by the Clute Bill. The revisions completed in response to this legislation produced high quality preparation programs and support arrangements for students preparing for careers in education.

The efforts of the 1980s and the early 1990s produced a number of noteworthy improvements to the teacher preparation programs. First was the cooperation among the liberal arts and the education faculty. This was particularly noteworthy with the Liberal Studies program for which faculty from both schools accepted responsibility for curriculum and student support. Second, the programs created contained a number of required courses that combined both content and pedagogy. Again this occurred most frequently in the multiple subjects program. Third, the University negotiated explicit articulation agreements with its major feeder community colleges that detailed how they might participate in the preparation of prospective teachers. Fourth, the University trained faculty advisors and assigned them responsibility to work with prospective teachers. Fifth, CSUB integrated the credential program prerequisite courses into the multiple subject major programs. While these courses did not formally constitute a minor, they essentially represented one.

Yet CSUB recognizes that there are areas of its preparation programs requiring attention and reform. The CSU conference, "Strengthening Teacher Education in the Undergraduate Years," gave a subset of the campus leadership an opportunity to review the current status of CSUB's teacher preparation programs, view other CSU campus initiatives, and learn about statewide concerns about the CSU's role in preparing teachers. The CSUB team, during the conference and after its return, developed an action plan and established deadlines for the completion of the different components.

1. CSUB will move toward a "blended" teacher education and credential program. The team and campus implemented such a plan in Fall 1996. Sharing responsibility for administering the plan, the Schools of Arts and Sciences and Education admitted to Phase One courses all of the qualified applicants to the Multiple Subjects Credential Program. That pattern of admission has held true through each succeeding quarter. To advance that initiative, by Fall 1999, CSUB will fully implement a policy that will permit multiple and single subject preparation program students to enter the credential program after the completion of 75 percent of their major program. Various safeguards are being established to ensure students are ready for these courses, and students can decide not to enroll at that point without penalty.

2. CSUB will at a minimum double the required observation/participation classroom experiences of multiple and single subject preparation students. At the moment all students take a single early field experience course. Too often this occurs immediately prior to application to the credential program and after the completion of the subject matter preparation program. By Fall 1998 CSUB will establish additional observation opportunities. These will be made part of required program courses. For example, a prospective social science teacher will be required to complete a supervised observation as he/she completes one of several core history courses. The courses will be team taught by History and Education faculty.

3. CSUB will increase the pedagogy component in core content courses in order to model for prospective teachers a variety of ways to present content material. Since the early 1980s several preparation program faculty have established such courses; they are common in coursework required for the multiple subject preparation programs. By Fall 1999, every program will have modified at least two of the core courses to introduce a variety of pedagogies for the presentation of content. Since certain programs lack faculty with such expertise, Arts and Sciences and Education faculty will be paired to work on the revisions. Alternatively when such pairing is impossible, CSUB will bring to the campus appropriate consultants to work with CSUB faculty.

4. CSUB will expand its initiatives to create a greater sense of program identity for students in subject preparation programs. In the case of the Liberal Studies Program there has already been noteworthy progress. The program office has been relocated to a central corridor of the most heavily used classroom building. A suite of offices, which serves as a drop-in advising center, has been set aside for the program. Along with the assignment of a 1/2 time administrator to oversee the program, twenty-five faculty have been engaged for advising and other program activities. The program has designated one faculty member to be responsible for postbaccalaureate and out-of-state equivalency students. The program produces a quarterly newsletter, conducts open forums, and even sends birthday cards to program students. During the next several years the university will extend a level of service to allow single subject students to feel a greater sense of program identity. Specifically by Fall 1999, the university will open a centrally located single subject office that will offer support similar to that being provided by the Liberal Studies Office.

5. CSUB will forge with its major community colleges a curricular partnership to improve the preparation of prospective teachers. As noted above, CSUB has completed elaborate articulation agreements that detail what courses prospective teachers can complete prior to transfer to CSUB. However, the community colleges can assume a more extensive role in the early stages of the preparation program. Because of the large number of students who complete a significant portion of their undergraduate program prior to transfer, this step is essential to our reform effort. By January 1999, CSUB will reach agreement with its feeder community colleges whereby they offer multiple observation/participation opportunities, their faculty revise core courses to begin modeling best practice pedagogies, and they become part of CSUB's assessment program.

6. CSUB will conduct formative and summative assessment of both multiple and single subject preparation students. During the 1980s CSUB established complex assessment systems. For multiple subject preparation students, for example, these involved several examinations, a transcript review and an oral examination by a panel of faculty. After several years' experience and a critical CTC report the systems were curtailed. Assessment became centered on satisfactory completion of coursework with specific grades and overall grade point average. The campus faculty recognize that modes of assessment require attention. By Fall 1999, CSUB will implement an assessment system based on student portfolios. While the details have to be hammered out, the portfolio assessment will be introduced to students by the end of their first year on the CSUB campus or at the partner community colleges; students will be required to maintain coursework samples from all core courses (including those completed at community colleges); the students will be required to demonstrate competencies in the appropriate areas of knowledge and essential skills; faculty advisors will carry out formative assessment; and summative assessment will occur in the capstone courses, already a feature of the preparation programs.