Last month, I launched our premier points and asked for conversations around each point and the intersection across the various points.  Once again, the premier points were chosen because they were inclusive of all programs across the College of Education.  The premier points are to move us forward toward the University’s goal of leading the state and the nation in becoming the premier PK-12 teacher preparation program.  The premier points must also build on the skill sets and experiential knowledge base of our students.  These points should be grounded in what we already do (operations genesis) and propel us toward our premier status (aspirational intent).

The next step is to convene representative groups of people to define and operationalize each premier point.  I have asked the following faculty members to take the lead of these premier points:

• Assessment – Robert Boody
• Community Service and Outreach – Clare Struck
• Diversity – Suzanne Freedman
• Field-based Experiences – Dianna Briggs
• Inquiry – Robin Lund
• Leadership – Vickie Robinson
• Literacy – Deb Tidwell
• Technology – Leigh Zeitz

I am requesting that each team consist of a member of each department which of course includes the Malcolm Price Lab School in the department of teaching. 

The task of each team is to craft an implementation plan that:

• Defines the premier point
• Identifies the charge or rationale for the intent
• Generates the factors to consider when implementing the intent
• Identifies the human, capital, and informational resources needed to address the premier point

If you are interested in being on one of these teams, please let the team leader know as soon as possible.  I want everyone to have an articulated understanding of the premier points and to begin to reflect on how these points are incorporated or embedded in your programs, protocols, and pedagogical practices.

Strategic Plan Crosswalk 

Assessment

Operational Genesis:

• Director of Assessment
• Teacher Work Sample
• Piloting the Teacher Performance Assessment
• Students must take an assessment course
• Entry to exit assessments that monitors students’ growth in knowledge and skills
• Entry to exit dispositional assessment
• Performance assessment that showcases students’ enhancement of PK-12 student performance
• Graduate follow up survey at least 1^st, 3^rd, and 5^th year
• Mechanisms put in place to review, analyze, and use data to guide instruction

Aspirational intent

Strategy 1.1.1 Collect immediate and longitudinal data from students/graduates regarding the impact of their coursework

Strategy 1.2.1: Gather data for individual program assessments into continuous improvement cycles to revise curriculum                                                        

Community Service and Outreach

Operational Genesis:

• Early childhood course that requires students to complete clinical hours in community agencies, organizations, and programs that support young learners.
• American Humanics; World leisure; Playground safety; Jacobson Partnership in Comprehensive Literacy; Center for Disabilities, Language, and Literacy; and other programs across the College of Education that encourages connectivity with the community.

Aspirational Intent

Goal 5: establish and enhance strong, mutually beneficial relationships with external constituencies

Obj 5.1. Expand and improve the network of  external partners engaged with COE programs

Obj 5.2. Influence local, state, and national policy development 

Diversity

Operational Genesis:

• All faculty and staff possess the dispositional stances that recognize the imperative of the incorporation of diversity, equity, and inclusion into programs, practices, and protocols.
• Establishment of an academic advisor and recruiter who focuses on recruitment and retention of students of color across the College of Education.
• An established diversity committee that focuses on programming and policies pertaining to diversity.

Aspirational Intent

Goal 1: Lead the state and the nation by developing highly effective professionals prepared to educate, serve, and lead the future generations.

Obj:1.2: Evaluate and adapt all preparation programs to focus on 21^st century skills and create professionals.

Goal 3: Create, maintain, and enhance a culture that is characterized by a proactive commitment to diversity, collegiality, and mutual respect.

Strategy 3.1.1: Create ongoing professional development to increase faculty and staff cultural competency

Strategy 3.2.1: Review curricula to support development of cultural competency amongst students.

Objective 3.2.1: Recruit and retain diverse faculty, staff, and student body

Inquiry

Operational Genesis:

• Content major in secondary programs
• Extensive reading, math, and science content courses required for elementary
• Collaborative research with students and professors
• Price Lab School transforming to Iowa Research and Development School

Aspirational Intent:

Obj. 2.2: Faculty (and students) will engage in scholarship that represents a broad range of forms and methodologies, has links to teaching and service, and is programmatic, collaborative, and connected with issues of educational importance.

Strategy 2.2.1: Develop collaborative research among pre-service, practicing teachers, and contact professors that address issues and problems of the community, state, nation, and world.

Strategy 2.2.2: Develop active professional communities to support quality scholarship (inquiry).

Strategy 2.2.3: Embrace multiple formats of scholarship (scholarship of discovery, integration, application, and teaching) 

Field-based Experiences

Operational Genesis:

• Active Office of Student Field Experiences
• Nationwide and international placements
• Level I, II, III, and IV experiences
• Clinical experiences required in health, athletic training, and leisure studies
• Professional fields
• State-wide distribution network for student teaching through regional centers

Aspirational Intent

Strategy 1.1.3: Develop diverse learning experiences through technology-rich environments, domestic excursion opportunities, and studies abroad that extend the campus to multicultural national and international settings.

Strategy 1.1.4: Provide early, on-going, diverse, intensive mutually-beneficial clinical-based learning experiences that encourage the development of effective practices, impacts student performance, and supports school reform initiatives. 

Leadership

Operational Genesis:

• Active department of Educational Leadership and Postsecondary Education
• Several Masters of Education in Professional Development offered in various departments
• Budding teacher leader program working in collaboration with Waterloo Public Schools

Aspirational Intent

Objective 1.2: Evaluate and adapt all preparation programs to focus on 21^st century skills and create professionals who are developmentally, linguistically, culturally, and technologically competent and confident.

Tactic 1.1.1.1: Review and strengthen high-quality graduate programs that prepare leaders in their professions and enhance the social, cultural, and economic development of Iowa.

Literacy

Operational Genesis:

• Established the Jacobson’s Comprehensive Partnership in Literacy Center
• Established the Center for Disabilities Studies in Literacy, Language, and Learning
• Active programs in literacy education with a minor in reading education
• Literacy aspects of various disciplines incorporated throughout all programs

Aspirational Intent

Objective 1.2: Evaluate and adapt all preparation programs to focus on 21^st century skills and create professionals who are developmentally, linguistically, culturally, and technologically competent and confident.

Strategy 1.4.3: Evaluate and increase program’s capacity to impact the learning and development of PreK-12 youth. 

Technology

Operational Genesis:

• Established Instructional Technology program
• One-to-one initiative at Price Lab School
• Required courses in technology for teacher education majors
• Most classrooms equipped with technology for presentation purposes
• Most students enter programs as digital natives

Aspirational Intent

Objective 1.2: Evaluate and adapt all preparation programs to focus on 21^st century skills and create professionals who are developmentally, linguistically, culturally, and technologically competent and confident.

Strategy 2.1.2: Ensure that students, professors, instructors, administrators, and staff collaborate in a technology-rich work environment.

Tactic 4.3.3.3: Reallocate funds to support technology enhancements.