Page 45 - Academic Report FINAL VERSION WEB

PROGRAM HIGHLIGHTS
SCHOOL O F E DU C ATI ON AND BEHAVIO RAL S ERVICES
Department of Teacher
Education & Social Work
The Department of Teacher Education and Social
Work has had an exceptional 2018-2019 academic
year that can be summed up with the quote “Find out
what you’re doing right and keep doing that.”
In a recent state accreditation visit, April 14-18, ships with other institutions and organizations, as ev-
2019, a team of seven veteran reviewers from the
Georgia Professional Standards Commission visit-
ed the Department of Teacher Education and So-
cial Work as part of the Continuing Approval Review
process of the teacher education program. This visit
marked the culmination of the accreditation review
process that has spanned 18 months from preparation
to completion.
The teacher education program had to meet six
standards:
1. Content and pedagogical knowledge
2. Clinical partnerships and practice
3. Candidate quality, recruitment and
selectivity
4. Program impact
5. Provider quality assurance and continuous
improvement
6. Georgia special requirements
From biology to mathematics to history to En-
glish in either baccalaureate or master’s level, ten
programs in all had to be approved. Each standard
has from three to seven components. All the teacher
education programs in MGA’s Department of Teacher
Education and Social Work met all of the standards.
Furthermore, it exceeded Standard 2, “Clinical Part-
nerships and Practice.”
The team wrote in the final report in regard to
Standard 2: “The EPP (Education Preparation Provid-
er) demonstrates strong collaboration among P-12
partners, including, but not limited to: 1) the Middle
Georgia P-20 Collaborative (Georgia Department of
Education, Georgia Professional Standards Commis-
sion and the University System of Georgia); 2) the
partner schools; 3) the long-standing relationship
among cooperating teachers, school administrators,
and Middle Georgia State University faculty and staff;
4) the ‘Teachers as Interns’ program; and 5) the op-
portunities for school partners to evaluate the EPP
and provide helpful feedback. The EPP demonstrates
evidence of co-constructing mutually beneficial P-12
school and community arrangements.” The accredita-
tion team also noted how the EPP produced quality
graduates and nurtured ongoing relationships with
the alumni.
The strong school partnerships that the faculty and
Academic Affairs Annual Report 2019 | Middle Georgia State University 41
staff have developed are impressive. Our partnerships
span 13 school districts and include 12 schools total.
This includes three Bleckley County schools; one Pu-
laski County school; seven Bibb County schools; and
one Monroe County school. In Houston County, MGA
teacher candidates are spread all over the district.
The department also continues to foster relation-
idenced by its relationships with STARBASE Robins,
Middle and Heart of Georgia RESAs (Regional Edu-
cational Service Agency), and the CEEDAR (Collabo-
ration for Effective Educator Development, Account-
ability and Reform) initiative, as just a few examples.
The faculty and staff have worked diligently to build
and foster connections with various groups that sup-
port the preparation of highly effective educators.
The Public service B.S. in the department is also
interested in nurturing relationships in our communi-
ty. Public Service majors are continuously making a
difference in the greater middle Georgia community
as they complete internships with agencies such as
the Boys and Girls Club, Division of Family and Chil-
dren Services, The Rescue Mission of Middle Georgia,
The Rainbow House Children’s Resource Center, and
The Methodist Home for Children and Youth, to name
a few. Mentors in these organizations note the impact
of the interns and their full preparation for the tasks.
The Department of Teacher Education and Social
Work knows what it does well and is going to do more
of it by expanding the Interns as Teachers program
this year with Pulaski County and Dublin City Schools.
Also, we are reaching out to more potential teaching
candidates by offering an Online/Weekend Elementa-
ry/Special Education track. We will continue to “find
out what we are doing right and continue to do that,”
and we will do more. The best is yet to come in the
Department of Teacher Education and Social Work.