The Pennsylvania Association of Colleges and Teacher Educators

A State Unit of the Association of Teacher Educators
and The American Association of Colleges for Teacher Education

 

President's Report
October 29, 2009
PAC-TE Annual Business Meeting
President's Report

Since my last report to the membership in October 2008, I have continued to work to advance the PAC-TE agenda.

Last November I attended a special hearing on the resolutions passed at our annual business meeting. Through the continued efforts and leadership of many PAC-TE members and other organizations such as AICUP, PDE agreed to eliminate the faculty matrix and the credit requirements embedded in the guidelines for the new certificate programs. I met with representatives from PDE throughout the year to keep abreast of information on the program review process and the electronic application.

I attended meetings of the State Board of Education and offered comment on the recently released post baccalaureate guidelines at the August meeting. The following points were highlighted in my testimony:

  1. The new guidelines will require institutions to submit another electronic application. It was recommended that the current electronic application be revised to allow institutions to submit one application for initial certification at the baccalaureate and post baccalaureate levels. For programs that have already submitted initial programs for approval, a streamlined process should be developed to avoid duplication of work.
  2. The new guidelines require post baccalaureate candidates to have an entry GPA of 3.00. Institutions may offer a provisional acceptance to candidates not meeting this criterion. Chapter 354 allows institutions more flexibility when accepting candidates into initial certification programs at the baccalaureate and post baccalaureate levels. It was recommended that the guidelines be realigned with Chapter 354.
  3. The new guidelines do not allow post baccalaureate candidates to seek dual certification in special education. Candidates seeking post baccalaureate certification in special education must hold certification in another area. Imposing this restriction will limit the ability of institutions that have developed strong dual certification programs at the baccalaureate level to offer these programs to post baccalaureate candidates. It was recommended that the restriction on dual certification programs be eliminated from the guidelines.

I attended a follow-up meeting with Terry Barnaby and Abby Smith to further discuss these concerns.

I presided over quarterly meetings of the Board of Directors. In this capacity I was involved in the interviews for the new executive director, worked with Cly Hornung and the LFTE grant committee, attended TEA planning meetings and reviewed proposals for presentations, worked with the spring conference planning committee, developed the budget for 2009-2010, participated on the selection committee for Teacher Educator of the Year award, and participated on the newly formed ad-hoc committees on the ATE Standards for Teacher Educators and creating a divisional/SIG structure within PAC-TE.

As president, I also had the opportunity to attend the ATE conference in Dallas. I attended the meeting for the Council of Unit Presidents and served as a delegate to the ATE business meetings. On behalf of PAC-TE, I accepted the ATE Unit Award for Membership Management.

Respectfully Submitted:
Kathleen Ruthkosky, Ph.D.
PAC-TE President