School of Education

This annual report is organized around the three themes identified in the School of Education Strategic Plan: Excellence, Inclusivity/Diversity, and Collaboration. The overall mission of the School of Education remains to “prepare excellent teachers and educational leaders who engage in reflective practice and scholarly activity, and who are ethical decision makers and agents of social change.” We prepare teachers and educational leaders who will Teach the next generation of PreK-12 teachers who will take the Lead in schools, communities, and with children, so that they can Transform themselves into better people and their communities into better communities. Teach, Lead, Transform – it’s what we do in the School of Education.

In 2016-17 the staff, faculty, and administration of the School of Education continued to streamline many internal processes by digitizing forms thereby reducing paper-based procedures, clarifying new advising roles among faculty and professional advisors, and reorganizing office space as much as possible to accommodate growth. We continued putting structures and processes into place to establish cycles of assessment for continuous evaluation and improvement in our efforts to establish a culture of assessment. We established or revamped a number of committees that focus on areas that need improvement or will help maintain our focus on key initiatives. The committees are: Partnership Committee (charged with examining partnerships with schools); Scholarship/Celebration Committee (charged with selecting scholarship recipients and celebrating students); Communications and Marketing Committee (charged with seeking opportunities to tell the SOE story and improve internal communications); Advising Committee - charged with being an advisory and communication group for SOE advising among faculty and staff; Graduate Culture Committee - charged with creating and maintaining a culture amenable to graduate students; and Assessment Committee - charged with analyzing current programmatic assessment activities and helping to establish more effective assessment strategies. As a result of these committees, the SOE has advanced many of our goals. We also recognized that the work of some of the committees (namely Partnerships and Assessment) is better suited to a different structure, so we revised how that work will be done, and the Graduate Culture Committee’s charge has been changed based on what we learned in 2016-17. The new structures and charges are currently being implemented and will be described in the 2017-18 Annual Report.

Importantly, in 2016-17 the Elementary and Literacy faculty worked diligently to roll out the new elementary curriculum that includes a senior year residency. This is the first time a residency program has been installed in a university program, and one of the few undergraduate residency programs in the country. The rigorous curriculum, embedded partnerships, and instructional prowess that this new program requires demonstrates our commitment to excellence and innovation.

Although it is difficult to determine if our efforts and new procedures (along with our faculty’s excellent instruction and curriculum) affected enrollment, retention, and other important measures, we can say that during the 2016-17 year, total enrollment started to level off and ended with a slight overall increase from the previous year, and retention from last year to this year remains the highest in the university.

Faculty productivity also remained healthy in 2016-17 with a total of 39 publications and attendance/presentations at 76 conferences and seminars. Although refereed presentations and publications were virtually the same over the past two years, grant funding significantly increased in 2016-17. That is, 17 faculty wrote 11 grants that were funded, the biggest of which is a $1.7 million dollar NSF grant, co-PI’d by Drs. Janelle Johnson and Hsiu-Ping Liu (CLAS faculty), which provides funding for underrepresented groups to become trained as STEM teachers. Drs. Philip Bernhardt and Lorretta Chavez wrote another similar grant, which is currently being reviewed.

Raising money for students and programs is a major goal of the School of Education. To that end, since 2014, donations to the School of Education has increased 304%. In 2016-17, we raised over $100,000 more than the previous year. We established another endowment and two more annual scholarships, while increasing the overall amounts in already established accounts.

Collaboration across departments, the university, and the community is also major value in the School of Education. The Annual Summit helps advance our goals that fall under that value. The 2016 Summit brought together approximately 100 people from schools, non-profit organizations, state departments, and more to MSU Denver to learn from an engaging keynote speaker from Gallup Organization, and, most importantly, engaged in valuable conversations about teaching and teacher education.

Faculty in the School of Education spent a significant amount of time (as many as 450 hours) in schools and other educational facilities. Over 400 students were placed in schools in approximately 20 school districts in 2016-17. Our faculty and students being embedded in schools as much as they were reflects the commitment we have to schools and children, and requires collaboration between schools and the SOE.

In addition to our collaboration with PreK-12 schools and other facilities, we have maintained or established memberships with a number of professional organizations, and the dean assumed the position of President of a national deans of teacher education organization, Teacher Education Council of State Colleges and Universities (TECSCU). The SOE continues to gain a national reputation, which is furthering our overall goal of being a model urban school of education, which aligns with the goal of the university.

The School of Education faculty, staff, and students are committed to excellence in teaching and educator preparation through data-driven decision making.

In 2016-17, the School of Education headcount remained constant in the number of enrolled Education program major/concentration/minor students as compared to the previous year.

Retention of students of color is a high priority in the School of Education. Our faculty and academic advisors worked diligently in 2016-17 to help students navigate their education coursework and programs. As of August 28, 2017, Team DELTA retention reports show the School of Education has already exceeded MSU Denver’s goal of retaining 73% of enrolled students from Fall 2016 to Fall 2017, and leads the pack in retention rates for all colleges and schools at 78.85%.

In addition to advising, the School of Education is increasing supports to education students by providing scholarships. In 2016-17, the School of Education awarded over $110,000 in scholarships to our students. We are on track to significantly increase that amount in 2017-18, due to fundraising and grant-writing efforts during 2016-17. We continue to focus our efforts to provide funding assistance to students during their student teaching or residency semester(s) – when the majority of their class time is spent in PreK-12 classrooms or educational facilities, resulting in late night or weekend work opportunities that limit financial stability.

Last year, the School of Education recommended almost 300 students for their initial teacher education license. Of those reporting their new teaching jobs to us, the top three districts in which they were hired were Douglas County School District, Denver Public Schools, and Jefferson County Schools, followed closely by Aurora Public Schools and Cherry Creek Schools.

Each year, the Colorado Department of Higher Education (CDHE) generates a Legislative Report on the previous year’s activity in Educator Preparation. In January 2017, CDHE reported that MSU Denver (in 2015-16) prepared the highest number of K-12 Visual Art educators and Physical Education educators when compared to other traditional preparation programs in the state.

Understanding the need for more educators in targeted fields, particularly math and science, in 2016-17 faculty from the SOE and LAS collaborated in writing and were awarded a grant of approximately $1.2 million that will increase the number of students from traditionally underrepresented groups who are preparing to teach STEM fields. Faculty from both units also collaborated in the creation of a new CLD/Bilingual endorsement, another very high need area. The coursework leading to this endorsement is now available to students who are preparing to become teachers.

School of Education faculty were busy in 2016-17 with professional development, grants, and other scholarly activities.

Departmental Updates:

The School of Education is committed to being representative and reflective of the population that it serves.

The race/ethnicity breakdown for the 2111 students enrolled in 2016-17 showed 21% were of Hispanic origin, and all students of color accounted for 32% of the total.

In 2016-17, over 1300 placements were coordinated for education student field experiences (prior to student teaching) and student teaching activities. These placement experiences are intended to introduce students to classrooms and facilities in the Denver metropolitan area, and the populations they serve. Just over 380 of these placements (or 29%) were in schools where more than 60% of the Preschool through 12th grade students were eligible for Free and Reduced Lunch. For all placements, the average percentage of students eligible for Free and Reduced Lunch is 45.7% – adding very diverse perspectives and experiences to our students’ education careers.  

In 2016-17, we hired four new faculty members, three faculty received tenure, and one was promoted to Full Professor. As a result of our growth and attrition among faculty, we are conducting two searches during the current year. Diversity of faculty members is a significant goal for us, so we hope to continue to hire faculty and staff that represent traditionally underrepresented groups in education.

Departmental Updates:

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The School of Education is committed to fostering collaboration among internal and external stakeholders dedicated to excellence in teaching and educator preparation.

In 2016-17, faculty worked with local school districts and facilities to provide the opportunity for education students to receive hands on experiences related to their programs prior to, and including, student teaching. Almost 1000 placements for field experiences prior to student teaching were coordinated over the last year, with the highest percentages of students going to Denver Public Schools and Jefferson County Schools.

Field placements, or early clinical experiences, are those placements in schools that are required aspects of coursework prior to student teaching. In addition, over 360 student teaching placements were coordinated in surrounding districts and out of state, with the highest percentages of students going to Denver Public Schools, Jefferson County Schools, and Cherry Creek Schools.

Each semester, School of Education affiliate and full-time faculty are spending as much as 450 hours in schools and other facilities that provide educational services to children throughout Colorado, particularly around metropolitan Denver. Faculty service activities, including and in addition to, their time in local schools and facilities during 2016-17 were extensive.

Students in education programs will have spent between 800 and 1260 hours in these same schools and facilities during their academic careers at MSU Denver. In 2016-17 the SOE continued collaborations with Denver Public Schools and Jefferson County Schools for a yearlong residency model that is in place during the 2017-18 school year.   

In 2016-17, School of Education faculty collaborated with peers in their fields to conduct presentations at national and international education venues (see Professional Development chart in Excellence section). In addition to collaborating with colleagues in schools and nationally, faculty from the School of Education frequently collaborated with colleagues across the university on publications, grants, and other initiatives, as previously mentioned described in Departmental Updates.

Departmental Updates:

Since 2014, dollar amount donations to the SOE have increased 304%. The number of unique donors (that is, donors who are new to donating to the SOE) have increased from 16 in 2014 to 151 in 2016.

While most of the donations are for scholarships, some have funded the general SOE fund and specific programs.

The SOE received and awarded over $100,000 in scholarships and a new endowment was established in 2016-17. Most of the scholarships target students from traditionally underrepresented groups or students entering into their student teaching or residency experience. In previous years, the School of Education used a streamlined system for awarding the scholarships, and notified students of their awards very early in the summer. In 2016-17, however, we experienced a number of delays and bureaucratic mishaps due to the implementation of the university’s new AcademicWorks system. While the system is considered “state of the art,” it exposed serious concerns with coding of students in the Banner system and ongoing communication issues among Financial Aid, Advancement, and the School of Education. As a result, some students were misidentified as being eligible for scholarships when they were not eligible, funds were not being distributed efficiently if at all, students were notified of their awards late in the summer and even early into the fall semester, and other issues that we are still managing. Working out the issues with AcademicWorks required an inordinate amount of time and effort by many people in the SOE and Financial Aid to resolve the problems. While we continue to collaborate to resolve the issues that AcademicWorks exposed, the School of Education will return to the former system for identifying eligible students and deploying the scholarship funds until the glitches with AcademicWorks are resolved so that we can award the funding efficiently to students who most need it.

Despite the issues with AcademicWorks, 2016-17 was a very successful year for establishing new scholarships and even a new endowment. The biggest new fund is The Jack and Fran Kaufman Endowment and Annual Scholarship established by Cece Box. The endowment is $100,000 with an annual scholarship of $5000. Two students benefitted from the scholarship in 2016-17 and the university will continue to benefit from the Endowment for years to come. The donor is also establishing another endowment that will be described in next year’s report.

In addition, we established the Michael Bentley Annual Scholarship (for students who graduated from Adams City High School who want to become STEM teachers), and the Lynton Starfish Scholarship (for underrepresented students who are entering student teaching with preference for residents). Furthermore, Marge Fisch increased the amount of her already-established endowment.

Perhaps, though, the most notable new scholarship that was added did not come from a traditional source, and is a scholarship that we would have rather not had to establish. In November of 2016, one of our students, Tyler Marchant Despres, suddenly and tragically passed away. His grieving parents asked if we could establish a scholarship in his name, yet they did not have any money. However, working with the Foundation, we creatively established a line in the SOE General Annual Scholarship Fund just for Tyler. Approximately $2000 was donated to this fund, but it was enough for us to award some funds to two students in Tyler’s name.