The Programs Committee for the School of Education met on Friday, March 25th at 12:30 pm.
We reviewed many course and program proposals including proposals for a revised Special Education program, new course proposals for Counseling Psychology 325 Seminar: Seeking Educational Equity and Diversity (SEED) and Art 343 Metal Fabrication and Welding in Sculpture, as well as course change proposals for Kinesiology 321 Introduction for the Neural Basis for movement and Curriculum and Instruction 673 and 674.
The new revised proposal for the Special Education program was passed through the committee after discussion on the math criteria for students in the Special Education program. Art 343 as well as the course change proposal for Kinesiology 321 were also passed through committee along with the SEED course. The C&I courses were also passed through with the requirement that an explanation of the credit change must be sent to the chair of our committee before moving on.
The committee’s next meeting will be held in April.
-Erin Connell
The School of Education Programs Committee met on Thursday, March 3. This meeting was a rescheduled meeting of the cancelled February 18th meeting. The agenda included course credit amount changes, a proposal for a new Special Education program, review of a proposal for a new SEED course and also a meeting with the Director of the McBurney center regarding access and accommodations for students with disabilities.
Since the committee is very concerned with professor’s policies on access and accommodations for disabilities when reviewing syllabi, this meeting was very helpful and informative. We learned that the best way for students and faculty to make an accommodation is to meet early in the semester and to be flexible with scheduling. It is also important for professors to consider that an accommodation cannot alter the fundamentals of the class, and may not always be able to be granted. This issue will remain a topic of conversation as future course proposals are reviewed.
The School of Education Programs Committee met on Friday, November 19. The agenda included review of new course proposals, minor course changes and a discussion of how the School of Education Strategic Priorities could guide the work of the Programs Committee.
One issue that has a direct impact on students is access and accommodations for students with disabilities. Students are highly encouraged to inform their professors of any special needs they might have at the beginning of the semester when accommodations can be made more easily. When students wait until late in the semester to inform their professors of special needs those accommodations can be much more difficult to arrange, particularly if the students are struggling in the course. McBurney Disability Resource Center guidelines are used by many professors to make the accommodations process work smoothly and effectively. This issue will probably remain a topic of discussion as future syllabi are reviewed for approval.
- Jamie Bemis & Andrew Briddell
The Programs committee met for the second time today, approving the minutes from the Sept 17th meeting:
- Group members saw a presentation educating them on the expectations of Divisional Committee
- Jeff Hamm presented the Programs Committee Charge and Procedures. The group reviewed it and approved the procedural change that all proposals will be submitted through the Dean’s office rather than from the Department
- EPS 701 Introduction to Educational Policy Studies course change proposal passed: Prerequisites will be made more specific to fulfill the goal of the course which is developing a sense of community among Educational Policy Studies grad students
- Doctoral Minor in Qualitative Methods in Education new course was proposed and passed
- The chair led a discussion of the possible impacts of the School of Ed’s 2010-11 Strategic Priorities on Programs Committee deliberations
With all of those things being established and discussed, October 15th’s meeting was very productive. Several Courses were discussed:
- C&I 277 new course Videogames and Learning was proposed: Being proposed as a new course to fulfill breadth requirement Comm B, this course was scrutinized in detail. The proposal was ultimately tabled, pending requests for letters from the English Department chair, and a few syllabus changes
- Kines Athletic Training: Exercise Movement and Science Admission Policy change proposal passed: The department changed the requirement of prerequisite GPA of 2.75 to a requirement of a cumulative GPA of 2.75. The reasoning behind this was to give all students an equal chance in application and eliminating the advantage for students that leave select classes until after the application semester.
- There was a preliminary reading of the Special Education Teacher Certification Program Redesign, and feedback was given to the Special Education department. Suggestions included talking to other universities regarding their programs and questioning the state regarding the existence of dual-certification opportunities for new teachers.
- The Procedures document and Strategic Priorities on Programs Committee were discussed as a follow-up from last weekend
If you have any questions or would like more details on anything discussed, please contact me at jabemis@wisc.edu
Jamie Bemis
