Message from the Dean
Educational excellence is one of the hallmarks of the College of Education and Behavioral Sciences. Members of the College community continually strive to ensure that the quality of our programs is pre-eminent. Excellent teaching is a sine qua non, relevant applied research is the norm and leadership in professional service is valued. We also spend a great deal of effort assessing, documenting and improving the quality of our programs.
Each year, we accumulate evidence regarding the quality of our efforts and we assess the performance of our students. On national tests our students fare remarkably well—more than 90 percent of our teacher candidates pass the state licensure test. Professional counseling students perform considerably above the national average on the comprehensive examination in their field and information from Career Services regarding employment indicates that our graduates across all programs are very successful in gaining employment in their chosen field, with placement rates close to 100 percent. According to recruiters at the UNC Teacher Fair, our teacher candidates are competitive for the jobs for which they apply. Surveys of our graduates show that they believe themselves to be prepared for their teaching jobs both one and three years after graduation.
Our students also regularly receive a variety of awards. Recently, three students received the Distinguished Student Researcher Award at the Rocky Mountain Psychological Association Conference. Another student received a $20,000 Doctoral Fellowship from the American Association of University Women Educational Foundation.
All of our programs are accredited by the appropriate accrediting bodies. These accreditations require extensive documentation and a lot of effort on the part of the faculty. This year the American Psychological Association reaccredited the school psychology program.
One strong indicator of the quality of our work is the amount of “repeat business” we generate. School districts regularly approach us to initiate new projects and to send more of their staff to UNC programs such as the Tointon Institute’s professional development academies.
In celebration of UNC’s Academic Excellence Week, Colorado Superintendent of the Year and UNC alumnus, Dr. Randy Zila gave the keynote speech at the College Honors Convocation in April. Dr. Zila addressed a crowd of about 200 students and their families, college faculty, staff, and advisory board members at this annual event that celebrates student scholarly accomplishments. Approximately 50 students received awards after being selected by the faculty in their programs.
As we come to the end of the 2006-07 academic year, we in CEBS can look back on major accomplishments in several areas. We received several major grants, including one to investigate autism and another to work with the Library of Congress. Our new and unique Distance Opportunities for Interpreter Training Center continues to thrive. This Center recently received a contract to prepare educational sign language interpreters for the state of Louisiana. In the last year faculty members published and presented approximately 200 scholarly works in journals, books, chapters and at conferences.
While the academic year may be coming to a close, planning for the next year is in full swing. We will deliver a new undergraduate degree program in special education in Denver in the fall and our popular post baccalaureate teacher licensure programs are poised for a major expansion in the Loveland area. We are also planning to celebrate the 30th anniversary of the Summer Enrichment Program this June.
In my role as dean it is very gratifying to see the dedicated efforts of our faculty, staff and students. Despite the financial challenges to higher education in Colorado, we continue to focus on excellence and continuous improvement. You will get a sense of these dedicated efforts in this newsletter.
Eugene P. Sheehan
Dean