Saint Xavier University School of Education Chicago, Illinois
Institution Comment Comments submitted by: Beverly Gulley, Dean, School of Education
Saint Xavier University’s School of Education is strongly committed to preparing scholars, lifelong learners, leaders, and reflective professionals who are dedicated to the pursuit of excellence. Our programs prepare teachers, including early childhood, elementary, high school, and special education teachers, school administrators, teacher leaders, reading specialists, curriculum and instructions specialists, and school and community counselors. The School of Education is accredited by the National Council for the Accreditation of Teacher Education and its programs are nationally recognized by the Specialty Professional Associations, thereby adhering to the high standards of research-based knowledge and practice in our field. We have an extensive unit assessment system that includes the collection of data on programs and students. The data is regularly aggregated, analyzed and used for program and unit improvement. We use this data to submit annual reports to the Illinois State Board of Education. Faculty members use the data to assess the effectiveness of their programs and explore strategies for change. The School of Education has an Advisory Council that represents all programs and oversees the effectiveness of the unit. It also has an Advisory Committee for each program that consists of practitioners, faculty, students, and community representatives. The Council and committees meet semi-annually to review program offerings, activities, assessment data, and to make recommendations for future programming. The School implements a rigorous ongoing unit and program review. The School of Education is actively engaged in ongoing review of all of its programs and the unit as a whole and provides information regularly to various organizations and agencies. We have local and national entities that have established standards and reviewed our programs. We recognize that a paper review is only one aspect of a comprehensive assessment and that onsite peer reviews provide much more meaningful information to assist programs. We also recognize the importance of outcomes for our students for which we have much information. NCTQ focused on inputs in their review which limits the extent to which meaningful information can be used. The School of Education continues to work toward ongoing improvement of our programs and will take into account the feedback that NCTQ and other reviewing organizations have provided and will provide in the future.
www.nctq.org/edschoolreports
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