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Penny Smeltzer, a Texas math and statistics teacher has been named National Teacher of the Year for Advanced Placement. Smeltzer will receive the award in July at the National Advanced Placement conference in Seattle. The award is for instructors of AP math and science courses, which are college-level classes for high school students. Smeltzer graduated from WMU in 1978 recieving a degree in secondary education with concentrations in history and math.

The WMU Chapter of Phi Delta Kappa honored student leaders of WMU's Student Education Association and Kappa Delta Pi chapters during its annual Spring Banquet held on April 10 at the Ladies Library in downtown Kalamazoo. Faculty Advisors Patricia Stringham (KDP), Allison Baer (SEA), and Allison Downey (SEA) were also recognized for their support of the groups' efforts. Both chapters have contributed a great deal to the community through such projects as: a Read-a-thon to benefit the local juvenile home, Scholastic Book Fair, Toys for Tots Holiday toy drive, making blankets for the local homeless shelter, as well as going to conference. The leaders of the WMU Chapter of Phi Delta Kappa have offered professional and financial support to SEA and KDP this year, forging a dynamic partnership."

Photo: Allison Downey (Faculty Advisor), SEA Executive Board members - Allison Fluke, Kara Blaharski, Sarah Struett, Dr. Allison Baer (Faculty Advisor)

Presidential Scholar in Teaching, Learning and Educational Studies, Lauren Kenny is from Hoffman Estates, IL, and will graduate in April 2008 majoring in elementary education as well as Spanish.  Following graduation, she would like to teach middle school mathematics, science or Spanish.  Lauren plans to pursue a master’s degree to keep current as an educator shortly after staring her career.  Her three teaching internships represent diverse learning experiences that have allowed her to teach reading and literary skills to second graders, all subject areas to fourth graders, and Spanish and science to middle schoolers.  Lauren studied abroad in Spain for two months.  Her honors include a College of Education scholarship, the Travel/Study Abroad Award in Spanish, a Kappa Delta Pi Educational Foundation Scholarship, and the dean’s list. She is president of the campus chapter of Kappa Delta Pi, the International Educational Honor Society for Educators, serving in WMU’s student government and working within the community.  Lauren has been a substitute teacher, an elementary school volunteer helping students become better readers and writers, and a volunteer tutor for middle and high school students.  In her free time, she also directs and coaches the local figure skating program. 

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Assessment Projects:

Dr. Paul Vellom, assistant professor, was a principal investigator for an assessment grant related to the use of portfolios as assessments of candidates in teacher education.  His work in portfolio assessment is the basis for papers presented at the North Carolina Undergraduate Assessment Conference and at meetings of teacher education professionals.

Colleagues in the Elementary Education Program have initiated an examination of their program's assessment structure. Assistant professors Paul Vellom and Allison Downey have spearheaded the project to align course assignments and artifacts with standards from the North Central Accreditation in Teacher Education. While the program is already in good standing with NCATE, colleagues sought to create a reliable structure for on-going programmatic assessment, using NCATE standards as a guide, that would ensure consistency in meeting departmental standards and goals for the program as well as national standards. The process has led faculty to identify areas of connection and overlap among course curricula, enabling them to better support key concepts throughout  the program. It has also encouraged faculty to re-examine course content and course sequencing within the program. The process includes 1) examining artifacts and criteria currently in place for program assessment to identify strengths and needs, 2) examining existing courses and their major assignments and projects to look for promising artifacts in areas of need, 3) identifying key artifacts for each program assessment area and designating these as essential program and course components, 4) working with instructors to clarify and share criteria for success on each key artifact, and 5) developing flow and articulation charts to support data collection aligned with current standards. The program has completed steps 1 and 2, and is working to complete the remaining steps by mid-summer so that data can be gathered in Fall 2008. Because of impending revisions in the Michigan Entry-Level Teaching Standards and the need to bring instructors of multi-section courses up-to-speed, this process will be ongoing and recursive.

Drs. Lynn Nations Johnson, professor, and Carol Crumbaugh, associate professor, Kathy Mitchell, Director of Field Placements and Kelsey Woodard, graduate assistant, have received an assessment grant to examine the current measurements used to document elementary and secondary intern teacher growth as based on the Michigan Department of Education Seven Entry-Level Standards for Teachers that are supported by the North Central Accreditation in Teacher Education organization, the national accreditation body for the College of Education. This project will determine whether current instruments measure the knowledge, skills, dispositions, and thinking processes that are critical to successful teaching and if these seven measures should be replaced, restructured, and/or refined in order to represent and evaluate elementary and secondary students’ preparedness to teach.  Over 18 months, each preparing teacher in the College of Education prepares a set of documents used for placement, self-reflection, and assessment of the intern teacher’s performance as a novice teacher.  In addition, each intern teacher is evaluated at the midterm and at the conclusion of the semester internship semester.  The direct and indirect measures from the initial internship application through the culminating iWebfolio and Intern Final Evaluation for Fall, 2007 intern teachers will be studied.

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