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2: Fighting Words |
COmmittees
United against Privatization |
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Define and Discuss the Issues |
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Notes
From The Field, by Will
Leinicke
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The
topic of the day is credentialing. There are a myriad of rumors flying
about, in all sorts of interesting guises. From one source comes the
word that all Illinois adult educators will be required to have a
Master's in Adult Ed. From another comes the word that specific training
in Mathematics and Reading will be required. Another has a K-12 Certificate
as the baseline requirement. |
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Rumors
are an essential part of dealing with change, I guess. Uncertainty
breeds exchanges of bits and pieces of raw information that get processed
in the telling into absolute certainties. However, having been chair
of the Committee on Credentialing Adult Educators in Illinois
for several years now and having been involved in the process from
the beginning, I would like to publicly bring everyone up to date
on what is really going on. This is the best information available
at this time. Please note that last clause - at this time. Credentialing
is a work in progress. There will be changes in the details as the
process develops. Those will also be reported. There is no intent
to make this a secret process. |
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First,
yes, there will be credentialing of adult educators in Illinois. The
ICCB has made that very clear and at our last meeting Sue Petrilli
strongly encouraged us to move ahead with implementation plans. No
firm date has been set for formally requiring any specifics as yet,
but like it or not, credentialing will be a reality. |
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Second,
the only specific educational requirement that is presently on the
table is a bachelor's degree for any new hires. No subject area limitations,
requirement of an education degree, or any other limitation is proposed
under the current discussions. This is contrary to a "recommended"
set of hiring preferences that has been circulated as being the requirements
of ICCB. Those preferred standards, which appear in the administrators'
handbook, are guidelines and desirable qualities, not credentialing
requirements. Certainly few would argue that specific training in
education, Mathematics, Reading, and for ESL instructors, second language
capability, would be useful attributes for newly-hired adult educators,
but to make those rigid requirements would seriously limit the ability
of programs to hire instructors in many areas. |
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standards
for
on-going development activities will be discussed at next meeting
on April 18th. |
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Third,
there will be standards for on-going professional development activities.
Subcommittees of the Committee on Credentialing Adult Educators
are looking at specifics at this time and will report back to
the whole committee at our next meeting on April 18th. In the meantime,
I believe it is safe to say that there will be some sort of requirement
for new teacher orientation. A model program is being developed and
piloted by the Service Center Network, but this does not preclude
the development or continuation of local orientation programs that
are reasonably comprehensive. Standards will need to be developed
to achieve some degree of consistency with regard to a basic canon
of knowledge, but beyond that, the aim of the committee is to create
a flexible and adaptable system. |
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How to require professional development of
part-timers? |
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With
regard to continuing professional development, the same sort of flexibility
should prevail, with higher education, service center offerings, local
training, conferences, and workshops all being included in the possibilities
for meeting whatever the final requirements are determined to be.
Discussion of the appropriate quantity of required professional development
has been so far inconclusive, largely because of the difficulties
in balancing required professional development with part-time instructor
issues. |
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Hope
to use
CDDUs as unit of measurement
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Another
issue in this area that is presently still under discussion is how
to measure professional development. One very attractive option is
to use Continuing Professional Development Units (CPDU's) as the unit
of measurement. CPDU's have a number of advantages, including acceptance
by the K-12 certification system, which addresses an important alignment
issue for those working in both systems, as well as simplicity of
measurement (contact hours) and record keeping (far simpler than CEU's).
There is also a current mechanism for identifying providers through
ISBE that is quite simple to use. Both the members of the Service
Center Network and the Illinois Adult and Continuing Educators Association
are already registered CPDU providers, which would further simplify
the adoption of that system. However, no final decision has been made
in this area. |
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| where
will funding for development come from? |
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There
are a number of other areas under discussion with regard to credentialing.
Among these are the issue of how to fund increased professional development
so that programs have resources available to compensate instructors
and staff for credentialing-related activities. |
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| Credential
administrators |
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Also
included is the idea of credentialing standards for administrators
as well as instructors, as is the question of whether programs could
hire a percentage of non-credentialed instructors (perhaps in a separate
category with more limited responsibilities), |
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| full-time
jobs equity with credit programs |
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.... how to move from requiring a credential to creating more career
opportunities and full-time positions for adult educators, and how
to deal with fairness issues between adult education and credit programs
in the same institution. |
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committee
wants participation
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Finally,
let me note that there is not universal support for a credentialing
system, even on the committee. There are those who have serious reservations.
We are making an effort to hear and address as many of these issues
as possible. However, it is now our responsibility to create an effective
credentialing system for Illinois. We will do this with a view to
making it the most useful and least harmful and least restrictive
system we can. We are committed to keeping the process open and visible
and to making adjustments as needed to keep the system viable.We may
make mistakes. If we err, we will correct our errors to the best of
our ability. We
on the committee and the leadership at ICCB recognize that this is
a complex issue and that there is a certain amount of trial and error
inherent in the process. And, we welcome your comments and concerns.
Please feel free to contact me about this or any other issues of concern
to you as Illinois Adult Educators. |
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(309)
664-5498 Fax
(309) 664-7373 |
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Your
obedient Servant,
Will
Leinicke,
Ph.D. Director
Illinois
Professional Development Partnership Center
Corporate Center East, 2203 East Empire Street, Suite B.,
Bloomington, IL 61704
The
Illinois Professional Development Partnership Center is a special
project conducted under provisions of section 353 of the Federal Adult
Education Act, P.L. 100-297 as amended, and administered through the
Adult Education and Literacy Section of the Illinois State Board of
Education, Community and Family Partnerships Division. Federal funds
provide 100% support. |
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FANTASTIC
PAPER! Check it out! |
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The Development of Cooperation: Five years of participatory design
in the virtual school |
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John M. Carroll, George Chin, Mary Beth Rosson, and Dennis C. Neale
Center for Human-Computer Interaction and Department of Computer Science
Virginia Tech
Blacksburg, VA 24061-0106 USA +1 540 231 8453; carroll@cs.vt.edu
Battelle Pacific Northwest National Laboratory
P.O. Box 999, MSIN: K7-28 Richland, WA 99352
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ABSTRACT
During the past five years, our research group worked with a group of public
school teachers to define, develop, and assess network-based support for
collaborative learning in middle school physical science and high school
physics. From the outset, we committed to a participatory design approach.
This design collaboration has now existed far longer than is typical of
participatory design endeavors, particularly in North America. The nature
of our interactions, and in particular the nature of the role played by
the teachers has changed significantly through the course of the project.
We suggest that there may be a long-term developmental unfolding of roles
and relationships in participatory design.
http://linc.cs.vt.edu/papers/2000/CaChRoNe2000-Long_term_PD-DIS/
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