Department of Human Development/Institute for Child Study Annual Strategic Plan Update, March, 2004 Introduction :

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1 Department of Human Development/Institute for Child Study Annual Strategic Plan Update, March, 2004 Introduction : The Department of Human Development/Institute for Child Study continues in a period of transition, focusing on administrative issues, program issues and planning for the future when a new individual will be identified as Chair. The search for a Chair continues at this time. While the search continues, the current Chair will remain with the additional aspect of a departmental advisory committee to meet regularly with the Dean and the Department Chair to gain a more complete understanding of administrative issues associated with the department including fiscal and physical resources, University expectations regarding enrollment numbers, placement of Ph.D. graduates, etc. This advisory committee will be made up of the three departmental roles, Director of Graduate Programs, Director of Undergraduate programs and Director of Admissions. They will serve as a major reporting conduit to the faculty regarding departmental, college and university administrative issues. The undergraduate program in Early Childhood Education has undergone a major revision and is becoming a valued and recognized important part of the EDHD department. Although enrollment in this program is capped at 70 students per cohort, effort continues to be made to ensure that the enrollment is at 70, that the students have all the experiences associated with Professional Development Internships, Performance Based Assessment and Electronic Portfolio development. The NCATE and NAEYC accreditation materials have been developed and have received excellent reviews. The ECE program continues to work on determining a major for students in Early Childhood who are planning to be certified to teach in the primary grades if having a major becomes a requirement. The College Park Scholars program Advocates for Children which has been sponsored by the Department of Human Development continues to change. It is now in the second year of co-sponsorship with EDCP, has a newly developed curriculum and format which has resulted in a more scholarly focus while retaining the focus on developing advocates for children and issues associated with children. The Graduate Programs in EDHD thrive. With five University funded Fellowships, the Ph.D. program was able to attract first choice recruits who will be highly qualified for placement in research one institutions upon graduation. In addition, the Department received an NIH Training grant which currently funds three students and will fund more in succeeding years. At this point through the fellowships, the Training Grant and Faculty grant funded research projects EDHD has been able this year to fund all the Ph.D. students. In addition, all funded fellows and GA s have personal work space and more than adequate computers, printers, etc. in the office area. They are being incorporated into the Department at all levels. Our Human Development Graduate Student Association is very active and making many recommendations and contributing much service to the Department.

2 The Master s program in EDHD is primarily an off-campus program in Montgomery County, MD with cohorts of Middle School teachers committing to the two year, one summer program. This year was the beginning of the fourth cohort. The program has been very well received and the curriculum is a model for other potential off-campus undertakings. The Graduate Committee of the Department is giving considerable attention to the on campus Master s program. The enrollments on campus continue to be low and a strategic focus for the future is to revised the program to attract many more on campus Master s students. This introduction provides an overview of the EDHD department as it is and as it continues to grow, change and evolve during a period of transition. The remainder of the this document responds to EDHD in relation to the College Strategic plans and initiatives. INITIATIVE ONE: Enhance the excellence of the Department in scholarship and research. The Department of Human Development has hired and retained outstanding research faculty. In their second year, three new Assistant Professors are being mentored by senior faculty in the Department and thriving. The are being published, writing grants, developing courses and assuming major roles in the department. The three hires were in the area of reading acquisition and development and Early Childhood Education. Their expertise in these areas have been critical to the ongoing development of our Early Childhood program and to the national initiative regarding reading for all children and youth from early childhood through adolescence. One of these individuals focuses her research to include speakers of other languages which is also an important national and state issue. The Department of Human Development supported the promotion to a tenured position of one faculty member. Her tenure was granted by the University. The work of Dr. Jones Harden is highly recognized and visible as she deals with living and learning environments and supports for high risk children and their families. Again this work is a part of major national and state agendas now and for the future. The Department of Human Development sponsored its first recruitment weekend last year and will sponsor one this year. Through this effort the department has attracted outstanding graduate students who not only will assume major research roles when they leave, but provide our highly recognized and successful research faculty with a most valuable resource. Faculty in EDHD continue to write proposals and receive major grant funding. Dr. Fox has a lifetime award status from NIH. Dr. Guthrie was recently identified to receive the USM Regents Award for his research, scholarship and creativity. We have faculty who serve as editors of three outstanding research journals. The Educational Psychology specializations continues to be

3 nationally highly ranked by US News and World Report and has moved up each year to it current ranking of 10. Faculty in Ed Psych have determined to be the most research publication productive of any Ed Psych program in the country. The continuing increase in funded research has posed the need for enhanced research resources especially in terms of space. One of our major research efforts is housed in the new College of Education space in Cole Field House. The NIH Training Grant Awarded to Dr. Melanie Killen and Dr. Ken Rubin provides student financial support and high recognition of the Department in the developmental science area. This award will be followed by many years of increasing funding. B. Goals: The Department of Human Development is working on creating the best infrastructure for the continued support of the highest quality grant writing and research. Having a full time Business Manager who has great expertise with grant writing and budget development has been essential to our development as a major research unit. Other supportive infrastructure needs are being explored. The Department supports the College of Education effort to have interdisciplinary research grant writing efforts. Faculty have offered expertise in this area and have become participants in this college-wide initiative. The placement of graduated Ph.D. students in major research universities as faculty/researchers is a high priority. Our ten year history of doctoral graduate placements provides evidence of an ever increasing number of students being placed in highly recognized institutions. Each of our Ph.D. students have mentors/advisors who assume the role of helping the students be well-placed and continuing to stay involved with them until they receive tenure at their academic institutional placement. INITATIVE TWO: Elevate the quality of graduate and undergraduate education and the student experience. At the Undergraduate level the Early Childhood Program in Human Development has many accomplishments. The newly developed ECE program has both its standards and all course syllabi aligned with Maryland State Department of Education Standards as well as the standards of our accrediting agencies NAEYC and NCATE.

4 The program has worked on all aspects of being fully in compliance with the Professional Development School mandates including development of an online Performance Based Assessment and the development of a student Electronic Portfolio. As of next year, the ECE program will have two PDS networks. Some ECE classes are being taught off campus in the PDS network schools. Our PDS Coordinator is very active with the schools in our network and much of the work with the schools has focused on the individual school improvement plan. The EDHD ECE program has a very active advisement process. Student evaluations of the program and the instruction are extraordinarily high. The program is becoming more selective with regard to admissions and more responsive to the quality of students who graduate from the program and assume teaching positions in the schools. In addition to the EDHD ECE program, EDHD teaches service courses to prospective elementary, secondary and special education teachers. To meet demand the Department has requested and been very successful in receiving access funds to insure student access to our programs both from teacher preparation programs and from students in other campus programs. The faculty in EDHD have been very involved in the University Honors program. We have offered a course each Spring semester in the Honors program and one of our faculty serves as the College of Education Honors coordinator. Graduate program accomplishments to enhance the student experience include providing work space for all doctoral graduate students. All these students also receive funding for their graduate programs. The Department also offers travel funding for graduate students to attend and give conference presentations. Since many of our Ph.D. students teach undergraduate courses in the third and fourth year of their programs, EDHD has developed a highly recognized and highly well-received teacher mentoring program. This program has been identified as a model program and is being implemented in other departments throughout the University. The University Center for Teacher Excellence uses the model to help in the development of similar opportunities for the teaching portion of the graduate programs in other departments. The off-campus Masters degree program delivered onsite in Montgomery County, MD receives an annual review by the Department and the County as well as the teachers in the program. Alignment of program goals and course objectives are maintained through this means.

5 The highly prized NIH Training grant has provided the Department with additional visibility and additional opportunity to attract and retain graduate students of the highest quality. Goals: The undergraduate goals for this initiative include the development of a student online Electronic Portfolio. EDHD is working with the College in the development of this and in the enhancing of the technology aspects of the ECE program to meet state and national mandates and expectations. In addition, an undergraduate program initiative and efforts includes attracting the highest quality undergrads to the program and to increase the student credit count for this program as well as our other undergraduate course offerings. At the graduate level the primary goals remain attraction and retention of the highest quality graduate students and then placing them in highly recognized research placements. An appropriate method of awarding fellowships and graduate assistantships in a time of dwindling fiscal resources remains an ongoing goal. The Department faculty must consider the importance of and then design a program which will bring more Masters students on campus. This will greatly aid in the student count concerns which the Department has. INITATIVE THREE: Promote diversity, community, and respect. The Department of Human Development remains committed to promoting diversity within an atmosphere of community and respect. The Department s Center and specific program colloquia which are held regularly offer learning and interactive opportunities for faculty, students and others to be aware of many issues and aspects of development. Through this means participants explore issues associated with racial, ethnic, socioeconomic and gender diversity and gain both understanding and respect for these facets of human functioning and providing fully for the wide range of human behavior visible in the schools, in communities and in the world at large. The Department s Early Childhood program has its PDS placements in schools with great diversity of population. The syllabi in the ECE courses are reviewed to insure that diversity content is included. In addition to there are specific courses in the ECE program on diversity and the social development of young children.

6 B. Goals: A major goal of EDHD is to create a greater sense of community among faculty, staff and students. To that end we have reinstituted a regularly scheduled time in which faculty present their research to other faculty, staff and students in the department. With this we begin to know and appreciate others work more fully. Additionally, a goal of the Department is to retain minority faculty and staff and when it becomes possible to attempt to hire minority persons in these roles. INITIATIVE FOUR: Ensure administrative, operational, and fiscal infrastructure that supports a highly ranked department. A. Accomplishments : Highly ranked research departments require adequate space to conduct the research and adequate fiscal infrastructure and fiscal resources to insure that the research faculty can conduct high quality research. To that end every space which come available and would facilitate a faculty member s research has been acquired within the confines of other college needs. Space has been provided for the editing of two of the journals which are edited by a member of EDHD. The administrative infrastructure has been designed to facilitate a fine-tuned administrative unit which also expects and wants faculty input and involvement in the infrastructure. The goal of the administration of the department is to support the faculty to do that which they are expected to do most----conduct research and publish and teach high quality courses to high quality students whom they mentor. B. Goals: As the technology in the College of Education is upgraded, faculty will be encouraged both to use it and to learn how to use it if they do not currently have all the skills needed. A continuing goal is to have the field of Human Development included in the ranking system of the U.S. News and World Report. The reinstitution of the Institute for Child Study as a more functional entity is being worked on. Plans are being developed to have summer workshops under the Institute. These will provide a much needed opportunity for professional educators and generate funds for the Department/Institute. Continuing to write proposals for major grants will help generate funds through DRIF monies which can help the departmental fiscal infrastructure.

7 INITIATIVE FIVE: Promote outreach and partnerships to increase pre-k to 16 collaboration, improve the lives of citizens of the state and nation, and engage the community. A major accomplishment which will be ongoing in departmental effort is the partnership between EDHD and Montgomery County Public Schools to provide a high quality Master s degree program to middle school teachers in the county. We will continue to graduate M.Ed students per year in that program. Our PDS network is a collaborative effort. Our PDS schools are in highly diverse settings such as Langely Park, MD. Through our ECE faculty and PDS coordinator we have seized opportunities to be very involved in the school improvement plans and to help the schools and teachers work effectively with parents. Our ECE faculty, PDS Coordinator offer workshops and conference presentations describing our PDS work and the collaborative nature of it. Many EDHD faculty serve on national and state education policy bodies and will continue to do so. Many of our faculty are very involved in professional organizations, holding office in them and helping to determine the direction the professional organization is going B. Goals: EDHD is committed to and will participate in the college-wide Master s program. EDHD is designing summer workshops and institutes designed for educators in the pre-k-16 area. Continue to outstanding school learning laboratory experience which is provided at the Department s Center for Young Children.. INITATIVE SIX: Provide leadership in the use of technology as a tool to improve instructional quality, teacher preparedness, and access. The department is being appropriately involved in the development of technology access throughout the College. Faculty and others serve on committees dealing with this important initiative. EDHD is providing the funding for one of the classrooms being equipped to be technologically up to date. Faculty will be encouraged through a variety of incentives to attend the technology training which is being planned for early summer.

8 Conclusion: The Early Childhood Program is working with OIT and the technology individuals in the COE to put its Performance Based Assessment online and will train mentor teachers, field based supervisors and others in it use. Dr. Roger Azevedo has received major grant support to conduct computer based learning environments and assess their effects on student learning. B. Goals: In addition to encouraging and providing incentives for faculty to become fully trained and comfortable in the use of technology by the many offerings available to them, we will also the training through our mentoring program teaching GA s, and part time faculty to be equally well trained. A: Overall departmental performance: The Department of Human Development/Institute for Child Study is a highly recognized department, ranked in U.S. News and World Report with faculty who are highly recognized as published researchers, journal editors, recipients of many very prestigious awards as well as being excellent graduate student mentors and ranked very highly in student course evaluations. The accomplishments of this outstanding department include individual accomplishments, but also collective accomplishments. Faculty value being in the department and value each other s contributions to the department. Our work with students is outstanding. From excellent mentoring resulting in good graduate student placements, to high recognition of our undergraduate program, to our model teaching assistant mentoring program, to our work with Advocates for Children in the College Park Scholars Program, to excellent student course evaluations, the performance of the department and its faculty and staff is at a very high level. One of our faculty, Dr. John Guthrie having very recently received a USM Regent s Award is representative of the high performance and high respect in which this department and its faculty is held. B: Areas in need of improvement: The department of Human Development continues to work on these areas. Increasing student credit counts while maintaining and increasing student quality remains an area for improvement. Making our program attractive to on campus Master s degree students is a challenge, but essential to maintain fiscal and other resources. The ongoing need to develop a sense of community within the faculty and students and staff is ongoing and will remain that way. Respect for all and honoring and recognizing each and everyone s contribution is essential to EDHD remaining the outstanding department that it is.

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