KENNESAW STATE UNIVERSITY GRADUATE PROPOSAL Change in Existing Policy

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1 KENNESAW STATE UNIVERSITY GRADUATE PROPOSAL Change in Existing Policy Major or Degree Affected: EDS in Secondary Education program Area of Policy Change: X Admission/Readmission Policies Progression/Retention Policies Other (please identify) Responsible Department Secondary and Middle Grades Education Proposed Effective Date Fall 2013 (New effective date; Fall 2015) I. Current Information Page Number in Current Catalog: (Program description: Click on Secondary Education, Ed.S. (Admission Requirements for mathematics is identical to those for other concentrations) Current Policy Information in Catalog/Other Material (please copy exactly): Admission Requirements 1. An earned master s degree in professional education or a related field; 2. A clear and renewable Georgia Teaching Certificate or departmentally-approved equivalent. 3. At least three years of professional teaching or administrative experience or both in P-12 education (current full-time employment as a professional educator is preferred); 4. A competitive Graduate Record Exam (GRE) score and Graduate GPA. The GPA and GRE will be utilized with other admission criteria to determine program eligibility. Although no minimum scores are required, candidates are encouraged to prepare and score well since admission to the program is competitive. Please note: The Analytical/Writing score one receives as part of the GRE exam is used competitively in the admission review process. It is strongly encouraged for applicants to do well on this portion of the exam How Do I Apply 1. Complete the On-line Graduate Application.

2 2. Obtain and submit official transcripts from EACH college attended, including those institutions where degrees were NOT earned. Official transcripts are those in a university sealed envelope. Your transcripts should reflect at least a Master s degree with at least a 3.0 GPA (on a 4.0 scale). 3. Obtain and submit a copy of Georgia Teaching Certificate or a departmentally-approved equivalent. 4. Complete and submit a Professional Resume documenting education, teaching experience, volunteer and service accomplishments, and record of leadership activities. Your resume MUST reflect at least three years of teaching experience. 5. Complete and submit a Professional Reflections Statement. 6. Submit a copy of official GRE scores from the Educational Testing Services. 7. Submit a copy of the Transfer Credit Request Form if applicable. 8. International Applicants Only: Please contact for all international admission requirements related to your citizenship or visa status OR link to the Graduate International Admissions page: II. Proposed Information (please highlight changes): Admission Requirements 1. An earned master s degree in professional education or a related field. 2. A clear and renewable (or comparable) Georgia Teaching Certificate or equivalent in the teaching field to which you are applying or a related field. 3. A minimum of three years of experience teaching in 4-8 schools. 4. Research Response & Analysis writing sample. The applicant will select from a list of recent research articles in their area of content expertise and provide a 3-5 page written response to the article. Click here for the list of articles and specific instructions. How Do I Apply 1. Complete the On-line Graduate Application. 2. Obtain and submit official transcripts from EACH college attended, including those institutions where degrees were NOT earned. Official transcripts are those in a university sealed envelope. Your transcripts should reflect at least a Master s degree with at least a 3.0 GPA (on a 4.0 scale).

3 3. Obtain and submit a copy of Georgia Teaching Certificate or equivalent. 4. Complete and submit a Professional Resume documenting education, teaching experience, volunteer and service accomplishments, and record of leadership activities. Your resume MUST reflect at least three years of teaching experience. 5. Complete and submit the Research Response & Analysis writing sample. (Link this to the instructions and related articles) Final decisions by the admissions committee are based on a comprehensive, competitive review of all materials. Only completed application packets will be considered for admissions. Online Application Forms can be found at: or you can send your materials to: Kennesaw State University Office of Graduate Admissions 1000 Chastain Road, MB 9109 Kennesaw, GA International Applicants Only: Please contact for all international admission requirements related to your citizenship or visa status OR link to the Graduate International Admissions page: III. Justification for Change: In 2011 the Georgia Professional Standards Commission (PSC), which regulates teacher certification in Georgia, mandated that all graduate degrees for educators in Georgia be renamed and aligned with certification areas. Our degrees had concentrations which were aligned with certification areas, but the name of the degree (Teacher Leadership for Learning) was not recognized by the PSC. The action by the PSC drastically altered our degree structures in the Bagwell College. As an example, the three big enrollment degrees (MED in Adolescent Education, EDS in Teacher Leadership for Learning and EDD in Teacher Leadership for Learning) have become more than a dozen degrees. At the same time, the PSC established three new areas of certification at the graduate level (Instructional Technology, Curriculum and Instruction and Teacher Leadership). We already had an EDS in Instructional Technology and soon afterward developed a new EDS in Curriculum and Instruction and realigned an existing EDS in Teacher Leadership to be consistent with the new certification area. At the time the new C&I degree was being developed, conversations within the college had already begun about revision of admission criteria to more accurately assess the quality of our applicants to the EDS. Faculty noted that many schools within our own service area and our own ES in Educational Leadership did not require the GRE. Furthermore, faculty found that the GRE was not particularly related to how well students performed in our current programs. The new degree in C&I and the existing degree in

4 Instructional Technology were proposed without requiring the GRE as a requirement for admission. Currently, the BCOE does not require GRE scores for admission to the EDS in Educational Leadership, Instructional Technology nor Curriculum and Instruction. These three degrees can be pursued by teachers in any content area and at all levels. Faculty who teach in the EDS in Middle Grades and the EDS in Secondary Education have spent more than a year conducting research on the value of GRE as an admission criteria. This work has been systematic and complete. The faculty have completed correlational studies on the predictive value of the GRE for our current and past graduate students. They have reviewed the research on the use of GRE across the country. They have examined what our sister institutions within the state require in reference to admission standards. They have identified other comparable programs and institutions around the country which do not require the GRE for admission to EDS and/or EDD, PhD programs. This request to change the admission criteria is data driven. Here is a summary of data and research which explains our rationale for changing our admission policies. GRE: Not Always a Valid Predictor of Success Scores on the GRE under predict older students (especially females) graduate GPA (Swinton, 1987). Older female students earned considerably higher graduate grades than all other groups of students over age 25. Swinton states older females not now being admitted would do as well as students in other groups who are being admitted. (p. 17) He recommends that admissions committees to expand the scope of activities deemed relevant for admission processes. The gap in GRE quantitative reasoning scores between males and females and between ethnicities remains and has changed little since the 1980 s (Bleske-Rechek & Browne, 2014). Research from ETS indicates that while the GRE scores are less predictive of success for nontraditional age women and minorities, the decisions about whether to admit minority students heavily rely on GRE scores (Williams, 1997). ETS admits that undergraduate GPA is a better predictor of graduate school success and that critical skills associated with scholarly and professional competence are not currently measured by graduate admissions tests. (Enright & Gitorner, 1989, p.3). Correlations between GRE and graduate GPA for graduates of Bagwell College of Education show no (or negligible) correlation between GRE and the Final Graduate GPA (See Table 1).

5 Table 1. Correlations between Graduate Education Admission Criteria and Final Graduate GPA Correlations GRE (Total) UG GPA Final Grad GPA GRE (Total) UG GPA Final Grad GPA Note: N = 197, KSU Bagwell College of Education (est ) GRE: Method of Sorting Otherwise Qualified Some colleges receive hundreds of applications each semester. It becomes a daunting task to conduct hundreds of interviews or review hundreds of applications. Many of the applicants have high grade point averages, and equally impressive letters of recommendation, thus making it practical to turn to the only other quantitative source of information the GRE that administrators have as a basis of ranking or selecting those who will be admitted (Williams, 1997). GRE: Symbolic Rank and Prestige Institutions desire to maintain their memberships in prestigious organizations such American Association of Universities (AAU). Moreover, peer rankings of their programs as recorded by National Research Council (NRC, 1996) are also important. In many instances, these programs reject well over half of their applicants annually. One of the criteria for rejecting the application is a requirement for very strong test scores or some combination of test scores, grades and other variables (Sampson & Boyer, 2001). Therefore, maintaining higher GRE requirements and taking those applicants with the highest GREs ensures the institution acquires and/or maintains high rankings among peers. GRE: Not Always Required for EDS, EDD and/or PHD in Education The following list provides a sampling of institutions that do not require GRE for admission to either the EdS and/or Ed or PhD in Education. Boston College (EdD in Ed Leadership) Columbia Teachers College (PhD in English Education). Florida Tech (EdD, PhD and Specialist including science ed, math ed); Georgia Regents University (EdS) Georgia Southern University (EdS, Certain applicants with a GaSOU graduate degree are exempted) Indiana of PA (EdD) Johns Hopkins (EDD); Kennesaw State University (EDS in EDL, C&I, ITEC) Oregon State (EdD, PhD); Southern Illinois (EDS) Texas A&M (Online Executive EdD); University of Idaho (EdS in Adult Learning & Leadership);

6 University of North Dakota (doctoral and specialist) UPenn (Mid-Career Doctorate in Ed Leadership) University of Rochester (PhD, EdD) USC (EdD) Applicants may choose to complete a timed writing sample instead of the general GRE University of West Georgia (EdS) If Not GRE, Then What? A New Measure- Research Response & Analysis We faculty who teach in the middle grades and secondary education programs have 8 years of experience with our EDS students. Our students are professional educators-- middle grades and secondary classroom teachers whose intent it is to return to their schools as more knowledgeable of the content and pedagogy of their disciplines. We are convinced that we need a valid and reliable measure by which we can distinguish between our most qualified (and promising) candidates. Unlike some concentrations in our college, we will have enrollment targets. We cannot, nor will we, accept all who apply to our programs who meet the minimum qualifications. We need a measure that helps us identify those most promising and qualified candidates. Our goal was to develop a valid and reliable measure (beyond the minimum criteria) which assesses the type of skills necessary to be successful in our EDS programs. In particular, we aim to assess two areas; 1) an applicant s skill in analysis and synthesis of research in their area of expertise; and, 2) an applicant s skill in constructing a written response to research in their area of expertise. Therefore, as a new admission requirement for the EDS, the applicant will be asked to review a research article in his/her concentration and prepare a written response to the article. The applicant will select one article from a list. He/she will construct a 3-5 page response. This response will be evaluated by the admission team using a holistic rubric developed by faculty who currently teach in the EDS and EDD programs and who hold content expertise in the area addressed by the selected articles. Each candidate s response will be scored by two faculty members. If the scores differ significantly, the scorers will consult between themselves to reach a final score. Here are the instructions to applicant. Please respond in writing (3-5 double-spaced pages) to one of the following articles. In your response, be sure to explain the problem or issue to which the author (or authors) are responding summarize the primary position, points, or conclusions of the article reflect upon the ramifications of the article (in terms of pedagogy, curriculum, policy, or some other focus) within your specific professional context

7 All applicants (except those applying to the English/ Language Arts concentrations) to the EDS in Middle Grades and the EDS in Secondary Education should respond to this article. Kirschner, P. A. & van Merrienboer, J. J. G. (2013) Do Learners Really Know Best? Urban Legends in Education. Educational Psychologist 48 (3), Applicants to the EDS in Middle Grades English/Language Arts and the EDS in Secondary Education- English will select any one of these three articles: Behizadeh, N. (2014) Mitigating the Dangers of a Single Story: Creating Large-Scale Writing Assessments Aligned With Sociocultural Theory. Educational Researcher published online 27 March DOI / X Brauer, L. & Clark, C. T. (2008) The Trouble is English: Reframing English Studies in Secondary Schools. English Education Kirkland, D. E. (2008) The Rose That Grew From Concrete : Postmodern Blackness and New English Education. English Journal, 97 (5), As we have done in making this request to change admission requirements, we will monitor the effectiveness of this and other admission requirements. We will gather data on how these changes assist us in the admissions process. Furthermore, we will monitor how the new requirements impact the number of qualified candidates who apply to our programs and the quality of the work they produce while students here at KSU. References Bleske-Rechek, A. & Brown, K. (2014) Trends in GRE scores and graduate enrollments by gender and ethnicity. Intelligence, 46, Enright, M. K. & Gitorner, D. (1989). Toward a description of successful graduate students. Princeton, NJ: Educational Testing Service Sampson, C. & Boyer, P. G, (2001) GRE scores as Predictors of Minority Students Success in Graduate Study: An Argument for Change. College Student Journal, 35 (2). Sternberg, R. J., & Williams, W. M. (1997). Does the Graduate Record Examination predict meaningful success in the graduate training of psychologists? A case study. American Psychologist, 52 (6),

8 Swinton, S. (1987) The Predictive Validity of the Restructured GRE with Particular Attention to Older Students. Educational Testing Services. Williams, W. M. (1997). Reliance on test scores is a conspiracy of lethargy. Point of View Invited Back-Cover Editorial, Chronicle of Higher Education, October 10, 1997, p. A60. Major or Degree Affected EDS (Educational Specialist) in Secondary Education program Area of Policy Change: X Admission/Readmission Policies Progression/Retention Policies Other (please identify) Responsible Department Secondary and Middle Grades Education Department Proposed Effective Date Spring 2015 Signature Page Submitted by: Alice W. Terry 11/7/13 (Second Reading at GPCC by Nita A. Paris, 2/11/15)