Graduate Continuing Education for Professional Educators

Thank you for your interest in partnering with The University of St. Thomas School of Education to offer professional development graduate level courses to educators. Professional development courses are receiving increasing scrutiny, particularly on the quality and rigor of courses. States, school districts, teachers’ unions and educators themselves are increasingly asking questions about course requirements, competencies developed and the relationship of courses to state / national standards. These are appropriate questions regarding good practices and quality assurance and we need to work together to be sure that our offerings meet these high expectations.

Good Practices

The School of Education is a nationally accredited school within a regionally accredited university. Our Graduate Continuing Education for Professional Educators (GCEPE) program follows the principles specified by the North Central Association Higher Learning Commission. http://www.ncahigherlearningcommission.org  (Follow links to "Guidelines / Best Practices"; "Good Practices in Contractual Arrangements Involving Courses and Programs.")

Those practices specify that the School of Education must have "systematic processes to assure its capacity to carry out its responsibility for oversight of:

•         advertising and recruitment,
•         admissions,
•         appointment of instructors,
•         content and rigor of courses / program(s),
•         evaluation of student work, and
•         award of credit / certificates / degrees."

Quality Assurance

During the past several years, the School has implemented various strategies to assure that the GCEPE courses meet rigorous quality standards. Courses are examined on an ongoing basis through any one or all of the following methods and evaluative feedback is shared with academic partners and used for renewal consideration.

1.      Course Evaluations--Academic Partners are expected to ensure that GCEPE End-of-Course surveys are distributed to all students at the conclusion of each course.

2.      Observation--Courses are observed (if on-site or hybrid) or taken (if individualized study) periodically by School of Education staff and faculty. In-depth quality reports based on these observations are reviewed and filed with the course proposals.

3.      Periodic Examination of Graded Course Assignments--Periodically, graded course assignments are requested for an entire course and examined for quality of work, use of appropriate grading criteria and adherence to the course syllabus.

4.      "Cadre Reviewers"--Members of a course may be invited to join a cadre of course participants who will review and provide the GCEPE office with course materials, graded assignments and a written evaluation of a course.

5.      Examination of Course Proposals and Advertising Materials--All course proposals and advertising materials are examined by the GCEPE office using the criteria and procedures specified in this publication.

6.      Pre-Approval of Instructors--All instructors who teach GCEPE courses must be pre-approved by the School of Education. Vitae and credential information is maintained by the School of Education.

This Policy and Procedure Manual guarantees that we, as an accredited organization, are ensuring good practices and offering top quality courses to our students. Academic partners need to know and follow these policies and procedures. As partners in this educational effort we must demonstrate to State Departments of Education, school districts, educators and employers that  professional development needs at the graduate level are being met. The School's GCEPE office is here to assist in this partnership.