From the Dean: Welcome to the new semester

As we begin the spring 2016 semester I wanted to share some updates with you. The fall was a very successful launch for the new academic year and the spring looks to continue this positive trend.

Online Program Rankings

The College continues to lead the University of Georgia in online education. We offer half of the undergraduate online majors and 67 percent of the university’s graduate online programs. So, it is with great pride that our graduate online programs were recently ranked by U.S. News and World Report as third among all Colleges of Education in the country, with our undergraduate online programs ranked fifth. These excellent outcomes clearly indicate the high quality of our online course offerings and the innovativeness of our instructors.

Credit Hour Production

As we are all aware, credit hour production (CHP) is the University System of Georgia’s index of our degree program activity, having direct consequences on the College of Education’s budget. When I began as dean in January 2013, we had been in our fifth consecutive year of CHP decline. Since that time, our faculty have worked diligently to create new degree programs and redouble efforts in our high-demand degree programs. This fall our CHP increased, relative to fall 2014, by an amazing 6.7 percent. When we compare our fall 2015 CHP to fall 2012 (our lowest CHP since 2008), our CHP has increased by 10.3 percent. Thank you for your focus, commitment and hard work.

Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion

We are beginning our College of Education Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Discussions for spring 2016. The Fanning Institute is hosting two focus group meetings this month (Feb. 12 and 29). The institute will then be hosting a town hall meeting on March 25. More specific information about times and locations will be forthcoming. These meetings continue the process of discussing diversity, equity, and inclusion in the College. We expect they will result in recommendations to the Dean’s Office about a future organizational structure within the College.

Ramsey and River’s Crossing

For those of you who work at, or have visited, Ramsey or River’s Crossing this semester, you will have noticed ongoing improvements to the space. In Ramsey, the COE has funded a refurbishment of the areas occupied by Kinesiology to match the upgrades made by the University to other areas of the Ramsey Center. At River’s Crossing there has been a large crane in the front of the building that is part of an effort to upgrade the heating/cooling system there. Hopefully this will result in more stable temperatures across the seasons at River’s Crossing.

EdTPA

And the good news continues. Our first semester in the consequential phase of the statewide EdTPA implementation has resulted in 98 percent of our pre-service teachers receiving passing scores. This compares with preliminary results from other USG schools where the average percentage of preservice teachers passing is 85 percent (with a range from 60 percent to our score of 98 percent). Excellent job, everyone.

Promotion and Tenure

Finally, it is with great pleasure that I ask everyone in the College to congratulate the following individuals on successful promotion and/or tenure reviews. These appointments have been forwarded to President Morehead for his approval and recommendation to the Board of Regents.

  • Laine Bradshaw, Associate Professor with Tenure, Educational Psychology
  • Laura Dean, Professor, Counseling and Human Development Services
  • Melissa Freeman, Professor, Lifelong Education Administration and Policy
  • James Garrett, Associate Professor with Tenure, Educational Theory and Practice
  • Bethany Hamilton-Jones, Clinical Associate Professor, Communication Sciences and Special Education
  • Ingrid Hinkley, Clinical Associate Professor, Communication Sciences and Special Education
  • ChanMin Kim, Associate Professor with Tenure, Career and Information Studies
  • Aliki Nicolaides, Associate Professor with Tenure, Lifelong Education Administration and Policy
  • Lou Tolosa-Casadont, Clinical Associate Professor, Language and Literacy Education
  • Kimberly Viel-Ruma, Clinical Associate Professor, Communication Sciences and Special Education

Onward into 2016

The fall of 2015 was a very successful semester for the College. We have collectively achieved a series of milestones for which we should be proud. I can only hope that our faculty, staff, and students continue these successes and help move forward our growing reputation for excellence at UGA, in the state of Georgia, and nationally.

Best regards,

Craig H. Kennedy, PhD
Dean and Professor

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