UOG School of Education receives positive reviews

The University of Guam School of Education (SOE) was recently praised in a preliminary findings report by the Council for Accreditation of Education Preparation (CAEP). The report found that SOE met national standards in six areas: Knowledge, Skills and Dispositions; Assessment; Field Experience; Diversity; Faculty and Governance and Resources.

A CAEP accreditation team, which included five educators from different states, visited Guam in early December. During the exit interview, the chair of the visiting CAEP team provided the report recommending UOG receive accreditation for all six standards.

“SOE has completed the first step towards reaccreditation,” said SOE dean Dr. John Sanchez. “This recommendation will now be reviewed by the national CAEP board for official action in May.” SOE first received accreditation in 2006 and most recently in 2011 for three of the six standards.

“The preliminary findings in the CAEP report show the strength of our School of Education. Congratulations to the faculty and staff who worked very hard to meet the rigorous standards,” said UOG president Dr. Robert Underwood. “Their hard work during the past three years has paid off.”

A team of six SOE faculty worked together to prepare for and pass the review. Dr. Michelle Santos chaired the committee overseeing the accreditation process. Other members included Dr. Catherine E. Stoicovy, Dr. Gayle Hendricks, Dr. Geraldine S. James, Dr. Cheryl Sangueza and Dr. Velma Sablan. The group worked for two years to gather data for the visit and submitted a final report to the accreditation team this summer.

“Not only are we seeing students from the School of Education achieve great things, we are also seeing the faculty and staff excel on a national level,” said senior vice president Dr. Anita Borja Enriquez. “Reaccreditation demonstrates that our education programs at UOG are as rigorous, methodical and progressive as larger universities in the United States.

The preliminary findings highlight that the school has improved on data collection in key areas including measuring knowledge, skills, assessments and diversity. Sanchez said some of the improvements are possible because of the online system Livetext. The Livetext system helps students prepare a portfolio, reflect on experiences to build skills and meet standards. The online system also helps faculty gather data and track student progress more easily.

Sanchez said the school continues to see many students do well in authentic assessments, such as writing lesson plans and standard assessments, and SOE students have a 90% pass rate for Praxis exams required for teacher certification.

“SOE will continue to improve teaching and assessment levels,” Sanchez said. “There are plans to track the success rate of graduates as they enter the classroom including looking at students’ SAT10 scores in classrooms where UOG graduates are teaching.”

For more information about UOG School of Education, contact Dr. John Sanchez at jsanchez@uguamlive.uog.edu. (UOG)