Standard 1

Element 5: Professional Knowledge and Skills for
Other Professional School Personnel (OPSP)

The State of Kansas/NCATE protocol requires that programs submit standards-based reports to KSDE for approval. SPA approval is not required for program approval, nor is it required for unit accreditation. However, in most cases, state standards are based upon those of the various learned societies. KSDE program reports on KU’s programs are available at http://soe.ku.edu/ncate/program-reports.

The unit offers four programs for OPSP: Reading Specialist, Educational Administration at the Building Level, Educational Administration at the District Level, and School Psychology. The Conceptual Framework themes of Research and Best Practice, Content and Pedagogical Knowledge, and Professionalism are reflected in each program. “Thumbnail” sketches of each are available under element 2.

Assuring that candidates, upon admission, have completed state-approved programs is the first level of assessment. Candidates are admitted to three of these four programs as licensed teachers. As such, they have already been judged professionally competent by KSDE (or in some cases the Missouri Department of Elementary and Secondary Education—DESE) and have completed approved programs. They have also been judged to be academically competent by the University’s graduate school, based upon their prior performances. The fourth OPSP program—School Psychology—is accredited by NASP, and it is among the most selective of all of the unit’s programs. Some School Psychology candidates are also licensed as teachers. Admission standards for all OPSP programs can be found at the following: School Psychology - http://soe.ku.edu/pre/admissions.php, Reading Specialist - http://soe.ku.edu/ct/admissions.php, Educational Administration (building and district) - http://soe.ku.edu/elps/edadmin/.

PRAXIS II. Each program area is required to have at least eight assessments on candidates in its assessment plan. Required assessment number one requires the unit to report candidate scores on the PRAXIS II content exam. As licensed teachers they have already passed the PLT. The results of the content assessments can be found in Table 1.13.

Summative Assessment. Each area also has at least one assessment of clinical experiences. Unlike the initial program Summative Assessment, the OPSP assessments vary from program to program. However, they are all mastery assessments. Therefore, candidates must have satisfactory ratings on the assessments in order to complete the programs. In order for candidates to perform well in these experiences, they must have professional knowledge and skills.

Research Skills. All candidates in all programs in the unit must successfully obtain research skills in order to finish their programs. The development of these skills is most commonly demonstrated through the completion of projects taken as part of coursework. Others can demonstrate competence through the oral defense of theses, projects, or dissertations. Many of the research projects are based on data from school settings. Regardless of the nature of the projects, whether they are completed by candidates in the Reading Specialist program or the Educational Administration programs, candidates must pass at least one graduate-level research course. The course most frequently taken to meet this requirement is PRE/ELPS/SPED/C&T/HSES 715. This course introduces the concepts involved in understanding and analyzing research in education and related areas and provides an overview of research methodologies. Topics in the course include quantitative and qualitative methods and designs, historical and descriptive research and program evaluation. Table 1.25 provides grade point information on this research course from OPSP candidates.

* The approved Reading Specialist program does not require the candidate to finish a master’s degree; in fact, most have the master’s upon entry. The basic research course is not required for completion of the endorsement program.

All candidates who finish degrees complete a culminating research activity. There are three options at the master’s degree level—thesis with oral examination, master’s research project with oral examination, or written comprehensive examination on a longer academic program. Specialist candidates complete a research project. Ed.D. candidates complete written and oral comprehensive examinations. The dissertation is required to complete the degree, which can occur after recommendation for licensure.

The unit is confident that its program completers have thorough understandings of their fields as they have completed standards-based programs, performed well academically in their coursework and field experiences, and graduated (in the programs that result in degrees). They do well on standard measures and perform well in their professional roles.