WGU PROPELLING FORWARD WITH TEACHERS COLLEGE

WGU PROPELLING FORWARD WITH TEACHERS COLLEGE

by George Lorenzo, Editor and Publisher

Back in 1996, when a group of 19 Governors from the Western United States region announced the foundation of Western Governor’s University (WGU) - a virtual university unlike any other in the world - many educators believed that the Governors’ plans had little chance of surviving.

A Bit of Healthy Skepticism
About three years later, with a great deal of hype surrounding it, WGU launched four full degree programs (delivered in a unique competency-based system that awards degrees to adult learners). But in early 2000, articles in the Chronicle of Higher Education were noting its seemingly impending doom. For instance, in a January 2000 Chronicle piece, an unnamed "market analyst" is noted as saying that WGU took too long to develop and consequently lost its "market edge." Four months later, in a May 2000 Chronicle piece, it’s noted that WGU "has failed to meet any of its enrollment targets and lacks accreditation." The May article then compares WGU to the success of the Southern Regional Education Board’s Electronic Campus, which is an entirely different entity. (WGU is an actual virtual university while the Electronic Campus is more of a Web portal to distance education that supports its partnering institutions.)

Recent Numbers Portend Favorable Steps Forward
However, 2003 looks like a banner, naysayer-silencing year for WGU that could be viewed as the real jumping board to its future successes. If WGU’s November 3, 2003 press release is any indication of the future, things are looking pretty rosy at this change-agent, virtual university. During the first nine months of 2003, WGU’s number of enrollments "doubled from 750 to 1,500 students." In February, WGU earned full accreditation from four regional accrediting commissions, "becoming the only university ever to be simultaneously accredited by multiple regions." In March, WGU launched its Teachers College, which already has 800 students.

As further noted in the WGU November 2003 press release, "WGU is currently growing enrollments about 10 percent per month, adding 150-200 new students every month. The university has students from all 50 states, the District of Columbia, two U.S. territories, and eight foreign countries. In the past fiscal year ending June 30, 2003, revenues increased over 50 percent due to increased enrollments, and net assets increased 37 percent. The university added three new corporate sponsors to its National Advisory Board in the past year, including Dell, Google, and Siebel Systems." Some of the other National Advisory Board members include such notable corporations as Apple, AT&T, IBM, Microsoft, Oracle and Sun Microsystems.

Teachers College Off to a Grand Start
In this article, the focus is on WGU’s Teachers College, the nine-month- young segment of the university that already accounts for more than half of WGU’s total enrollments. (WGU also has a Center for Business and Information Technology that offers associate’s and bachelor’s degrees.)

It is no small fact that last year the U.S. Department of Education awarded WGU’s Teachers College a $10 million STARS Schools Grant and a $3.7 million Transition to Teaching Scholarship Grant. The Transition to Teaching Scholarship Grant is in partnership with Clark County School District (Las Vegas) and the Region 4 Education Service Center (greater Houston area). It is expected to ultimately bring 600 students to WGU’s Teacher College.

"We are offering a unique opportunity to a unique population that has been under served," says WGU President Robert Mendenhall. The unique population he is referring to includes paraprofessionals, uncertified teachers, professionals who are changing careers, military personnel, and current teachers who want to advance their education. The unique opportunity is that WGU students (who are 41 years of age on average) earn their degrees based on their competencies and not by how many credits they may or may not have earned. "Basically, we are saying that if you can demonstrate that you have the competency of a teacher, you can graduate with a degree and teacher licensure," Mendenhall quips, adding that Teachers College "was created in response to the looming shortfall of K-12 teachers."

And What About the Teacher Shortage?
In the January 15, 2003 issue of Educational Pathways, I addressed this notion of a teacher shortage by quoting David Imig, president and CEO of the American Association of Colleges for Teacher Education, who explained that teacher shortages are not reflective of the number of graduates from colleges of education, which is more than adequate to cover our country’s need for teachers. The teacher shortage is reflected in rural schools, in poor urban schools, and in low-performing schools - where many prospective teachers typically don’t seek out employment.

"The reality is," says Mendenhall, "we still have major urban districts where 40 percent of their teachers are not certified, and it is just as serious in rural areas. . . One of the reasons why WGU is going after paraprofessionals and uncertified teachers who are already in schools is those two groups are in the schools that have teacher shortages. So, if we can actually qualify them to be teachers, we make a significant dent in the teacher shortage."

Effects of NCLB
Helping to push that effort is the No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB), which, among many other things it specifies in relation to teacher education, stipulates that all paraprofessionals hired after June 8, 2002, "who provide instructional support, must have completed two years of study at an institution of higher education; or obtained an associate’s (or higher) degree; or demonstrate through a formal State or local assessment, knowledge of and ability to assist in instructing reading, writing and mathematics. Existing paraprofessionals with instructional duties must meet these requirements by 2006." Additionally, NCLB stipulates that all teachers teaching in core academic subjects, by 2005-2006 (English, reading or language arts, mathematics, science, foreign languages, civics and government, economics, arts history and geography) "must have State certification or have passed a teacher licensing exam and hold a license to teach."

Scholarships
Other scholarship programs, in addition to the Transition to Teaching Scholarships, are also helping to facilitate enrollment growth at WGU, including an Education Without Boundaries Scholarship in conjunction with the National Urban League, a Troops to Teachers financial assistance program, and many other Federal and State scholarship programs geared for today’s K-12 teachers.

Marketing
The utilization of smart promotions is another contributing factor to the Teachers College early ramp up. Like many of the proprietary institutions now becoming ubiquitous over the Web and in print advertisements, WGU is becoming highly visible through its marketing, advertising and public relations efforts. "We do a lot of marketing with teacher sites and other education sites that teachers go to, and we have relationships with major school districts that we work with," says Mendenhall. "So the districts themselves are making WGU known and available to their people." Of course U.S. Secretary of Education Rod Paige’s announcement of the Teachers College launch in March at a Washington D.C. press conference certainly helped move things along. "It was picked up by essentially every K-12 publication, on the front page of most of them, and with a number of general publications like USA Today," adds Mendenhall.

For the Adult Learner
Perhaps the real driving force behind WGU’s Teachers College is the mere fact that it truly does cater to adult learners. "We have used a lot of adult learning theory in the way that we have put our program together, so that we are accommodating the needs of adult learners and are not treating them as if they were 18-year-olds," says Marti Garlett, dean of the Teachers College.

Catering to adult learners ties into the entire competency-based system that WGU built as its basis for granting degrees. "Adult students have gained things by experience, either at home raising children, or through their work, or whatever it may be. And we actually don’t care where they have gained their learning. We just care that they can demonstrate that they have it," says Garlett.

Curriculum Structure
Teachers College programs are grouped into domains and sub domains (skill and knowledge areas) in which students are required to pass assessments in order to graduate. For an associates of arts in general education, for instance, there are four primary domains: quantitative literacy skills, language and communication skills, distribution requirements (humanities, natural science and social science), and collegiate reasoning and problem-solving skills. Under each domain is a list of competencies, and under each competency is a list of objectives, says Garlett. "Each one of those objectives ensures that every competency is measured several different ways before a student can graduate. Our assessments were built to these specifications, and our quality control is that we may send students out to another place to acquire competencies" through classes offered by WGU’s 45 partnering distance-education providers, who are a mix of higher education institutions and eLearning companies.

"But our quality control is that even if they take a course at another university and get an A, we don’t count the grade; we count the learning they got in that course; and that means they must come back and take our assessment," adds Garlett.

When are these classes offered and what are they like? As noted on the WGU Web site, students can start taking classes whenever they are ready to start taking classes. "WGU does not operate on a traditional academic calendar. New WGU classes are starting daily. Some classes are as short as a few weeks; some as long as a traditional semester; and some are self-paced, meaning they run as long as it takes the student to complete the material covered in the course."

Tuition in the Teachers College is $2,390 per six-month term. Tuition covers classes taken through WGU partner institutions as outlined in a student’s "Academic Action Plan." As noted on the WGU Web site, "the amount of time necessary to earn the degree can vary widely between students, depending upon the knowledge and skills a student possesses when he/she begins the program." For most programs, WGU estimates a student will take five terms to graduate.

Orientating and Mentoring
Before this process of learning about domains and taking the necessary classes and assessments tied to the various domains within any given program, each student takes an introductory four-week, online, orientation-to-the-WGU-competency-based-system course titled "Education Without Boundaries," which happens to be the only course that is offered by WGU itself.

During the third week of this course, students are assigned a mentor, who could be considered the similar to a faculty advisor at a traditional college or university. All WGU mentors in the Teachers College are Ph.Ds in the subject areas students are enrolled in, except for in the associate’s degree program, where a Ph.D. qualification is not required.

"The mentor is the person who keeps that student attached to his or her Academic Action Plan (AAP) that is based on the competencies that they already have and the competencies that they will need to demonstrate," says Garlett. "Mentors are guides and instructional leaders." As noted on the WGU Web site, "an AAP specifies the courses and other learning opportunities the student will use in preparing for the assessments, the projected dates when assessments will be taken, and a projected graduation date." As students move through their AAPs, they interact with fellow students and professors from the distance-education classes they happen to enroll in. Plus, "the student and mentor communicate by e-mail or phone at least every two weeks."

In addition to the, so-to-speak, "guide-on-the-side" mentors, WGU has assessment graders and tutors "for students who get bogged down in any particular issue," says Garlett, adding that WGU has essentially "unbundled the faculty role."

Demonstration Teaching
For teacher certification programs that require a live classroom teaching observation component, WGU arranges an internship-based work experience, called Demonstration Teaching, within schools where students/teachers may or may not be employed. As noted on the WGU Web site, "teaching candidates also complete further requirements of the program that include participation in a cohort seminar with peers, completion of an electronic portfolio, and participation in other demonstration activities. . ."

In Conclusion
When looking over the WGU education system, it’s easy to see that the entire operation is built around flexibility. "There is a half million paraprofessionals in the country, and many of them have already spent anywhere from five to ten years in the classroom and have the competencies of teachers," says Mendenhall. "What they don’t have is the ability to quit work and go to school for three or four years to certify. So if we can provide them an online way to apply their competencies and do it at times and places that are convenient for them, a number of them, I believe, will take advantage of the opportunity to become fully certified teachers - for one thing, they will make twice as much money."

References:

Carnevale, D. (2000, May 19). 2 Models for Collaboration in Distance Education. Chronicle of Higher Education. Retrieved December 13, 2003.

Sarah, C. (2000, January 14). Enrollment Growth Remains Slow at Western Governors U. Chronicle of Higher Education. Retrieved December 13, 2003.

Western Governors University. (2003, November 3). New Leadership for WGU at a Time of Growth. Retrieved December 13, 2003.

www.wgu.edu