A Leader in our COE and in our State

Dean Don Schillinger has been very busy since becoming Dean of the Louisiana Tech College of Education in 2014. While serving as dean, he has reorganized the college to encourage not only efficiency during these times of budgetary constraints, but has also emphasized the establishment and implementation of innovative, synergistic, and entrepreneurial efforts among the units and divisions.

In addition to steering the COE ship, Dean Schillinger was recently elected to serve as President of the  Louisiana Association of Colleges for Teacher Education (LACTE), and he serves as the state representative to the American Association of Colleges of Teacher Education, which "represents more than 800 postsecondary institutions" (http://aacte.org/about-aacte).

As President of LACTE, Dean Schillinger, represents other educational leaders from Louisiana institutes of higher education that offer teacher preparation programs. Dr. Schillinger noted that "I am very honored and humbled to be entrusted with this leadership role by representatives of the higher education teaching programs throughout Louisiana, and I will earnestly strive to function as a collaborative catalyst for raising the level of achievement, productivity and prestige of teacher education." We are overjoyed about his selection and grateful for the leadership he provides to our college and leaders across our state! Congratulations, Dean Schillinger!

LATECH COE Represented Well in Baton Rouge

On Friday, March 6, 2015 at the invitation of the LDOE, Interim Dean of the College of Education, Don Schillinger, participated on a five person panel to discuss Louisiana Teacher Educator Preparation during the Louisiana Board of Elementary and Secondary Education (BESE) Policy Information Session in the Claiborne Building. The session was hosted by Louisiana State Superintendent of Schools, Mr. John White. Also in attendance were  Bryan McCoy, Interim Head of our Teacher/Leader preparation programs,  Louisiana Board of Elementary and Secondary Education (BESE) President Chas Roemer  and BESE District 5 Representaive Mr. Jay Guillot, a resident of Ruston, Louisiana Tech University graduate, and a founding member of Hunt, Guillot, and Associates.

Louisiana Superintendent John White

The panel responded to a number of questions and prompts pertaining to ways University Educator Preparation programs could better serve students who would later be teaching in Louisiana schools. Questions such as the following, guided the conversation:

1. What should preparation programs be expected to teach?
2. What should qualify a preparation program to train teachers in Louisiana?
3. How can the quality of a program's experience/coursework, student teaching, et cetera- be measured?

BESE Member Mr. Jay Guillot

In addition, there was also mention of successful educational efforts taking place in the state. Specific acknowledgement of recent UTeachTech funding and Louisiana Tech COE success with the Louisiana Believe and Prepare program took place.

For more information about the meeting, the panel members, and the information provided by Louisiana Tech University College of Education representatives, please see the link below to the BESE video archives:

http://bese.louisiana.gov/meetings/live-streaming-and-video-archive

A Productive Quarter Break for Technology Enhancement

Many people often assume that because school is out, no one is here on campus. Nothing could be further from the truth. In fact, quarter break (at least in technology) is one of our busiest times because it is then that we have the opportunity to work upgrades and enhancement projects.

This quarter break has been no exception in that respect, but it has been one of the most notable for many reasons.

First, you may notice new gadgets mounted on the ceilings. This is because we have just completed the first phase of wireless network upgrades in the College of Education. Students and faculty should return to significantly improved wireless network performance in the areas of the building that are covered.

Areas in the buildings that are still experiencing coverage problems will be upgraded during a second, expansion phase to come later, following other requisite network upgrades. Our goal is to expand wireless coverage such that 100% of all our buildings are covered by the end of Spring Quarter.