COLLEGE OVERVIEW
History
The College of Education at the University of South Florida is a comprehensive metropolitan College of Education and one of the largest units of its type in the United States . The College opened its doors in August 1960, with a charter faculty of ten. Since that time the College has grown to a faculty of 173 tenured and tenure earning faculty across four campus sites with a total FTE (including part time and visiting instructional faculty) of 147. Today the College has a rich diversity of academic and research programs, faculty and students. The College of Education enrolls approximately 4,800 students in its undergraduate and graduate programs and contributes 28% of the total university student credit hours.
Funds
During the past year the College of Education received over $16 million in external grants and contracts in support of its research and professional service efforts. In addition, the College has been engaged with the University of South Florida in a capital campaign to raise $12 million in private support for scholarships, endowments and special projects in the College of Education . To date nearly $9 million of that amount has been achieved.
Departments, Offices, and Centers
The College is organized for administrative purposes into seven academic departments:
Educational Measurement and Research Childhood, Language Arts and Reading Education Secondary Education Psychological and Social Foundations Special Education, Leadership Development (formerly Adult, Vocational and Human Resource Development and Educational Leadership) School of Physical Education , Wellness and Sport Studies.
The infrastructure of the College is supported by the:
The College also encompasses an array of distinguished Centers that are supported by both private and public funds. These include:
Infrastructure
Over the past two years the College has opened its doors to a new $22 million state-of-the-art education facility. The Education Complex consists of facilities with technology support to enable both contemporary and future technological innovation to enhance teaching and learning. Embedded in the new and renovated structures are computer labs, technology support systems and multimedia production facilities equal to no other in the country.
Affiliations
The College, consistent with its emphasis on clinical education and research, has opened two new public schools, Pizzo Elementary School and the USF Charter School , while continuing to support the Center for Creative Learning, our early childhood facility. In addition to supporting the operations of these three campus based schools, the College has invested in partnerships with four school districts for the specific purpose of establishing Professional Development Schools. Currently eight such schools in four counties provide extensive and continuous professional opportunities for research and practice for students, teachers and university personnel.
Mission
Established as a mission of the College in 1993, the College embraces the dual statements of ‘Improving the Schools of Today' and ‘Inventing the Schools of Tomorrow'. The College views itself as one such "school" recognizing that this College must continuously improve its educational programs and practices through self examination, reform and renewal.
Goals
To this end, the College has embarked upon a planning process to create and sustain a new educational culture. The planning endeavor with defined accountability parameters has occurred primarily through the Council of Chairs and has incorporated both departmental and college based values. Beginning in January 1998, departments were asked to present goals and objectives for each department for a five year period, 1998-2003. Each of these plans was presented during a Chairs' retreat. From these reports, six general themes were developed:
These themes represent the core values of the College and provide a basis from which college goals could be derived. These themes were presented to the full faculty in Fall, 1998, and Chairs were asked to discuss them and apply them to the work of the departments. In addition, particular goals related to undergraduate and graduate education were also developed. What follows is a description and delineation of College Goals based upon these themes.