By Jack Armstrong - News Editor

Western’s College of Education has received permission to move forward with adjusting their current curriculum to better meet student needs.

In last month’s faculty senate meeting, the proposed changes were voted through unanimously. The department aims to have the reforms fully functional within the course catalog by fall quarter 2015.

All of the changes are taking place within the undergraduate program, leaving the Master of Arts in Teaching program intact.

Dr. Mark Girod, dean of the College of Education, said the changes are intended to “improve seamless transfer from community college to Western, to shorten time to degree completion, and to more tightly align courses to state and national teaching standards.”

New courses like ED 200 – Foundations of Education will take the place of the current introductory classes such as ED 100 and ED 312.

This new class also serves to align more closely with local community colleges introductory education courses so that transfer students to Western don’t lose as much progress if they choose to make the switch.

The college has also attempted to shorten time to graduation. According to the information submitted to the faculty senate, this will be achieved through a “removal of electives,” that fall outside of the education major, but double up on material covered in other classes.

This means in part that students will no longer be required to take introductory courses like a 100 level communications class, or additional electives to the education program, like business writing.

“The changes will improve rates of degree completion as well as the preparation of future educators” Girod said.

The College of Education is also making adjustments so it will attract more students to utilize the new Richard Woodcock center, set to be completed in 2016.

“The center is designed to promote collaboration, the latest technology, and specialized learning spaces,” Girod said.

Faculty involved with the College of Education are also always concerned that standards and credit requirements placed on the current students have fallen out of step with the ever changing licensure requirements for the state of Oregon.

In an attempt to better align with state standards, some new offerings are being added to next year’s course catalog. Some of these new classes are counterparts to classes already offered, but specialize in a specific area of the topics covered.

For example, one course currently offered in the college is ED 270 – Teaching and Learning with Technology. This course will remain but there will also be an alternative, ED 326 – Technology in Inclusive Early Childhood Settings (Birth-4th Grade).

Dr. Girod hopes that this specificity will help enhance the separate tracks that future educators can train for, whether that’s early childhood development, middle school, or high school.

“We seek to make our programs better and better,” Girod said. “School districts in Oregon expect excellence from us, and we will always provide.”