The Department of Teacher Education is excited to announce an $18,605 award from the S.D. Bechtel, Jr. Foundation via the CSU Educator Quality Center, Chancellor’s Office to create and pilot an integrated educator candidate data management system. An additional $5,000 from the Chancellor’s Office was sent directly to Watermark/Tk20 to contract a design team to assist in the development of the platform.

Dr. Paul Boyd-Batstone, Chair of the Department of Teacher Education, wrote the competitive proposal and will serve as the Principal Investigator. He will work closely as Co-Project Director with Khaoi Mady, College of Education Technical Integration Specialist, and Bryon Jackson, Director of Telecommunications/Resource Management, Information Technology Services.

Chief Information Officer for CSULB, Min Yao, expressed enthusiastic support for this project as it promises to serve as a model for integrated data management systems across the campus. According to CIO Yao, “We are excited about this project as it will provide us a good tool to track our success in training future teachers. We at the Division of IT are committed to supporting Dr. Boyd-Batstone’s team and ensuring that the new data management system will fully integrate into our campus technology ecosystem.”

Based upon a Watermark/Tk20 digital platform, the six data activities this system proposes to develop include the following: (1) applying to a credential program and applying to student teaching; (2) recording and Monitoring students through transition points; (3) managing student learning outcome data and signature assignment; (4) placing pre-service teacher candidates and student teachers in clinical practice settings; (5) managing student teacher supervision and evaluation; and (6) supporting interns teaching in the field.

Each component of this pilot project will be assessed for usability and feasibility in collaboration with the CSU Educator Quality Center in order to determine if an integrated data management platform can be implemented for teacher preparation across the CSU system.

This initial investment into teacher education at CSU Long Beach will have great impact in the College of Education, across the CSULB campus, and throughout the Cal State University system. And CSULB is at the forefront of this innovation.