California State University, Long Beach
Policy Statement
93-06
April 26, 1993
POLICY ON CONDUCTING ORAL INTERVIEWS TO VERIFY BACCALAUREATE- LEVEL
COMMAND OF SPOKEN ENGLISH FOR CANDIDATES FOR TEACHING CREDENTIALS
Approved by the Teacher Preparation Committee on December 2, 1992
Approved by the Academic Senate on March 11, 1993
Approved by the President on April 15, 1993
Section I: Initial Screening
1. In addition to meeting all other criteria for admission to a
credential program, each candidate for a teaching credential will
be interviewed by a faculty member involved in that credential program.
2. Following the interview, the faculty member will either:
(a) recommend that the candidate should be admitted to the program;
or
(b) express concerns about the candidate's professional aptitude,
interpersonal skills, and/or baccalaureate-level command of spoken
English. The criteria for determining baccalaureate-level command
of spoken English are spelled out in Section IV, below.
3. If the interviewer concludes that the candidate's oral communication
skills might reasonably be expected to interfere significantly with
the candidate's ability to communicate in a classroom, the credential
program designee will inform the candidate and submit a written
referral for assessment, on a form approved by the Teacher Preparation
Committee, to the Speech/Language Assessment Committee. If all other
criteria for admission have been met, the candidate shall be considered
to be admitted to the program, subject to the condition that the
oral communication skills requirement also be satisfied.
4. Faculty in pre-requisite courses, such as EDEL 360 or EDEL 380,
are also encouraged to identify students whose oral communication
skills might require formal assessment and refer them to the Speech/Language
Assessment Committee.
Section II: Assessment
1. A three-member Speech/Language Assessment Committee shall be
responsible for administering the assessment and recommending a
plan of remediation for those students found to be in need of corrective
measures according to the criteria in Section IV. This committee
shall be a standing committee reporting to the Multiple-Subject
and Single-Subject Credential Programs. The members shall be nominated
by the Departments of Communicative Disorders, Linguistics, and
Speech Communication, respectively, and confirmed by vote of the
Teacher Preparation committee. The members shall serve staggered
two year terms and shall be eligible for reappointment. The Office
of the Provost will be responsible for compensating the members
with assigned time if the workload of the committee is found to
justify such compensation.
2. When students are referred as a result of the initial screening
in Section I of this document, the Speech/Language Assessment Committee
will conduct an initial interview/assessment.
3. If the committee determines that a candidate does NOT have a
speech or language difficulty that would significantly interfere
with the candidate's ability to communicate in a classroom, then
the candidate shall be deemed to have passed the oral communication
skills requirement.
4. If the committee determines that a candidate DOES have a speech
or language difficulty that would significantly interfere with the
candidate's ability to communicate in a classroom, then the committee
shall specify a plan of remediation, including actions to be taken,
a time-line to be followed, and an estimate of the probability of
success.
a. Upon completing the plan of remediation, the candidate shall
return to the Speech/Language Assessment Committee for a final interview/assessment.
b. After the final assessment, the committee shall report to the
appropriate credential program whether the candidate has passed
the oral communication skills requirement.
5. If a candidate disagrees with the process followed by the Speech/Language
Assessment Committee or with a finding by the Committee that the
candidate has a speech or language difficulty that would significantly
interfere with the candidate's ability to communicate in a classroom,
then the candidate may within ten working days submit a written
appeal to the director of the appropriate credential program.
a. There shall be an Appeal Panel Pool consisting of five faculty
members from the various credential programs and several school
district professionals. The members of the pool shall be selected
by the credential programs at the start of each academic year and
shall serve one-year terms.
b. An appeal panel to hear the appeal of a given candidate shall
consist of two faculty members and one school district professional
selected on a rotating basis from the Appeal Panel Pool.
c. Within ten working days of the receipt of an appeal from a candidate,
an appeal panel shall be selected from the appeal panel pool. The
appeal panel shall receive the candidate's written appeal, the candidate's
recommendation letters and statement of professional goals and objectives,
and the assessment of the Speech/Language Assessment Committee.
The appeal panel shall interview the candidate within ten working
days from the time it is formed, adjourn to executive session, and
then make its decision. The decision of the appeal panel is final.
Section III: Continued Screening
Following the initial screening or assessment, or during prerequisite
courses such as EDEL 380 and EDSS 300, the oral communication skills
of all teacher education students will be continuously screened
by the credential program faculty, including student-teaching supervisors.
If this continuous screening detects students with unremediated
and/or previously undiagnosed oral communication difficulties, the
student shall be referred to the Speech/Language Assessment Committee
in accordance with Section I, paragraph 3.
Section IV: Criteria
1. Any language disfluency or disability must significantly interfere
with classroom communication to be a basis for referral or failure
to pass the oral-communication skills requirement. While regional
and social dialects or non-native features of English may be present,
these should not be construed as a basis for referral or failure
to pass the oral skills requirement unless they significantly interfere
with potential job performance in classroom communication. Students
may not be discriminated against on the basis of a disability for
which a prospective employer could reasonably be expected to make
an accommodation.
2. Students shall be evaluated according to the following criteria:
PASS
Communicative: Demonstrates ability to get the message across in
an appropriate manner. Maintains dialogue, answering questions appropriately
with sufficient information and with little or no hesitation. Seeks
clarification if necessary and when appropriate.
Fluent: Demonstrates smoothness and readiness of speech. Speaks
with ease and without verbal distractions. Is easily understood.
(While regional and social dialect or non-native features of English
may be present, these do not interfere with communication.)
REFERRED
Lacks Sufficient Communicative Ability: May be able to exchange
views or provide some information, but with hesitations, errors,
and/or an inappropriate style which detracts significantly from
the flow of the dialogue. Provides insufficient information unless
prompted by the interviewer. Has difficulty understanding questions
or prompts and yet fails to seek clarification.
Lacks Fluency: Demonstrates deficiencies in language forms or communicative
style which significantly interfere with communication.
Effective: Fall 1993
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