Overview of the Institution
Sec A: The Institution
California State University, Long Beach began as Los Angeles-Orange County State College in 1949. The campus was renamed Long Beach State College when it moved to its current location in 1952, Long Beach State University in 1972, and became California State University, Long Beach in 1982. The campus sits on 323 slightly elevated acres, about three miles from the Pacific Ocean. Eighty-four permanent buildings house 7 colleges, 63 academic departments and programs, 24 centers, 4 institutes, and 4 clinics.
The campus's primary service area is the greater Los Angeles Basin, a population base of more than 5 million. The city of Long Beach is an urban municipality of about one-half million people that was identified by USA Today as the most diverse city in the United States based on 2000 census data. Long Beach is one of the world's largest shipping ports, and major industries include aerospace, medicine, and tourism.
CSU Long Beach's core purpose, "To Graduate Students With Highly Valued Degrees," expresses our acceptance of responsibility beyond merely delivering instruction to doing all that we can to see that students learn well. Our core values, "Opportunity, Diversity, and Excellence," express our pride in academic excellence and recognition as a top public masters university. "A Teaching-Intensive, Research-Driven University" captures our sense of identity. We are keenly aware of our core responsibility for teaching a diverse population of students.
CSU Long Beach is a public, urban, comprehensive university (Carnegie Classification Master's I) that provides undergraduate and graduate education to a highly diverse population, with an emphasis on teacher preparation and professional programs. An increasing number of graduates go on to doctoral programs. At about 37,000 students, CSULB is one of the largest campuses in the CSU and in the state. CSU Long Beach is a very diverse campus, with the largest ethnic/racial group, Caucasian, comprising only about 34% of the student body. CSULB recently qualified as a Hispanic-Serving Institution with the award of a five-year grant from the U.S. Department of Education that provides catalytic funding for a variety of programs supporting student success.
Sec B: The Unit
The unit offers baccalaureate, certificate, credential, and master's degree programs housed in three College of Education departments, a university-wide program housed in the College of Education (CED), and five affiliated programs located in the College of Health and Human Services (CHHS). The unit (PDF) (Table: The Unit by College, Department & Program) is defined as those programs in the College of Education and the College of Health and Human Services that: (1) come under NCATE review as initial and advanced programs for teachers and programs for other school professionals (including credential and Master's degree programs); and/or (2) are subject to review by the Commission on Teacher Credentialing as basic or advanced credential programs (excluding Master's degree programs). There are a few Master's degree programs in the College of Education and many programs in the College of Health and Human Services that do not fall within this definition of the unit.
No programs are offered off-campus completely. Some programs have off-campus cohorts, for example, C & I Elementary and Early Childhood Education. Some programs, for example, Multiple Subject, have individual courses that meet off-campus.
No programs are delivered entirely online. One CED course (EDP 350) is offered online, but not in every section and not every semester. Faculty in virtually every course utilize BeachBoard (aka BlackBoard), chat rooms, and/or email to vary the instructional mode.
The initial credential programs all offer intern programs in conjunction with local districts. The table titled Admissions to Initial Program Intern Programs, 2006-2009 (PDF) displays admission trends for the previous 3 years.
There have been four program discontinuances in the unit in the previous 4 years: the Early Childhood Education credential and the Middle School option of the Multiple Subject Program were discontinued in 2005; the Middle School Specialization of the Master of Arts Option was discontinued in fall 2006; the Master of Arts Option in Vocational Rehabilitation was discontinued in 2008. In addition, the Master of Arts Option in Career Counseling has been suspended for new admissions. Two Master's degree programs have been recently added: the Master of Arts in Education, Dual Language Development Option was approved in 2006 and the Master of Arts in Education, Mathematics Education Option was approved in 2009. Four Master of Arts in Education degree programs have been changed from Specializations within the Option to stand-alone Options (Curriculum and Instruction, Elementary; Curriculum and Instruction, Secondary; Early Childhood Education; Reading/Language Arts). The initial cohort of the new Education Doctoral Program in Educational Leadership entered in summer 2007, with successive cohorts entering in 2008 and 2009. In 2009, the Department of Educational Psychology, Counseling and Administration (EdPAC) became the department of Advanced Studies in Education and Counseling (ASEC). Also in 2009, the Social and Multicultural Foundations (SMF) Master's degree program became the Social and Cultural Analysis of Education (SCAE) program.
Sec C: Conceptual Framework
- the vision and mission of the unit
- philosophy, purposes, goals, and institutional standards of the unit
- knowledge bases, including theories, research, the wisdom of practice, and educational policies that drive the work of the unit
- candidate proficiencies related to expected knowledge, skills, and professional dispositions, including proficiencies associated with diversity and technology, that are aligned with the expectations in professional, state, and institutional standards
- summarized description of the unit’s assessment system
The theme of the College of Education and Affiliated Programs is Teaching for Life-Long Learning, Professional Growth, and Social Responsibility. The Conceptual Framework identifies the philosophy, knowledge base, purposes, professional commitments, and dispositions that drive program development, teaching, and scholarship in the unit. The six key ideas, enumerated in our Mission Statement, undergird our vision and define the essentials of the knowledge base upon which we build our programs and practice. Our mission is to foster a learning and teaching community committed to student success and academic quality. Our community:
- Promotes intellectual, personal, and interpersonal growth for all students;
- Prepares socially responsible leaders for a rapidly changing, technologically-rich world;
- Values diversity and prepares students for a diverse world;
- Serves and collaborates with other educators and the community;
- Promotes school improvement for all students; and
- Engages in research, scholarly activity, and ongoing evaluation.
Teaching for Life-Long Learning, Professional Growth, and Social Responsibility asserts our vision as a community. It also underscores our key functions as an integral part of California State University, Long Beach, and its mission as a metropolitan comprehensive institution serving a rich and diverse community. As a learning community, we honor the individual and value individualistic ideals of learning, effort, responsibility, growth and achievement. But no less important is the social group that transcends the individual. Without the social group, the individual is not fully realized. Social responsibility and individual learning and growth drive our practice. Our vision as educators thus encompasses the concerns of both the individual and the larger society and fits with the campus vision for undergraduate and graduate education.
All programs have a spiraling set of courses and field experiences that prepare candidates to demonstrate effective practices in their respective areas. Performance expectations are aligned with state standards for credential programs, national and professional standards, CSU system and campus expectations, and the values and principles articulated in the Conceptual Framework.
The Conceptual Framework has its origin in the strategic planning process initiated by Dean John Sikula in 1994-95 with the formation of the first Strategic Planning Committee (SPC). Among its other charges, the committee conducted an accounting of the college’s strengths, areas of need, and core values. From this accounting emerged 7 Strategic Priorities, which then became the basis for the college’s first formal mission statement. The Strategic Priorities and the Mission Statement were finalized in the 1996-97 academic year under Dean Jean Houck. The Strategic Priorities and Mission Statement served their purposes well and provided a framework for program development. In 1999, in anticipation of seeking NCATE initial accreditation, the college SPC set out to update the conceptual underpinnings of programs unit-wide. A process was initiated that culminated in coordinated and integrated conceptual frameworks and knowledge bases at the unit (College of Education and Affiliated Programs) and program levels.
In 1999-2000, refinements were made in the mission and strategic priorities to incorporate faculty views regarding high-quality teaching. As the various governance and faculty groups reviewed the mission and priorities, it became clear that a more detailed, comprehensive strategic planning process was necessary to establish action, timelines and clear lines of responsibility in the support of the various strategic priority areas. The Strategic Planning Document was developed in fall, 2000 under the leadership of Associate Dean Claude Goldenberg and the Strategic Planning Committee. Review of this document continued throughout the year at leadership and faculty meetings and was ratified by all faculty at the Spring 2001 retreat.
The most recent review of the Theme, Mission Statement, and Conceptual Framework began in spring 2006 with the administration of a survey to all faculty and staff regarding satisfaction with the three documents and whether any changes were warranted. Eighty-eight percent of those surveyed stated the Theme and Mission Statement should remain the same, with a small number of suggested minor changes. Nearly 75% of those surveyed also found the Conceptual Framework as written to continue to reflect core beliefs, with 22 % suggesting minor changes.
Two faculty members of the Strategic Planning Committee worked closely with Associate Dean Marquita Grenot-Scheyer to make minor revisions to the Conceptual Framework. The revised document largely reflects the original, which serves our learning community well, but it incorporates these additional areas: Student Success (a university priority); Universal Design for Learning (UDL); Standards-based Education; and No Child Left Behind (NCLB). The revised Conceptual Framework was vetted by Strategic Planning and the larger faculty community during spring 2007. For a summary of the development and review and revision process refer to the document Evolution of the Conceptual Framework.
Faculty, staff, and administrators have engaged in various activities to ensure that candidates and the professional community understand the unit’s Conceptual Framework. There is active community participation on the Strategic Planning Committee (SPC), which developed the Conceptual Framework. Course syllabi carry the unit theme and mission statements and faculty routinely review these statements at the beginning of each semester and conduct in-class activities to ensure candidate understanding. Most importantly, class activities, course assignments, and field experiences reflect the six key ideas of the Conceptual Framework, provide overall coherence to our programs, and ensure that candidates are well prepared when they complete their professional preparation and development.
The Unit Assessment System (UAS) has been developed and is overseen by the College of Education Assessment Committee to monitor and continuously improve unit operations and candidate success around the Conceptual Framework and professional standards from the California Commission on Teacher Credentialing (CTC), NCATE, and an array of other associations and accrediting bodies. Each program has mapped its student (candidate) learning outcomes and the signature assignments assessing these outcomes to the six key ideas of the Conceptual Framework and to NCATE Standard 1 Elements (Program Assessment Plans). Program faculty collect candidate performance data through signature assignments, which are used to assess candidate learning around multiple learning outcomes unique to each program of study. These data are reported to the College of Education Assessment Office, which analyzes the data at the program level and aggregates it around standards articulated in the Conceptual Framework and in NCATE Standard 1 at the college level. Program faculty come together at least once a year to review and develop plans to act on data around specific learning outcomes. At the unit level the UAS requires the Assessment Committee to review aggregated data each year, to follow up by asking department chairs to consult with programs on specific issues or questions and to work with the college Faculty Council and administration to explore specific interventions as needed. All programs, as well as the Assessment Office, prepare an annual report that reviews data and the action steps identified as part of the data review process. In addition to its support of program improvement efforts, the UAS provides evidence for accountability reports for a variety of purposes, including WASC-driven campus accountability, state credentialing agency accreditation (CTC), and national professional accreditation (NCATE).
No changes have been made to the Conceptual Framework since the 2007 site visit.
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