Senate Document Number 3403S

Date of Senate Approval 02/13/03

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Statement of Faculty Senate Action:

APC Document 37:   Change to Middle School Licensure Requirements

Effective Date: Fall 2003

Delete: On pg 101, the entire section under Middle School Licensure (6-9)

Add: On pg 101, in place of deleted entry:
All students must complete a major in an appropriate academic discipline, and must complete specific coursework for licensure in two of the following areas: Language Arts, Mathematics, Science or Social Studies.

I. Required courses in Education--24- 30 hours including EDUC 310, 311, 314, 320, 396, 455, 496. In addition, Language Arts Students must take EDUC 313 and 380; Mathematics Students must take EDUC 383; Science Students must take EDUC 322; and Social Studies Students must take EDUC 130 and 380.

II. Required courses outside of Education: Every licensure student is required to complete PSYC 101 and 318 (7 hours).

In addition, middle school licensure students must complete coursework from two different licensure areas. Required courses based on licensure area are:

Language Arts--9 hours: DRAM 210 or 317; LANG 323; LIT 241.

Mathematics--14 hours: MATH 191, 215, 216, 251; STAT 185.

Science--16 hours: BIOL 105; CHEM 111, 132; ENVR 130; PHYS 131.

Social Studies--9 hours: ECON 101 or 102; HIST 315; POLS 220.

III. Other departmental requirements as outlined above for all licensure students.

Impact: All students interested in receiving middle school licensure will have a very clear program to follow.

Rationale: The changes in this statement will clarify the requirements for anyone wishing to be licensed in middle level education in the State of North Carolina. On October 1, 2001 all licensure programs at UNC-A were approved (by Department of Education at the State department) "with the exception of the middle grades education program." In the visiting team's responses, there were concerns that [while the middle grades brochure does list the specific requirements] there is not a "list" of the required courses for each of the areas of concentration in the catalogue or on the advising sheets. Specific requirements of statistics and geometry for a mathematics concentration, economics and political science for a social studies concentration and chemistry for a science concentration were cited. As a result of this, program coordinators met with UNCA academic faculty within the fields to clarify the courses that could be offered. The changes will bring consistency to what our vision of middle school licensure needs to be in order to insure compliance with the State department's expectations.

One of the language arts competencies has to do with oral language. DRAM 317 (Creative Drama for Teachers) was the course approved by the State department for this competency. As an addition, we would like to give students the option of DRAM 210 (Oral Interpretation of Literature) for those three hours because the courses are not offered every semester.