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Element 5E: Collaboration
The faculty has made great strides over the past few years in collaborating with colleagues in the College of Arts and Sciences and in P-12 school settings, both as a unit and as individual faculty. The Office of School and Community Partnerships (covered in Standard 3) coordinates field placements and student teaching. The School of Education Advisory Board is composed of thirty members who represent various school districts and community organizations. This body provides direction and advice to the Office of School and Community Partnerships. The advanced programs in Educational Leadership and Technology, Speech and Communication Disorders, School Psychology and Literacy have additional relationships they maintain for field experiences and practica.
The Office of School and Community Partnerships launched the Adelphi Model initiative as part of its ongoing commitment to quality teacher education. As of this writing, 11 school districts are participating in the initiative with teachers serving as mentors to Adelphi candidates, helping them to make a seamless transition from class observer to student teacher. The close relationship fostered by the initiative gives candidates added confidence leading to a more productive student teaching experience.
Special projects, grants, and other initiatives have developed relationships between unit faculty and colleagues in the State Education Department, P-12 schools throughout New York, local business and industry, and faculty in other units of the institution. In the three high-need districts in Nassau County, for example, the unit's faculty members are involved in a curriculum-based oral history project, providing on-site courses in Educational Leadership, delivering professional development with grant funds on school reform, curriculum and assessment design, and providing direct tutoring and mentoring services to candidates. Faculty members are also offering bully prevention programming to the Port Washington schools, leading the design of the State's assessment system in physical education, and providing support to districts challenged by overrepresentation of minority students in special education. In an effort to address the shortage of qualified math and science teachers in area schools, the SOE in partnership with Nassau Community College, the Roosevelt Union Free School District, and the Westbury Union Free School District, obtained funding for "Pathways to Teaching," a full tuition scholarship for college students who are considering teaching secondary mathematics or science.
In order to improve teaching and learning and the preparation of educators in their content majors, SOE faculty have developed ongoing relationships with faculty in Arts and Sciences through institutional faculty governance. As part of the regular participation in University Senate and other governance, the SOE faculty participates on committees, gather and provide information about programs and candidates, and engage in program development and evaluation. Decisions regarding revisions to teacher preparation and support of candidates are based upon this collaborative effort. In another collaborative program, the SOE houses the Learning Disabilities Program, which is a program designed to provide support to Adelphi students with documented learning disabilities.
Other collaborations include offering a Doctor of Audiology (Au.D.) degree through collaboration between Adelphi, Hofstra, and St. John's Universities. One of only a few in New York State, the clinically-based program draws on the resources of each institution to prepare specialists for growing opportunities in the diagnosis and treatment of hearing loss.
In addition to working with P-12 schools, the SOE collaborates with the local community in various ways. It provides service to the community through centers, including the Center for Literacy, the Child Activity Center, and the Hy Weinberg Center for Communication Disorders. The SOE also hosts the Adult Fitness Program, sponsored by the Sports Medicine and Physical Fitness Institute, which promotes exercise as preventive medicine. The Adult Fitness Program provides individualized evaluations and exercise programs in an effort to guide participants toward lifetime maintenance of physical fitness and health. Additionally, the SOE is also affiliated with many community health care institutions, such as the American Heart Association, Institute of Sports Medicine and Physical Fitness, Long Island Jewish, North Shore University Health Care System, Mercy Medical Center, Saint Charles Hospital, Saint Francis Hospital, United Cerebral Palsy Association, and Veterans Administration Medical Centers.
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