California State University, Fresno

Kremen School of Education and Human Development

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The Renaissance Group

 

 

Goals

  1. University Teaching—Assure the establishment of mechanisms on each campus to improve university teaching.
  2. Educating the New American Student—As delineated in the article Educating the New American Student, each member university will work to implement the recommendations (in each of the 5 select areas). This effort will draw upon programs and resources throughout each campus. Curriculum improvements will be pursued when they seem to be desirable and necessary. Program cooperation among member universities is highly desirable.
  3. Public Policy Affecting Higher Education—Participate with ECS, AACTE, AASCU and other related organizations in the development of public policy affecting higher education.
  4. Linkages with Other Key Education Groups—Monitor and disseminate information on all educational reform efforts. Maintain involvement with Project 30 efforts, Teach America (AASCU), the Goodlad initiative, etc. Members should continue making presentations about organizational efforts at educational conferences and invite representatives from other groups to participate in the Renaissance Group conferences. Active sharing of data, information, and studies is mutually beneficial. Increased collaboration in these areas may become even more critical in the years ahead.
  5. Recruitment of the next Generation of Teachers—Identify and implement new models and expand existing effective models for the recruitment of the next generation of teachers.
  6. University Support of Teacher Education—Encourage broader support for teacher education on member campuses. While no two universities will pursue this challenge in the same manner, member presidents, academic vice presidents, and deans of education must assume primary leadership responsibility for keeping the education of teachers a major campus priority. They can achieve this by appointing leaders and faculty members who, like themselves, are committed to the education of teachers. They can take the lead in developing a supportive campus environment for the education of teachers, which may come in part through the creation of appropriate incentives and rewards for greater faculty involvement. Because teacher education has been viewed by some as impervious to change, far more innovation and creativity must be incorporated into the preparation of teachers.
  7. New Scholarship—Stimulate, monitor, and disseminate information on the creation of new knowledge on member campuses. One focus for this knowledge will be the societal changes affecting the schools and the education of teachers. As Ernest Boyer suggests in his book, Scholarship Reconsidered: Priorities of the Professionals, scholarship at comprehensive universities should not merely imitate that at research universities. Instead, he urges that comprehensive universities be campuses that blend quality and innovation. He contends that some comprehensive universities may choose to emphasize the scholarship of integration through extensive interdisciplinary efforts and still others might make the application of knowledge the centerpiece of their efforts. Without any question, the changing needs of American schools and the preparation of teachers for those schools are prime targets for this kind of scholarly attention.
  8. Inter-University Collaboration—Specify and support limited efforts at inter-university collaboration. The success or failure of these efforts will be determined by the quality of leadership provided on each campus by the respective deans, vice presidents, and presidents.
  9. Membership—Increase minority group representation (Hispanic and Native American). Increase representation of schools other than AASCU, i.e., private and land grant. Increase membership to a point where we graduate 10% of the education educators prepared each year.