Appendix D. Candidate Diversity. Recruitment

Appendix D Candidate Diversity Recruitment MSU recruitment efforts serve as an umbrella for recruitment efforts at college levels. For university recruitment policies and initiatives focused on equity https://www.missouristate.edu/equity/52248.htm. Southern Ozarks Alliance for Rural (SOAR) Development The COE has partnered with school districts in Missouri counties with the highest poverty rate to recruit low income students into teacher education. The Southern Ozarks Alliance for Rural (SOAR) Development initiative began in 2012. A Teacher Supply and Demand Survey was sent to forty-two school districts in ten counties, and twenty-six districts responded to the survey. The survey inquired about district information, anticipated need for teachers in specific certification areas, and reasons for teacher shortages. After summarizing the survey results, the SOAR Report indicated that Secondary Science, Foreign Language, Early Childhood, Elementary Education, Building Principals and Counselors are all high need areas. The top two reasons provided for district teacher shortages in the report were educator retirements and colleges/institutions not certifying enough educators in specific areas. Finally, regarding hiring decisions, districts considered the most desirable teachers those who hold dual certifications and participate in extracurricular assignments (Appendix 3.1.14). Missouri Educators for Tomorrow s Schools (MoETS) Conference MSU EPP West Plains campus began hosting an annual MoETS Conference in 2013 with 105 area public school students attending from ten West Plains area schools. The school districts from the seven-county area served by the West Plains campus are encouraged to identify students who are interested in careers as future teachers. The conferences focus on activities to provide students with a realistic view of a teaching career. Twelve workshops are offered, in which content area teachers, elementary classroom teachers, vocational and special services educators, administrators, coaches, and MSU-West Plains student groups serve as presenters. There is a general opening session, campus tours, and lunch scheduled where students interact and network with individuals from the attending schools and Missouri State students. Conference activities include Promote Your School Posters, Diversity Recognition Posters, Future Teacher Activities Scrapbooks, and Identifying a School Need. Students are provided MSU/MoETS Conference bags with College of Education programs information (Appendix 3.1.16). One Missouri/Bear Partnership

The One Missouri initiative proposes partnerships with school districts in high need urban and rural areas in Kansas City, St. Louis, the Bootheel in Missouri, and the rural Ozarks. These communities and their schools experience high poverty rates and consist of high cultural and racial diversity. The goal is to provide training and support for students from those districts to complete educator preparation programs at MSU. The students will then return to teach in their districts, thus helping families and schools (Appendix 3.1.1). The Bear Partnership recruitment program is a component of One Missouri. It is a collaboration between MSU COE administrators and select school districts in the state of Missouri. Bear Partnership was originally designed in concert with the Pattonville School District to expose underrepresented students interested in careers in education to college life at MSU while also preparing them academically. Each student takes a pre-act test, completes a week-long academic preparation in the content areas of the test, and then takes a post-test. While on campus students are also exposed to workshops covering financial literacy, Greek life, the education living learning community, and the admissions process. The program offers students helpful information in making a college choice, while providing insight into keys for college success (Appendix 3.1.2) Choosing Education as a Career To recruit more racially/ethnically diverse candidates, the COE held a national diverse student recruitment seminar in Mobile, Alabama, on June 7 8, 2018, titled Choosing Education as a Career. Invitations were extended to middle and high school principals, counselors, and parents in schools across Alabama, Mississippi, Florida, Georgia, South Carolina, Arkansas, and Kentucky. Thirty-seven individuals from six states attended the seminar and learned from MSU COE personnel about admissions, multicultural leadership scholarships, and year-long internship opportunities. The goal was to form partnerships with schools to recruit middle and high school students from underrepresented groups to choose teaching as a career. Some of these schools are now exploring options for working with the MSU EPP. Follow-up will be conducted in the late Fall 2018 / early Spring 2019 to determine how many students from the schools represented may be choosing education as a career as a result of this effort. Appendix 3.1.8 contains the letter of invitation, agenda, and other documents related to the seminar. In the last four years, the percentage of candidates from underrepresented groups admitted to initial teacher education programs has increased slightly, fluctuating between 8.36% and 10.58% (Appendix 3.1.2). The demographic composition of MSU EPP candidates admitted to teacher education is reflective of, or more diverse, than the demographic composition of surrounding Missouri counties (Appendix 3.1.3). Retention MSU supports specific retention initiatives across colleges. For example, the GEP 101 seminar is targeted toward first-generation students' success, academic achievement, and four-year degree attainment. Sections exist specifically for education majors. Another example is the Educator Living and Learning Center (see Component 3.1), a residence hall community that

supports underrepresented first-generation candidates. In addition, the EPP s Diversity Committee developed the Inclusive Excellence Leadership Scholarship (former Multi Cultural Scholarship) and the Diversity Transfer Scholarship programs ($5,000 and $2,000 yearly, respectively). Graduation In the last four years, the percentage of candidates from underrepresented groups completing an initial teacher education program has increased, fluctuating between 4.94% and 8.03% (Appendix 3.1.17). Completer demographics are similar to admit demographics in that they reflect the demographic composition of surrounding Missouri counties (Appendix 3.1.3). Faculty Diversity Recruitment The MSU EPP actively seeks to recruit tenure-track faculty from underrepresented backgrounds to incorporate diverse perspectives into content knowledge and pedagogy. The table below shows the race and ethnicity faculty composition in the past five years. The efforts to change the faculty composition in the COE have been successful. The percentage of non-white full-time faculty in the COE doubled during this period. University Full-time Faculty 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 American Indian or Alaskan Native 3 2 3 3 4 Asian 46 47 44 46 48 Black or African American 19 20 20 24 28 Hispanic or Latino 12 11 12 14 17 International 7 15 20 21 23 More than one race 12 12 13 12 16 Unknown 3 8 16 25 17 White or Caucasian 613 618 606 602 600 Total 715 733 734 747 753 Percentage non-white 14% 16% 17% 19% 20% University Part-time Faculty 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 American Indian or Alaskan Native 2 3 1 1 2 Asian 4 5 4 6 6 Black or African American 1 1 0 1 1 Hispanic or Latino 4 6 7 6 4 International 3 5 3 4 1 More than one race 2 1 5 3 3 Unknown 46 63 65 47 53 White or Caucasian 338 312 323 324 300 Total 400 396 408 392 370

Percentage non-white 16% 21% 21% 17% 19% College of Ed Full-time Faculty 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 American Indian or Alaskan Native 0 0 1 1 1 Asian 2 1 1 1 1 Black or African American 5 5 6 9 7 Hispanic or Latino 0 0 0 2 2 International 0 2 1 0 0 More than one race 0 0 0 0 1 Unknown 0 0 2 3 3 White or Caucasian 59 56 55 54 52 Total 66 64 66 70 67 Percentage non-white 11% 13% 17% 23% 22% College of Ed Part-time Faculty 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 Asian 0 1 0 0 0 Hispanic or Latino 0 1 1 1 1 More than one race 0 0 1 0 0 Unknown 6 7 4 2 2 White or Caucasian 43 36 37 38 41 Total 49 45 43 41 44 Percentage non-white 12% 20% 14% 7% 7% Retention The Provost Office partners with other institutional agents to create ongoing professional diversity-related training for new and continuing faculty members. Beginning in Fall 2014, the COE developed and conducted a series of monthly Promotion and Tenure (P&T) seminars to provide support for all assistant professors working toward promotion and tenure. Since 2014, approximately 30% of all new faculty hired by the COE are from diverse groups, and each of these faculty attend the P&T seminars to receive support from the COE to help them become successful faculty at MSU. The dean meets with faculty during one-hour sessions to address teaching, research, and service requirements; departmental guidelines; southwest Missouri university and college cultures; and mentorship. The seminar series provides in-house faculty development, designed in a manner that allows each session to build upon the previous one. Six P & T seminars were held in 2014-2015, seven in 2015-2016, six in 2016-2017, six in 2017 2018, and six are scheduled for 2018-19. Lunch & Learn sessions with new faculty are held monthly by the CEFS department to help integrate new faculty into the CEFS and MSU culture. Diversity in Curricula

The MSU EPP ensures the infusion of diversity throughout teacher preparation programs. All candidates are required to meet a state-identified cultural diversity competency for certification, and are exposed to issues surrounding diversity, social justice and cultural differences. The EPP developed an undergraduate course, EDC345, Introduction to Multiculturalism and Diversity in Education, which all candidates are required to take. Additional program-specific diversity courses (Appendix1.2.4) are required: ECE575 - Working with Culturally and Linguistically Diverse Children and Families in Early Childhood ELE530 - Teaching English Language Learners in the Elementary Classroom SPE780 - Impact of Contemporary Issues and Diversity in Special Education EAD784 - Multicultural Issues Involving Human Relations and Collaborative Processes EAD864 Diversity and Community Relations RDG560/660 Diversity Issues in Literacy and Content Area Instruction RDG665 - Cultural Diversity in Literacy & Instruction: Classrooms & Community SFR797 - Educational Workshop Diversity in Assessments Measures of candidate proficiency in different aspects of diversity, including their ability to teach underrepresented students, are collected throughout the programs. These include Diversity Proficiencies (Appendix 1.1.8), Disposition Traits (Appendix 1.1.7), Experiential Logs (Appendix 1.1.9), and Multicultural and Diversity Lesson Modification (Appendix 1.1.10). The Diversity Proficiencies assessment is administered during student teaching and completed by candidates, university supervisors, and cooperating teachers. Candidates must demonstrate diversity proficiencies appropriately to meet both individual differences and group differences. Candidates are evaluated on the following features: awareness, communication, curriculum and instruction, respect resources, and social justice. Another instrument used to measure non-academic factors of candidates are the Disposition Traits. The traits directly relate to diversity are social justice and equity, working with peers, families, and families from diverse backgrounds, presenting accurate information about diverse cultures, self-cultural awareness, and valuing different cultural points of view. Every course with a clinical experience component requires candidates to complete an Experiential Log (Appendix 1.1.9). In the Experiential Log, candidates are prompted to reflect upon any interactions and/or modifications of instruction related to diversity. During the Introduction to Multicultural Education and Diversity (EDC 345) course, candidates use research sources to improve any given lesson plan into a plan that is multiculturally inclusive (Appendix 1.1.10). Candidates are assessed, among other things, on the use of appropriate resources and the inclusion of a social justice component. This assignment in EDC 345 is noteworthy because the diversity component is prominent in relation to standard CAEP 1.2. (Appendix 1.2.5)

Teaching Diverse Students Student teaching placements The MSU EPP ensures that candidates have experience teaching in a diverse setting before program completion, and this is documented in the Professional Education database (Appendix 2.3.3). The MSU EPP developed a formula to create a diversity scale based on demographic data collected by MoDESE for each building/district across the state (see 2.3). The scale assigns one of three levels of diversity to each building: Not Diverse, Moderately Diverse or Highly Diverse. Every candidate is required to have at least one placement of 30 hours or more in a Moderately or Highly Diverse setting. In the three years from 2014-2017, 75% of our candidates were placed in 34 public school districts; 94% of those districts were in the Moderately or Highly Diverse levels (Appendix 2.3.3). Program completer professional placement MoDESE annually provides the MSU EPP a list of completers along with the public school building in which they are employed. The MSU EPP used the formula described above and assigned the diversity rankings to each building. A review of the last five years of data show that 88% of MSU EPP completers are employed in buildings with either a Moderately Diverse or Highly Diverse rating and these ratings have remained stable across years (Appendix 2.3.4). Additional Diversity Opportunities MSU and University of Arkansas Pine Bluff MOU COE served as MSU liaison to implement a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) between MSU and the University of Arkansas Pine Bluff (UAPB), a historically black university. The MOU is an agreement between the institutions to establish a collaborative relationship to enhance educational and professional opportunities for their students, faculty, and staff, particularly focusing on providing meaningful opportunities for underrepresented populations and increased education on and exposure to diversity and inclusion matters for all populations. The institutions agree to explore the possibility of establishing faculty co-teaching arrangements and faculty exchange; alternative modality course offerings, joint programs, and similar arrangements; and cooperative arrangements to provide internship, practicum, student teaching, and other out-of-the-classroom opportunities. Key MOU outcomes included undergraduates and faculty participating in the Emerging Leaders Program during Spring 2014, faculty guest lecture program in Spring 2014, and COE faculty peer-reviewed presentations in the Mary T. Benjamin Access and Retention Conferences in Spring 2014 and 2015. Bear POWER (Promoting Opportunities for Work, Education and Resilience) Bear POWER is a two-year college program for individuals with intellectual and developmental disabilities housed in the COE. One important aspect of the Bear POWER is the involvement of

MSU student volunteers, called Bear Blazers, in the program. These students are peer mentors who establish one-on-one relationships with Bear POWER students and engage with them both academically and socially. COE candidates can provide support and integration within academic and social settings for a diverse and underrepresented population of college students. Bear POWER began in Fall 2018 (https://www.missouristate.edu/bearpower/). Multicultural Education and Diversity Civil Rights Tour For the past three summers, the COE has offered a domestic study away program called the Multicultural Education and Diversity Civil Rights Tour. This program occurs at the end of each spring semester. For a week, candidates experience first-hand the locations of significant historical events of the Civil Rights Movement. Site visits include Birmingham, Montgomery, Selma, and Memphis. Candidates have an opportunity to meet with experts in the field, as well as participants of the movement. (https://international.missouristate.edu/assets/studyaway/stfl_alabama_edc.pdf ) Costa Rica: Walking in the Shoes of Your English Language Learners & All Struggling Students Since May 2013, education candidates have had the opportunity to participate in a study away to Costa Rica. This trip is an opportunity for candidates to develop a sense of empathy for their future English Language Learner students or struggling students. The program is a Spanish language immersion program. Candidates will live with non-english speaking families and take Spanish classes daily. Candidates will learn what it feels like to struggle to communicate in a new language. They will learn local language, education, culture, history, food, and dance. Candidates will work in three different schools with students from different socioeconomic groups. In addition, candidates will volunteer in a Nicaraguan Refugee Camp to work with children that live in extreme poverty (https://international.missouristate.edu/assets/studyaway/stfl_costarica_eem_2015-16 Final_.pdf). Mexico: Seeing the World Through Young Children s Eyes In Spring 2019, Early Childhood Education candidates will have the opportunity to participate in a 15-day travel program to Oaxaca, Mexico. Seeing the World Through Young Children s Eyes: Perspectives and Practices for Working with Diverse Young Learners in the US, Mexico, And Beyond is a program designed to enrich candidates experiences of diverse cultures and communities beyond what is possible on campus. Oaxaca is a truly diverse city and state; it is home to 16 official indigenous groups, each with their own linguistic and social traditions. Candidates learn about the policies and practices for working with young children and families in public and private schools in Mexico, and work with community groups that support children and families in a variety of ways. Additionally, they will examine the assets that young children and families bring to early childhood programs from their communities. Finally, this program

gives candidates opportunities to understand the similarities and differences among people within and across cultures, and to experience learning to live in a completely new culture Acoma Reservations: Art of the Native American Southwest This course will include an introduction to cultural issues, diversity, and related perspectives in education. Examination of individual differences in ethnicity, race, socioeconomic status, gender, exceptionalities, language, religion, sexual orientation, and geographic area in the context of education and society. Development of skills, knowledge, and dispositions related to teaching and learning in varied settings with diverse learners required of all educators to be effective in a global society (https://international.missouristate.edu/assets/studyaway/stfl_southwestusa_art Final_.p df). South Africa: Art and Culture of South Africa This experience is designed to provide a foundation of first-hand knowledge and pragmatic skills to enhance pedagogy. Being an effective educator in a global society requires the development of skills, knowledge, and dispositions related to teaching and learning in varied settings with diverse learners.