After the education department's rescue from near-abolishment last term, the department is now on a comeback trail, having earned at least a three-year reprieve, and several changes may be in store in the near future.
Although the education department is in a much less precarious position than six months ago, Education Department Chair Andrew Garrod said he is the only tenured professor in the department.
He said if the evaluation three years from now goes well, the department can then hire a limited number of tenure-track professors.
But he said the new opportunity to offer three-year contracts is an improvement over the past and shows the growing strength of the department. Previously, only one-year contracts could be offered to prospective faculty in the department.
Another major upcoming change, Garrod said, is in the teacher preparation program, and the change will affect the student-teaching requirement he said
In the past, students desiring teacher certification had to return to Hanover the fall after graduation to student teach. Starting with the Class of 1998, student teaching will take place Winter term of the senior year.
He said this could conflict with thesis-writing for some students, but allows students to search for jobs immediately after graduation and not lose an additional year.
Assistant Professor of Education Randy Testa said teaching recruiters have said students who go through a teacher preparation program and are certified to teach are better prepared and get more jobs.
To assist with the teacher education program, the College recently hired Nona Lyons, a professor from the University of Southern Maine.
Lyons, who has also served as director of teacher education at Brown University, said she is looking forward to "the opportunity to strengthen a 100-year-old department."
Lyons said she thinks the new changes to Dartmouth's education department are timely because of U.S. President Bill Clinton's recent mandate to improve education.
In addition to reforming the format of the teacher preparation program, Testa said the education department has three other goals -- introducing new classes, interlocking the elementary and secondary teaching preparation and strengthening and interconnecting the teacher preparation program and the educational studies program.
He said one goal for a new course is to make the arts a central feature in teaching. A proposed course would focus on education through the arts and athletics.
Another proposed new class would study children's literature, he said.
Testa mentioned retired kindergarten teacher Vivian Paley, who spoke to a crowded 105 Dartmouth Hall last month, when he discussed the importance of linking elementary and secondary education.
He said Paley talked about having high school teachers start out by teaching kindergarten "to more explicitly see the continuum" of child and adolescent development.
Lyons said the teacher preparation students and students enrolled in education courses are "both important constituencies," and she said the two parts of the department complement each other.
Garrod said Lyons is the most experienced teacher the education department has hired in years.
"She has written a lot on issues of teacher preparation and has an excellent reputation as a colleague," he said.
Garrod said he has found faculty members in other departments to be overwhelmingly supportive of the education department.
"I have people coming up to me on the Green asking what they can do to help," he said.
According to Garrod, enrollment in education courses is "at its best ever."
Testa, who teaches a course on the philosophy of education, said his class is "packed to the rafters."
Associate Dean of the Faculty George Wolford declined to comment on the reasons for the College's near-abolishment of the education department.
"I was evasive enough all last year -- I think it is best to forget about it all and put it behind us," Wolford said.
