The Education department will face a review by an external committee to determine its future relationship with the College that may suggest the removal of the department on Feb. 2 and 3.
The reviews stem from former College President James Freedman's policy to review each department at least once every 10 years. The Education department was reviewed once in 1993 and again in 1996, both times by internal committees.
Now the department faces its final review which will ultimately decide if the Education department has a future at Dartmouth.
The 1996 review recommended the removal of the department.
Once the intent for termination was announced, student outcry to save the popular department prompted the 11th hour grant of an improvement period of three years.
Obstacles to the department loom on campus. Paramount among these are pressure from College President James Wright's push to make Dartmouth into a research institution and a general sense of disdain for teaching as a post-Dartmouth profession.
In response to those opinions Education department Chair Andrew Garrod said, "That's just good, old-fashioned elitism."
Dean of Faculty Ed Berger approached the question concerning whether Dartmouth as a liberal arts college needs a pre-professional department for teachers from two viewpoints.
"If education ought to be a department it should have a research agenda," Berger said. "We need a good department."
As the department compares with other academic departments of the College, it has to be a similarly outstanding department that will prove worth saving, Berger said.
"If there's a need to rehabilitate [the department] we need to think about the resources and expenses needed, and this has to be thought of in light of how necessary to the College this is."
On the other hand, Berger said he appreciates the need for well-trained teachers. "The future of America relies on good teachers, and if we're not getting them from a place like Dartmouth, where are we going to get them?"
Garrod reported a similar sense of optimism regarding the future of the department. Since the 1996 recommendation, the department has made numerous improvements to prepare for the February review.
"We are doing all that we can with the limited resources we have," he said.
Although teaching is not the most popular career for Dartmouth graduates, Garrod said it would be "a really retrograde step" for Dartmouth to eliminate the department based on the popularity of investment banking in light of the academic mission of the College.
Berger agrees on this aspect. "[Teaching] is a very important role that America has subordinated in an unfortunate way," he said.
Regardless, the review will go ahead evaluating the department on more tangible items than opinion. Specifically the committee will score the department for strength of curriculum and faculty, how strong the department is and how strong it could be.
Already the department has made vast improvements over its more disorganized existence in 1996, Garrod said. Such improvements are manifest in climbing numbers in all aspects of the department.
Twenty-eight students will minor in Education, more than the number majoring in some other departments.
The enrollment in education classes is at an all time high. The popular Education 20 course was at 240 students in the fall, making a strong case for largest class at Dartmouth, Garrod said.
Garrod also points to the increased collegiality of education faculty and bolstered efforts at academic pursuit outside of the department as evidence that the department has improved significantly.
"The program has been streamlined, and the courses offered are more coherent to teacher preparation," Garrod said. This refined curriculum takes advantage of the resources of Dartmouth and now works classes jointly with other departments, manages Dartmouth Schools Partnership with Upper Valley public schools, and co-sponsors a teaching Internship in Majora, Marshall Islands with the Tucker Foundation.
Despite all the improvements, the department still has some trouble meeting the expectations of a "research agenda." Not surprising, Garrod said, when the department relies almost exclusively on visiting faculty and has but one tenured faculty member -- Garrod himself.
Even though it is hard to produce scholarship with visiting faculty, the majority of the faculty in the department are active scholars, Garrod said. But for the department to make that scholarship truly excellent would require a renewed investment by the College in the department.
Garrod hopes that will come with the review committee's recommendations.
Neither Associate Dean of the Faculty for Social Sciences Jamshed Bharucha, who helped select the committee, nor Berger would wager a guess as to the outcome of the review.
"We're hoping that the committee would be looking to the future, but I don't think we're going to pre-judge the committee. We'll leave it to them to make their own assessment," Bharucha said.
"I'm not looking to eliminate the department," Berger said. "I'm keeping my fingers crossed."
Berger said that the report containing the recommendations of the external review committee will most likely not be published until late spring.
Garrod affects positivity in the face of what could be the final challenge to his department. "I'm very optimistic. I have every reason to be proud of this department."
The review committee will be made up of five members -- two Dartmouth faculty members, Physics professor Mary Hudson and Native American Studies and History professor Colin Callaway, as well as three professors from peer institutions. Susan Fuhrman, dean of the Graduate School of Education at the University of Pennsylvania; Nel Noddings, former acting-dean of the Stanford University Graduate School of Education; and Cynthia Garca-Coll, a developmental psychologist and professor of Education at Brown University will serve on the committee.
The trio of external experts was hand-selected by Bharucha. Fuhrman, Garca-Coll, and Noddings were selected for their leadership roles in education and the clout their recommendations will carry, Bharucha said.
After the appraisal, the committee will make recommendations to the administration that could have a huge effect a effect on the future of the education department.
"We would certainly listen to the recommendations of the committee very closely," Bharucha said.
Garrod will, too, but instead of expecting bad news upon the committee's report, he has high hopes that this committee will recognize the strengths of the department and recommend that the College allot increased resources so that the department may achieve excellence.
