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Message from the Associate Dean
Conceptual Framework and Unit Proficiencies
Key Assessments
Status of Programs
Programs of Study
Course Syllabi
Program Reviews and Annual Reports
Off-Campus Programs
Special Projects, Collaborations and Grants
School of Education Newsletters
Other Institutional and Student Information
Continual Improvement: State of the Unit: Programs, Changes and Plans
Visit Reports
Institutional Report (Uploaded 10/23/13)
IR Exhibits
Offsite Visit Report (Uploaded 10/23/13)
Addendum Report (Uploaded 10/23/13)
Addendum Exhibits
About Salem State University
Catalogs and Academic Policies
NEASC Self-Study Report
Acronyms Key (Uploaded 10/1/13)
State (DESE) Program Approval
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Salem State University (SSU) is a 160-year-old publicly supported comprehensive university. Salem Normal School welcomed "young ladies who wish to prepare themselves for teaching" in September, 1854, the fourth normal school in the state and the 10th in the U.S. Graduates taught in the Commonwealth, in schools for freed people in the South, in district schools in the expanding Midwest, and overseas. The Normal School admitted men in 1898. After World War I, the curriculum included commercial education, the first U.S. public institution to do so. In 1932 Salem Normal School became Salem Teachers College; thirty years later, it was renamed Salem State College. By the late 1960s, the College offered new programs in the liberal arts, business administration and nursing and a Division of Graduate and Continuing Education. The 1990s saw campus expansion in the creation of a Central Campus for the Bertolon School of Business, a recital hall, "green" residence halls, conference center and small business incubator. In 2010 a new green library and learning commons broke ground expected to open in Fall 2013.
In recognition of its growth in size and curriculum and its extended graduate programs, the College became Salem State University on October 28, 2010. In recognition of its roots and its strong faculty, SSU has kept its commitment to good teaching while growing research and grant activity and civic engagement. Massachusetts’ most culturally diverse public institution of higher education, SSU serves 10,000 bachelor's, master's and C.A.G.S. students, most first-generation, many immigrants, in professional and academic programs all founded on a strong liberal arts core. The leading IHE in the region, SSU is distinguished by its many partnerships with school districts, community agencies, cultural institutions and businesses. Scholarship, teaching and service are linked to the needs of our neighbors and their educational, economic and social welfare. In appreciation of its long professional education leadership in the region and the state, SSU was designated the home institution of the state-sponsored Northeast Regional Readiness Center, a collaborative PK-16 educational center initiated by Governor Patrick under the Race to the Top program. Faculty at the University and in the School of Education are regularly engaged with the larger community, collaborating with school districts and civic/cultural/social organizations in developing projects and programs to improve community education and welfare. The special projects, grants and collaborations described in this Exhibit Room, on the Overview and other pages, attest to the engagement of Unit and SSU faculty and students in the work of applying research and theory to the world of practice, effecting substantive changes in the lives of individuals and community groups.
SSU is a welcoming, diverse campus community that prides itself in providing a high-quality education to a broad constituency at relatively low cost, and opportunities for continued learning for part-time students in a variety of scheduling and delivery formats. SSU faculty, students and staff are thoroughly engaged in the community, in service-learning, volunteering, research and project partnerships, on-site learning, grant work, and school/community councils. Though most of our faculty are research-active and many are globally connected, we are concerned that our work improves practice, and responds to the needs of people "at home" and abroad, the lives of our students and the health of our larger community. The University’s mission is "to provide a high quality, student-centered education that prepares a diverse community of learners to contribute responsibly and creatively to a global society, and serve as a resource to advance the region's cultural, social and economic development." Its vision is to be "a premier teaching university dedicated to excellence in education, service and scholarship." The SSU community values excellence in teaching and scholarship with a focus on creative and critical thinking. Faculty take their teaching seriously and earn high marks from students for the effort; the university supports faculty development with a Center for Teaching Innovation and with faculty-initiated learning communities. SSU values the holistic development of students through learner-centered education. A wide array of services is available to students needing academic, emotional, physical or mental health support, including transition support services that target our large population of first-generation students, students or color (23% of full-time undergrads, 28% part-time) and students from other underrepresented groups.
The Mission of the School of Education (Education Unit), revised in 2010, is “to develop inquisitive, reflective and culturally responsive teachers and leaders who value collaborative professional communities and whose practice engages students in transformative learning.” The graphic that accompanies the mission is a lighthouse (denoting our seaside location) lying within a circle of Teachers, Culturally Responsive Learners and Leaders who help build and work within Professional Communities (forming the lighthouse base), and who asks candidates to Inquire, Practice, Reflect (lighthouse beacon). While the values and concepts embedded in our previous logo and mission, centered on The Learner, remain, the updated graphic emphasizes the active roles of teachers and learners and the context of community which we believe is central to good teaching and meaningful learning. We have not changed our commitment to early and continual fieldwork and to continuous learning. Nor have we veered from our commitment to prepare educators who pose important questions, who know and value their students, and who include in their focus students from a rich variety of cultural and linguistic backgrounds with diverse learning talents, interests and needs.
The Education Unit's 2003 teaching proficiencies defining expected outcomes for initial program completers were revised by the Unit in November, 2011, to reflect changes in the field and our own heightened attention to inquiry and reflective practice. They were revised again in April 2012 to express our special concern for the many English language learners in our region. Aligned with MADESE and NCATE standards, these proficiencies reflect the values that underlie our programs and govern where in our programs particular knowledge, skills and dispositions are introduced, reinforced and ultimately assessed. They are embedded in our Key Assessments. Initial Teaching Proficiencies demonstrate our prizing of critical thinking, inquiry and reflection; curriculum planning that considers students’ developmental levels and cultural and learning diversity; learning climates that support student questions and positive social relations; activities that engage students in deep and meaningful subject matter; continual assessment of student learning through multiple authentic means; and an appreciation of families, cultures and communities as enriching teaching and learning. Proficiencies for advanced program candidates expect them to demonstrate broad and deep knowledge of content and professional practice; be able to analyze and use data to improve practice at student, school and district levels; engage in engage in research that contributes to the knowledge base of their fields and informs their professional practice; demonstrate leadership skills and an advocacy stance; value and use cultural, linguistic and cognitive diversity to enrich learning environments and educational equity; and engage school, family and community resources in ways that improve student success.
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