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Welcome back to Auburn Ed Talks, the official podcast of Auburn University's College of Education.
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Recorded in the Pratt Family Media Production room in our College of Education Building, this podcast spotlights the people, ideas, and innovation shaping the future of education and beyond.
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Today's episode is a special one as we bring together leaders from across Alabama to discuss the PARCA process and what it means for Educator Preparation Programs across Alabama.
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Whether you're a faculty member, program coordinator, administrator, or simply interested in advancing teacher preparation, this conversation will offer practical insights and valuable advice from those leading the work.
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So let's get to talkin’!
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Hello, everyone! I'm Dr.
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Vicky Cardullo, a professor in Auburn University's College of Education, and I'm delighted to welcome you to today's conversation.
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We have an outstanding panel of guests joining us—leaders from PARCA, leaders from the Alabama State Department, and leaders from higher education who have been instrumental in supporting education preparation and the PARCA process across the state.
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Thank you all for being here and for sharing your expertise, your experiences, and your insights.
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We're excited to learn from you and help our listeners better understand the process for higher education programs as they move through PARCA.
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Before we dive into today's discussion on PARCA, let's take a few minutes to get to know our panelists and the important roles each of you play in supporting the educator preparation program across the state of Alabama.
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Would you begin, Jason?
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Absolutely. So, my name is Jason Fulmore.
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I'm a senior research scientist at PARCA, and we have had the opportunity of kind of helping with the methodology and how we put this together to understand what the EPPs are going to be submitting and everything else.
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So, looking forward to it.
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Thank you.
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Good morning.
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Alethea Hampton, Alabama State Department of Education Executive Administrator in Educator Preparation in the Division of Teaching and Leading.
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I have the opportunity to work with all of the EPPs and ATPOs that are approved in Alabama.
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Thank you.
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Hi, Cortney Dilgard, I'm a clinical assistant professor at the University of Alabama and our literacy program coordinator, and I have been a part of the Early Review Committee.
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Perfect.
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Thank you all for those introductions.
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We have a wonderful perspective from a lot of different entities this morning.
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And so I want to jump right into our questions.
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When you think about a successful PARCA submission, what are the key elements that every education program should have in place before they even begin gathering evidence?
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If I can just take a stab at it first.
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Absolutely.
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One, I want to impress that we've just revised our continuous improvement process in the state of Alabama.
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And this is a great time because everything's falling right in place with literacy, with numeracy, and with what we're doing with all of the other programs.
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So, when we look at all of the programs, the first thing is critical for them to think about the curriculum alignment.
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Think about the key assessments and think about the field experiences.
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We want all of our EPPs to be engaged in the process of continuous improvement, and learning to use those three data pieces so that they can ensure that their candidates are learning didactically what they need to know in the classrooms.
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They're able to demonstrate that on the assessments, and the EPP is keeping a pulse on what they need to change in order for them to be more effective, and that they are having an opportunity to marry the theoretical and the applicable when they go out and do their field experiences.
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Yeah, I don't know.
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I could have said that much better.
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That was great.
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Do you want to add anything to it?
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Cortney, Cortney's been part of the the process, so I think she really has a good -- a good sense.
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Yeah.
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So, I would say kind of where we started reflecting is just the work that we had done prior with ARI and with the crosswalk document and looking at how we align those standards within our literacy courses.
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And then the work that we've done recently is just looking to make sure that that work is very transparent in our materials and our syllabi.
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I think as higher ed professionals, a lot of times, you know, we have that curriculum mapping tucked in our back pocket.
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We have it there.
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But just making sure that that is transparent in the materials has been really important.
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I agree.
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What I'm hearing is that it doesn't happen overnight, and that it
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takes intentional planning and that we need to look at multiple sources as we're moving forward.
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And having that transparency, I think is really critical.
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Yeah.
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And you've been part of that process as well, Vicky.
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So it's how I think you guys offer a real interesting perspective, because you've been able to look at it as we've been looking at other programs and such.
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The experience, I think, is a comprehensive view and looking at it from a distant view all the way down to the micro view, I think is really critical.
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And I think having these conversations across universities is really important because everyone hears the same message then.
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Yeah, I agree.
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Absolutely.
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Alright.
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My next question, what are some of the most common misconceptions institutions have about PARCA evaluation process, and what advice would you give programs to help them navigate it successfully?
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Oh wow, I wish I actually knew what most of the common misconceptions were.
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I think that if I were sitting back, a lot of times, and this is anecdotal, I don't deal with a lot of anecdotal data.
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So, I would love to have a focus group and actually be able to ask.
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But because of the process you guys went through with Barksdale previously, and the feeling that everyone had, as it related to maybe it not being as transparent as they hoped it would be or whatever the case was.
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I wasn't a part of that, I wasn't here. The fact that PARCA would have a similar type of process, I think, is one of the things that I think most people assume, and our process is a little bit different.
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One of the things we wanted to do very, very early on, we wanted an outside perspective.
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So we have team leaders from outside of the state of Alabama, but we thought it was critical for institutions within the state of Alabama to play a role in helping us understand whether the rubric was working or it's not working, what to look for, so we could have this conversation so that you could have conversations with other institutions and trying to be as transparent as possible, so that I think that's for me.
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I don't - I would love to hear what you guys perception is.
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Yeah.
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For me, what I've seen is, is that transition from an attainment mindset to a growth mindset, and too often EPPs have been on the side of if you didn't get it, there were consequences and they're afraid about those consequences.
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We're moving more to that truly continuous improvement vein where let's look at what's working.
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Let's look at what's not working.
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How do we make the adjustments to ensure that those things that haven't been working, we can tweak and make sure we're we're trying to become more effective in those places, but don't throw out everything and keep those things that have been successful.
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And another thing that's really new - that EPPs are making huge adjustments to - the collaborative spirit that has come about with this.
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And so it's really wonderful to see how EPPs are reaching across to one another, relying on that expertise that lies within each of them, so that they can have something that's unanimously decided upon and also that's beneficial for the candidates.
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I agree.
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There's two things that I wanted to kind of pop in there.
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One of the things I think you mentioned, it's evaluative, but it's not punitive, right?
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And I don't think that that is a message that has come across all the way yet.
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I think that's something that we have to continue to talk about, and that it is a end mindset or an end goal.
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What are we doing with this?
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It's got to be more than just we're checking off the boxes to submit it. And how are we using the tools and the data in order to support our next steps?
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And then the other thing is looking at universities and the collaborative nature across universities.
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I think that is the powerful thing.
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I think that is the most powerful piece that we have so far.
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In order to have EPPs have a resource that has a like mind.
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Yes.
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Yeah.
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I’m fairly new like as far as this process.
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So you guys could probably speak historically to, you know, whether EPPs have been more siloed and kind of not had this level of collaboration.
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I think it's fantastic because I think that your opportunity to learn from one another - I'm really happy you put this together, Vicky.
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And that, that and Auburn put this together, because this should be part of this process the entire way through.
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So I again, I, I'm very, from an outsider's perspective, and I'm trying to play the role of kind of assessing and evaluating, kind of staying on the outside a little bit.
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I'm very, very pleased with kind of the process that has kind of come up, come about.
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Sorry, Cortney, I don't
know if I jumped in.
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No, I would add, like, I really have appreciated PARCA's responsiveness just during the early reviews.
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And, you know, things that we've brought up and things that we've had questions about, just them being very open and listening and adjusting based on what we're seeing.
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And so I think that speaks to this growth mindset and is setting a really good foundation for the process.
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Fantastic.
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And it's a little nostalgic being here today because, Dr.
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Cardullo, just as a personal privilege to you, you started this in bringing everybody to Auburn to birth the standards.
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And so now being back here today, it's almost coming full circle to where it began and now to how we evaluate the process.
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So it's wonderful to see the transition that has taken place in the state.
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I appreciate that.
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Absolutely.
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I know our time is short, and so I want to go on to the next question.
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Looking ahead, what advice would you give to education preparation programs as they prepare for the future of PARCA and program evaluation?
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What practices should they begin implementing now to ensure that they have a good, strong, successful submission?
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Well, I mean, I think you're doing one of the most important steps in this, in this having this conversation today and everything else.
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But I think that for me, or from PARCA's perspective, is we're going to be sharing some templates in the future.
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That was a feedback we got from the, from the reviewers.
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We’re going to be sharing a couple of different things.
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And I think what I would want to kind of share out is at any point in time, if you have questions, you're not sure about what the next step is, what you're going to do, our door is open.
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Please reach out.
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And if we don't have the answer, you know we will talk to one of the reviewers.
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We will, we will, we will find out the way to help you be as successful as possible with what you're submitting so that they're able to do their job.
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So that's kind of from our perspective.
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Just from the state's perspective, focus on progress, not perfection.
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Yeah.
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And I think at the EPP level, looking at those key assessments that you mentioned earlier is really important.
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Look to see what you're already doing well.
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And then, I was previewing some of the sessions on the agenda today looking at there's some gap analysis opportunities and that kind of thing.
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And I think kind of focusing there on where you can grow and looking at the standards and what you can do better is a great place to start.
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Well, this has been a very insightful conversation, hearing perspectives from different people - from PARCA to State Department to higher ed - and I appreciate the insights that you've given us.
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The review process is an opportunity for institutions to grow, and I believe that.
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And I think that as we collaborate together and come together, that growth process will happen and hopefully we'll be able to have an institute next year again, or something else that helps us to collaborate.
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So thank you.
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Thank you.
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Thank you, Vicky.
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Well, thanks for joining us for this episode of Auburn Ed Talks.
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We hope today's conversation provided valuable perspectives on program evaluation, continuous improvement, and the collaborative efforts that support future educators across our state.
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Be sure to subscribe for more conversations that elevate, empower, and celebrate the work of education leaders and educators.. War Eagle.