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The College of St. Catherine
Overview of the Institution
Teacher as Educational Leader
The College of St. Catherine was founded in 1905 by the Sisters of St. Joseph of Carondelet to educate “the New Woman.” Today, the College carries on the Sisters’ commitment to academic excellence and the education of women. With an enrollment of more 4400 students in 2000/2001, The College of St. Catherine is the largest Catholic women’s College in the United States. It was first accredited by North Central Association of Colleges and Secondary Schools in 1917. Twenty years later, St. Catherine’s was the first Catholic institution of higher education in the nation to be granted a chapter of Phi Beta Kappa.
A multifaceted institution, St. Catherine's serves students on campuses in St. Paul and Minneapolis. St. Catherine's offers bachelor's degrees in the liberal arts and professional fields for women in both a full-time day format and Weekend College. The College also offers professional certificates; degrees at the associate's, bachelor's and master's levels, as well as continuing education opportunities.
In all its programs, St. Catherine's offers students from diverse backgrounds a spiritual and ethical grounding that prepares them for lives and leadership roles that make a positive impact on the communities they serve. In September 1998 the College's Board of Trustees adopted a new vision for the College: to be the world's pre-eminent Catholic College educating women to lead and influence.
The College has become increasingly diverse. Based on the fall 2000 ten-day report, 95.8% of our students are women; 12.9% are multicultural/international; 90% come from Minnesota; and the average age of a St. Catherine’s student is 29. At the undergraduate level, 21.7% of our students are parents and 57.4% are transfer students.
Mission of the College of St. Catherine
The St. Paul campus is composed of the traditional baccalaureate women's college and several graduate programs offered to both men and women. The women's college encourages its students to define themselves independently of the narrow expectations of women that society widely holds. In an atmosphere sensitive to women's needs and concerns, the college provides quality programs in which students acquire knowledge, gain an understanding of their cultural heritage, develop the ability to make critical judgments and form a commitment to intellectual inquiry.
The baccalaureate curriculum emphasizes the arts, sciences and humanities; it comprises traditional liberal arts, as well as professional programs in business, health care and human services.
Certificate and graduate programs, offered to both women and men, build on the strengths of baccalaureate programs and focus on professional certification and the development of personal and leadership qualities.
The Minneapolis campus provides educational opportunities in health-care and human-services fields to a diverse coeducational student body. The campus atmosphere and educational philosophy stress student development: frequent opportunities for success and individualized academic, personal and financial support. Its special mission is to educate competent, technical-level health and human-services workers, with a regard for the whole person. Associate degree programs include technical programs and a liberal arts transfer program that combine general education with the basic knowledge, skills and values of specific health-care and human-services fields. Certificate programs emphasize specialized knowledge and skills necessary to meet additional educational needs in these fields. Innovative programming and quick response to the changing demands of health-care and human-services delivery systems characterize the programs offered on the Minneapolis campus.
Mission of the Education Department
Extending the College’s mission, the Education Department’s programs prepare and support effective educators by integrating the liberal arts within the professional sequence, providing a theoretical and clinical foundation in education methodology, developing reflective, ethical leaders with a global perspective, and fostering dispositions for lifelong learning.
Undergraduate Programs
The Education Department continues to grow and develop. Since the last visit by National Council for the Accreditation of Teacher Education (NCATE) and the Minnesota Board of Teaching (MBoT), the department revised all of its Licensure Programs to bring them into alignment with the new licensure standards in Minnesota. This resulted in an intense examination of the mission, vision, direction and composition of all programs. We believe that our offerings are now more clearly articulated both internally and externally.
The Education Department offers teacher licensure programs at the undergraduate, post-baccalaureate, and graduate levels and in a traditional day and non-traditional Weekend College format.
Graduate Programs
The Education Department expanded many of its offerings. In 1994, we began offering a Master of Arts in Education (MAED). There are currently four major tracks in the MAED. The first track is the Initial Licensure option. This has been a highly subscribed program that is offered primarily in a Weekend College format. While candidates must complete the same licensure requirements as those at the undergraduate level, the graduate courses assume and expect a broader experiential background and a more sophisticated performance level. These higher level expectations are clearly articulated in all course syllabi.
The second track in the MAED is the Montessori Certificate. This program is fully accredited by the American Montessori Society (AMS) and the Montessori Accreditation Council for Teacher Education (MACTE). In 2000, the Montessori program moved from our Minneapolis campus and administratively joined the Education Department. Our Montessori program is housed in an independent site just three miles from the main campus. This allows the program to have two full model Montessori classrooms. Candidates who wish to complete an MAED in addition to Montessori certification must satisfy all of the admission requirements for the master’s program and they must complete the research component of the graduate program. The Montessori program has collaborated with school districts in Portsmouth, Virginia; San Jose, California; Kansas City, Missouri; and Springfield, Massachusetts to offer a Montessori Certificate with Master of Arts Degree program for an entire school conversion initiative. Each of these schools is located in a low socio-economic, highly diverse setting that was undergoing an entire school transition to Montessori curriculum.
The third track in the Master of Arts in Education Program is the Distance Learning option. This track was designed in collaboration with Canter and Associates. For some licensed teachers, attending an on-campus graduate program is not possible. The obstacles range from geographic isolation to familial responsibilities (care of elderly parents or childcare restrictions) during after-school hours. In either event, there is a segment of the teaching population that strongly desires the advanced professional development that is the hallmark of a graduate program but are not able to participate in a traditional way. The distance learning option overcomes those barriers while maintaining the integrity of a high quality, rigorous program. The admission standards and the research component in this track are the same as those for all other tracks in the MAED.
The fourth track in the Master of Arts in Education degree program is the Curriculum and Instruction, and the Risk to Resiliency options, which are designed for in-service teachers. Both of these are currently on hiatus due to low enrollments. During the 2001/2002 AY, the Education Department will conduct a market survey analysis to determine the viability of these options.
Collaborations
During the 2000/2001 AY, the College and the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis entered into a collaboration to prepare new teachers for archdiocesan schools. Like all districts in the country, the Archdiocese is anticipating a teacher shortage in the up-coming years. As a proactive effort, the College and the Archdiocese designed a teacher preparation program that could be offered at the Archdiocese’s Hayden Center in a condensed format for candidates who are recommended by their parish and who have had substitute teacher training and experience in the Archdiocese. Candidates can complete the program at the post-baccalaureate level concluding in licensure only. Or, candidates can opt for the graduate program. Those who do, must satisfy all graduate program admission requirements and complete the research component. Cohort One of this program will complete their preparation in spring 2002. Cohort Two will complete in spring 2003.
The Mdewakanton Sioux Community and the College of St. Catherine began a collaboration during the summer 2001. There exists an imminent need to increase the number of Dakota speaking men, women and children in tribal communities, both on and off the reservations. It is believed that there are approximately 30 fluent Dakota language speakers in the state of Minnesota. Through this collaboration, five potential language instructors will learn the Dakota language from elders and through courses offered at the University of Minnesota. In addition, they will learn the essential methods of language instruction and general pedagogy in a program offered by the Education Department at St. Catherine’s. This instruction will supplement the outcomes required by the Native Language Eminence Credential as described by the Minnesota Department of Children, Families, and Learning. The program will span about two years.
Charter Schools
The College of St. Catherine sponsors two charter schools. City Academy is the first operating charter school in the nation. Opened in 1993, City Academy is the flagship for charter schools across the nation. It serves a population of about 100 high-risk adolescents in a secondary school setting. The other charter school that the College sponsors is the Covenant Academy located in Faribault, Minnesota which is 30 miles south of the Twin Cities. Like City Academy, Covenant Academy provides a rich learning environment for adolescents who have not met with success in traditional learning environments. For both of our charter schools, an assessment team from the College of St. Catherine conducts an on-site assessment process twice a year. Additionally, the team evaluates all documents that are required by the State of Minnesota to insure compliance. Beyond the responsibilities of sponsorship, the Education Department has provided extensive faculty development at City Academy.
Grants
In 1999/2000, the Education Department was awarded a capacity building Preparing Tomorrow’s Teachers to Use Technology Grant from the U.S. Department of Education. With the support provided by the grant, the Education Department participated in extensive skill-building faculty development experiences. The following year, the department met monthly to continue its commitment to infusing technology into the Education curriculum. The Computers on Wheels (C.O.W) in the Classroom Faculty Study Group provided a forum for sharing, learning and discussion about technology. For the 2001/2002 AY, the department will receive a Preparing Tomorrow’s Teachers to use Technology Implementation Grant. Those funds will be used to provide technical support to both faculty and students in the Education Department.
In 2001, the College awarded the Education Department a $3000 graduate research grant. An assessment research committee was formed to work on a departmental assessment system. The committee reviewed all assessment processes and made recommendations for revisions. They also created an electronic portfolio template that will be used by all initial licensure students. Students will present their portfolio to a team of internal and external education professionals prior to student teaching. The team will then make a determination about the student’s readiness for student teaching. |