Paying for college:
I think it is unfair to only ask about costs of the following proposal. As I have indicated, through an investment of institutional support of approximately $750,000, the educator programs could easily generate revenue far in excess of costs. I assume that in round two, a full profits/loss analysis will occur.
Through our menu of educator programs, the College of Education is poised to become the premier higher education partner for school districts, Education Service Districts, and other educator workforce development agencies in Oregon. Early 2019 will bring an infusion of state resources focused on educator workforce development from the Oregon Educator Advancement Council and Western’s educator programs stand ready to partner and deliver programs in ways aligned to our high standards for excellence in educator preparation. According to the Confederation of Oregon School Administrators (COSA), 28% of the educator workforce is eligible to retire right now meaning that we sit at the brink of a massive shortage of qualified educators in our state. Our goal is to be diligent and designed in our efforts to help meet those workforce demands and we will do so through strong partnerships and regional collaborations. Educator programs are prepared to continue and expand on several key efforts including: (a) partner with community colleges to build clean and expeditious pathways toward degree completion and licensure in all educator programs; (b) open pathways for degree completion, licensure, and endorsement programs to working professionals and educators outside the Willamette Valley; (c) deliver regionally-situated programs that may include degree completion, licensure, and endorsements; (d) expand existing programs into new markets in partnership with Education Service Districts including Lane, Willamette, Linn Benton Lincoln, Clackamas, Northwest Regional, Douglas, and Columbia Gorge ESD’s (these ESD footprints serve 60% of Oregon children and employ a corresponding percentage of Oregon educators); (e) leverage Measure 98 funds in Career and Technical Education to develop dual-credit educator pathways similar to the successful Willamette Promise program; (f) open the only on-line/hybrid Special Educator program in Oregon, and; (g) expand the already successful Bilingual Teacher Scholars program to all 197 Oregon school districts. Each of these seven initiatives will require investments of time, energy, and resources on the part of Western Oregon University. Each of them, however, will yield new students in educator pathways. Again, the goal of the College of Education is to become the premier higher education partner in educator workforce development in Oregon. The contexts exist to support this growth and innovation and the return on investment is significant. We look forward to demonstrating that ROI in round two of these budget proposals.
This proposal is about growing new revenue (Sustainability and Stewardship), through close partnerships with districts and education agencies across Oregon (Community Engagement), and delivery of high-quality academic programs (Academic Excellence), while supporting students in a rich and supportive professional community (Student Success), and meeting Oregon workforce needs and the professional expectations of our external accreditors (Accountability). In this way, this expansion of educator academic programming meets all institutional initiatives but is primarily focused on the generation of new revenue. The impact of the innovations described are anticipated to be tremendous across the next biennium including an additional 120 undergraduate students each completing 90 credits and 40 graduate students each completing 54 credits yielding more than $2M per biennium. These estimates are very conservative and, again, will be detailed in a round two proposal.
The primary beneficiary for these innovations will be the children of Oregon and, in turn, all citizens of our state. Through excellence in educator preparation, Western Oregon University plays an essential role in the education of Oregon children. This, in turn, impacts graduation rates, employment rates, economic outcomes, and many other economic measures. Oregon needs Western Oregon University and the educator programs to expand in these ways. Currently, there is a graduate of Western educator pathways teaching in more than 80% of the school districts in Oregon and Western is one of the largest preparers of new educators in the state. Educator faculty understand the unique role they play in workforce development for educators and, indirectly through the actions of those they prepare for classrooms, on workforce development and economic success for all Oregonians. On campus, this work will place a significant demand on educator faculty, staff, and supporting units like academic advising, strategic marketing, Student Affairs, Financial Aid, Graduate Studies, and the Business Office. Adding 200 students to campus will stretch all our offices to serve these students well.
NOTE: Since the time of submission of this round one proposal, the target growth numbers have shifted from 200 students to an additional 300 students due to Multnomah ESD joining conversations. This yields a slight increase on the proposed investment and changes the projected profits (above investment) from $1.1M in 2019-2020 to $3.2M at full ramp-up in 2024-2025 and beyond. This proposal is about investing in and sustaining growth in initial licensure educator programs and the non-licensure early childhood program as Western Oregon University seeks to become the premier higher education partner for educator workforce development. The major outcome is to more than double the number of initial license educators and early learning specialists graduating each year from 186 in 2017-2018 to approximately 500 in 2024-2025. This must be accomplished, however, while maintaining high standards for excellence as demonstrated in meeting the legislatively mandated CAEP accreditation in 2022. There are many tasks to be accomplished in service of this larger goal including: • Capitalizing on Education Service District (ESD) relationships and Educator Advancement Council (EAC) momentum to press out “grow your own” pathways in the form of 2+2 agreements with community colleges and dual credit opportunities to “shorten the ramp” for degree and licensure • Leverage state investments (including from the EAC and the Joint Committee on Student Success) in early learning workforce development to build a robust early learning workforce pipeline in the mid-Willamette Valley • Answer the invitation from Washington County and Northwest Regional ESD to develop a 2+2 in initial, multiple subjects educator preparation • Consideration of other invitations from Clackamas and Multnomah ESDs and Lane and Linn Benton Lincoln ESDs to build similar satellite programs in their regions Each of these activities have multiple steps and represent both challenges and opportunities for Western Oregon University and the educator program faculty and staff. Significant prep work has been completed to position Western for success in each of these activities. More about this prep work is described in the next section. We will know if these innovations work by watching initial licensure educator program productivity over the next 5-8 years and a full, 10-year fiscal analysis has been completed using a tool developed by Associate Vice President, Dave McDonald and vetted by personnel in the office of the VP of Finance and Administration. This full plan is included as a part of this proposal though this request for investment is limited to FY20. It will be important to watch productivity indicators in initial teacher licensure programs including student credit hour generation, ratio of tenure track to NTT faculty in these programs, and total graduates from initial licensure and early learning academic programming. Adjustments and “in-flight” course corrections will be made over time.
This project uses a five-year implementation plan and timeline (and a 10-year fiscal analysis) that corresponds roughly to the description below. Of course, course corrections and adjustments will be made along the way as Western presses forward in becoming the premier higher education partner in educator workforce development. Laying the Groundwork – 2014-2018 Across the last four years, the Division of Education and Leadership launched many projects in pursuit of becoming the premier higher education partner in educator workforce development. These projects have included: • Launched the very successful Bilingual Teacher Scholars program • Opened the Deaf and Hard of Hearing Educators graduate program – now delivering online • Opened new majors in Early Childhood Studies and Education Studies • Opened a very successful 3+1 with Shanghai Normal University in Early Childhood Studies • Added graduate certificates in Reading, ESOL, Autism, EMIL, and Dual Language • Built smooth educator pathway between Chemeketa and WOU (lauded as a statewide model) • Provide education advising 1x/week at Chemeketa and prepping expansion to PCC and Clackamas • Offering all graduate educator programs online or online/hybrid • Grew Office of Strategic Partnerships without additional university support • Grew Pre-education advisor without additional university support Each of these innovations have positioned the Division of Education and Leadership for what is now, the front end of a very real growth curve that will be realized across the next five years. This growth trajectory, target productivity numbers, and associated innovations include: Target numbers for graduation of initial licensure educators and early learning specialists: 2018-2019 Goal is 220 (prior 2+2 community college work) 2019-2020 Goal is 240 (expansion of community college work plus new SpEd cohort) 2020-2021 Goal is 280 (prior innovations plus strong early learning pipeline) 2021-2022 Goal is 360 (prior innovations plus Washington county and Lane county projects) 2022-2023 Goal is 440 (prior innovations plus Washington county ramp-up) 2023-2024 Goal is 500 (full implementation of all innovations) This growth is not a smooth curve as different innovations yield graduates at different points. However, what is important to understand is that none of this growth is premised on grant dollars or other direct state support. Much of the innovation work is being driven by state investments in K-12 education without investments directly in higher education. For the first time, Oregon seeks to move outcomes for students by focusing on the educator workforce. Additionally, the vast majority of this growth will come from community college relationships and through transfer students. Again, if appropriate resources are invested, this growth is likely to be sustained over time.
The Division of Education and Leadership (DEL) and the initial licensure programs (Undergraduate program, MAT program, and Special Educator program) are beyond capacity after several years of sustained growth (up 40% in SCH over 2012-2013). At this point, without an infusion of appropriate resources, the undergraduate program will cap admission into the licensure program and qualified students will not be admitted. Similarly, the MAT program will turn away qualified students. The growth plan for the Special Educator program involves opening Oregon’s first online/hybrid initial licensure, special educator program. Without appropriate resources, faculty will not open this program and 25 qualified graduate students will be turned away annually. Additionally, without new resources, the innovative Bilingual Teacher Scholars program will not continue to grow and the Division of Education and Leadership will eliminate advising services at Chemeketa Community College to focus on serving students already on campus at Western. Finally, without new resources, the Division of Education and Leadership will not respond to an invitation from the superintendent’s in Beaverton, Hillsboro, Tigard-Tualatin, Forest Grove, and Sherwood to develop an educator pathway in Washington county in partnership Portland Community College and Northwest Regional ESD. At full ramp-up, this Washington county project alone is poised to serve 360-400 students each year taking 45 undergraduate credits in years 3 and 4. For scale, half this number (180-200 students) is equivalent to 20% of our current freshmen class size. Additional innovations under exploration would also be abandoned including those in early learning workforce development. The educator programs simply cannot grow and innovate more and, in fact, would need to pull back and focus on meeting state-mandated national accreditation coming in 2022, if appropriate resources are not invested. If resources are invested, the educator programs will continue to grow and generate new enrollment for Western Oregon University in the manner described here and in the larger 5-year innovation project.
Most educator preparation programs in Oregon are facing decreasing enrollment at this time. There are some exceptions but, for the most part, this professional community is not meeting the needs of Oregon schools and classrooms. Educator faculty in the Division of Education and Leadership have made systematic efforts over the last four years to become the premier higher education partner for educator workforce development in partnership with school districts, ESDs, community colleges, and other education agencies in Oregon. Other educator programs will follow suit, but right now, Western Oregon University is leading the way in these innovations and we must move in strong ways to capitalize on our market position.
No adverse impacts are anticipated at this time. It is true that, with an influx of new students on campus that student affairs services and programs (generally) and academic support services and programs (generally) may see an increase in participation and need in their programs and services but these should not be viewed as adverse impacts and rather as positive outcomes related to enrollment growth. Both VP Winningham and VP Dukes have heard presentations relative to this anticipated growth in previous sessions.
This proposal extracts one year (2019-2020) out of a larger, multi-year and multi-faceted project capitalizing on opportunities developed over the last several years and culminating in unprecedented attention from the Oregon legislature to educator workforce development. Associate Vice President, Dave McDonald, has helped developed a 10-year fiscal analysis of both profits and costs associated with this growth using the same fiscal tool developed for analysis of the DPT program. This is the model uploaded as a part of round two proposals. As discussed, this is a multi-year project that will need “in-flight” adjustments each year both to maximize opportunities and also success of delivery. At this time, however, the following request is made for the 2019-2020 year. Note: As with all proposals for innovation currently under consideration a 35% overhead rate is included in our 10-year analysis. This overhead amount is not requested as part of the investment proposal described here but is accounted for when considering profits necessary to “break even” and yield revenue to the general fund. FY20 investment requested: $799,258 FY20 profits above expenses: $1,190,000 Investments include: Three tenure track faculty salary and OPE: 3*$58,218 (step 6)+OPE= $279,285 Three full-time NTT faculty salary and OPE: 3*42,507 (step 2)+OPE=$217,682 Full-time unclassified pre-education advisor salary and OPE: $73,385 Director for EPIC salary and OPE: $112,345 Washington county EPIC projects coordinator salary and OPE: $72,561 New faculty start-up and on-boarding costs: $9,000 ($3k for each of 3 tenure track faculty) Travel (this work is going to require significant travel to partnership sites): $15,000 Marketing and recruitment materials development and printing costs: $5,000 Services and supplies adjustment (more students means for copies etc.): $15,000 Total: $799,258 These numbers differ slightly from those provided in the 10-year fiscal analysis. As more information becomes available and more details on opportunities are pressed out, the details will shift accordingly. At this point, we believe this roughly $800,000 investment is sufficient for FY20. The College of Education seeks to stand up the Center for Educator Preparation Innovation (EPIC) that will lead, manage, and liaise between the Division of Education and Leadership, community colleges, ESDs, off-site partners, students, instructors, and Western Oregon University broadly. A Director for EPIC will likely fold faculty rank but have significant skills and experiences with off-campus partnerships and innovations. Additionally, EPIC will need to hire a Washington county project director to assure the evolution of that project meets our high expectations for rigor, accountability, and service to our communities and profession.
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