Standard 4: Aspect A

Standard 4a: The program is committed to and invests in strengthening and improving the education profession and the P-20 education system. Each program’s context (or multiple contexts) provides particular opportunities to engage the field’s shared challenges and to foster and support innovation. Engagement with critical issues is essential and must be contextualized. Sharing results of contextualized engagement and innovation supports the field’s collective effort to address education’s most pressing challenges through improvement and innovation.

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Partnership/Advisory Board:
Dr. Juliet Wahleithner, Director of the San Joaquin Valley Writing Project 

How often meet:
Once a month at Reading/Literacy program meetings

Description of group’s purpose/function:
Dr. Wahleithner updates the Reading/Literacy program faculty on the SJVWP’s writing projects and initiatives. 

Examples of specific challenge/identified need:
Students in the Reading/Literacy program previously had the opportunity to apply for and participate in the SJVWP’s Summer Institute and have the option to earn credit which could be used as substitution for courses in the program. Students who participated were able to develop enterprise as teachers of writing and continue working with the Writing Project after the Summer Institute concluded. This option for earning master’s-level course substitution credit was recently changed. As a program, we discussed the need for more emphasis on writing in the Reading/Literacy program. 

Discussion of steps taken to address challenge/ identified need:
The Reading/Literacy program has not yet taken steps to address this identified need. In the coming academic year the program will review all courses in the process of program elevation and determine where a specific focus on writing research and teaching writing will fit within the program.

Articulating Plans for Future Stakeholder Involvement:

Who will you involve? Why?
In the Fall 2021 semester, the Reading/Literacy program will discuss the formation of a local advisory board for the program. Ideally the advisory board will include two program completers who are local teachers (one K-3 and one 4-8), a local district principal or assistant principal, a language arts director or administrator, a representative from the San Joaquin Valley Writing Project, a representative from the California Reading & Literature project, and the Reading/Literacy program coordinator or program representative.

How often will you meet?
This advisory board could meet once a semester 

How will you ensure all individuals have a voice?
All advisory board members will be provided with an agenda and an opportunity to add agenda items prior to each meeting. At the end of each meeting the program coordinator will seek additional feedback from each board member via email or survey. 

What data might you together examine to inform your work?
The advisory board meetings will discuss local literacy needs and focus on specific program data to plan for program improvements and future collaborations. 

Aspect B →