Summarize activities, processes, and outcomes in addressing each of the AFIs cited for the initial and/or advanced program levels under this standard. [12,000 characters](4,492)
Standard 4 AFI (Accreditation Acknowledgement Report, October 2009): The unit does not ensure that all candidates have an opportunity to complete field experiences in settings with P-12 students from diverse populations.

While the accomplishments of the unit since the last NCATE visit are significant, the years following can best be described as a period of constructive attempts to improve Standard 4. Our goal is to ensure that students enrolled in all initial andadvanced programs are exposed to activities, processes, and outcomes that address all aspects of diversity and that course objectives are aligned with the elements of the Conceptual Framework.
Unit faculty developed goals, objectives, and associated activities contained therein to serve as guideposts for providing experiential learning opportunities to our candidates. Each of these constitutes a key role in the Unit’s progress in moving toward excellence in diversity.

Teacher candidates are provided the opportunity through selective courses to reflect upon their own multicultural socialization and identity to determine its impact on the development of their worldview. They are encouraged to recognize alternative ways of being, while simultaneously identifying how the majority may shape differently the experiences of diverse individuals and groups. They are guided towards the cultivation of openness towards difference and a gradual journey towards cultural competence.

A revised Teacher Work Sample, based on the edTPA (4.4.i.4) assessment process, serves as a tool designed to represent a candidate’s planning, implementation, and assessment skills that should be ongoing in the classroom. This tool includes a set of tasks which require candidates to describe contextual factors, identify learning goals based on their state or district content standards, create an assessment plan designed to measure student performance before (pre-assessment), during (formative assessment) and after (post-assessment), and plan for their instruction. After a unit has been taught, candidates analyze student learning and then reflect upon and evaluate their teaching related to their analysis.

Curriculum, field experiences, and clinical practice have been amended to enhance candidates’ knowledge, skills, and professional dispositions emanating from the Unit’s Conceptual Framework (I.5.c.1) which is grounded in the belief that educators need to be responsive to the diverse needs of learners. These tenets of the program give candidates a greater understanding and conceptualization of diversity and inclusion so that they are better able to execute them effectively in schools.

Candidates are urged to critically evaluate existing curricular material and discern hidden messages and biases. They are also encouraged to assume an active role in the creation of global and pluralistic inclusive thematic social studies lessons, recognizing that inclusivity is not restrained to diverse ethnic content but various dimensions of diversity (such as language, ability, gender, differentiated learning, etc.). Inclusion of diverse perspectives and cultivation of critical analysis skills are promoted in curricular materials that are used in the candidates’ classes in an effort to model such an approach.

The unit strongly believes that candidates should eschew stereotypical and overgeneralized learning orientations and, instead, respect the individual and cultural learning styles of students. Candidates are prepared to foster differentiated and culturally influenced learning techniques in order to connect to students’ existing cultural norms or reference, whenever possible. Candidates learn to embed multicultural resources and incorporate multiple perspectives to engage all students and strengthenthe curriculum.

As an extension of curricular and pedagogical approaches, candidates become cognizant of how cognition is assessed. Therefore, they practice a variety of ways to evaluate students informally while helping to develop students’ confidence and abilities to perform successfully on formal assessments.

Candidates develop cross-cultural communication in their classes while working together on group assignments and during their field experience with students and teachers. They collaborate with faculty on projects in diverse social settings and are urged to look for students’ strengths.

To further ensure that all candidates experience diversity in their field experiences, a Tk20 database was created in fall 2012. This database uses the District Reference Group (DRG) levels to group students whose families are similar in terms of education, income, occupation, and need.