by Janice Ng | Sep 5, 2013 | News Slider
Earlier this summer, Lipscomb was one of four universities across the nation that were awarded four out of four stars by the National Council on Teacher Quality, a research and policy group dedicated to establishing teacher quality in the nation. According to College of Education Dean Candice McQueen, the students and faculty were the ones at the heart of the ratings. “We are a program that really prepares our students in content, and we also do a lot with assessment and making sure we’re using survey data to make program improvements,” McQueen said. This is not the first time the College of Education has been recognized for its program. McQueen expressed her excitement at the national level recognition. “For two years now, our program has been highlighted for our ability for our own graduates to come out and impact student achievement in a positive way,” McQueen said. The most recent report card noted that Lipscomb’s graduate performance was better than many three-year veteran teachers already out in the field. “When [students] get to student-teaching, they’ve already had experience in working with a very diverse population of students, and this allows them to feel confidant to work with students of all different socio-economic levels,” said Junior High, director of undergraduate education. High said he believes that teaching is a service occupation and strives to instill a good value system in his students. “We build on what they bring to the classroom,” High said. “We are very concerned that they not only leave here with a skill to go into the classroom professionally and to be effective educators, but we want them...
by Sydney Poe | Aug 30, 2013 | News Slider, Sports
In the second week of the 2013-2014 school year, Savanna Schubert and Joe Sanderson are behind the news desk to update you about what is happening on campus and around the Nashville community. Brianna Langley fills you in on the week’s top world news headlines, Janice Ng give the scoop on all things Nashville Entertainment, Kage Sanderson gives you the weather forecast and Carter Sanderson brings you up to speed with sports. This week’s newscast addresses the concerns of Lipscomb students over the parking situation, features the Education department and their top ranking and recognizes three top Lady Bisons for their pre-season awards. We also give you the details on the unexpected commotion during convocation this past Tuesday, take you to the 12th South farmer’s market and show you what you’re missing at Live on the Green. Be sure to stay tuned for future newscasts published every Friday here on Lumination!...
by Monaih Sam | Jun 26, 2013 | News Slider
The Lipscomb University College of Education’s teacher preparation program was recently named one of the top teacher prep programs in the nation. Lipscomb’s undergraduate secondary teacher prep program received a four-star ranking in a report compiled by The National Council on Teacher Quality (or NCTQ). Lipscomb is among the top four in the nation, along with Vanderbilt, Ohio State, and Furman. The schools in the report prepare 99 percent of the nation’s traditionally educated teachers, according to the NCTQ. Dr. Candace McQueen, dean of the Lipscomb College of Education, says that teaching has become very complex, but she thinks most schools are moving toward the qualities that made Lipscomb stand out. “The public needs to hear (that) the complexity of teaching is different. The teacher has to know skills very deeply. They have to know how to question. They have to know how to group students. They have to be complex thinkers themselves,” McQueen said in an interview with the Tennessean. McQueen attributes the high rating to the school’s stringent early requirements for prospective teachers. Education students are put through a rigorous curriculum. The students are expected to master the subject they want to teach and are monitored after they take jobs. Lipscomb graduates around 80 teachers per...
by Emily Snell | Sep 5, 2012 | Uncategorized
After leaving Zimbabwe, a small country in Southern Africa, and teaching at two other Church of Christ universities for several years, Dr. Florah Mhlanga came to Lipscomb in August 2011 as a biology professor. Mhlanga, one of nine children, earned her bachelor’s degree from the University of Zimbabwe before obtaining her master’s and doctorate degrees at Michigan State University. She has two children, Carl, 15, and Craig, 10, and her husband, Fortune, is director of Lipscomb’s School of Computing and Informatics. Mhlanga said she came to the United States from Zimbabwe with her husband and their two sons in 2002 because the political and economic climate in Zimbabwe was beginning to “deteriorate.” “We never thought we would leave Zimbabwe,” she said, noting that she was a professor and chair of her department at the University of Zimbabwe. An opportunity arose at that time, Mhlanga said, for them to teach at Faulkner University in Montgomery, Ala., and she said she believes it was a blessing from God. “We thought it was a God-sent opportunity to shield us from some of the problems that really we were experiencing — the political and economic problems in Zimbabwe,” she explained. “We thought it was really God’s call or a blessing, in a way, from God that he opened this avenue for us to leave Zimbabwe and to go to Alabama to work there.” Mhlanga said the condition of the political and economic system in Zimbabwe gave her concern for her children and their ability to have opportunities. “It was going to be very difficult to educate them, to find a good educational system...
by Hunter Patterson | Nov 10, 2011 | News Slider
Teachers certified through Lipscomb are fairing well in their positions according to the latest state report card. Ranked third below Teach for America Memphis and Teach for America Nashville, Lipscomb graduates outshone more traditional colleges throughout the state. For the last four years, the state has done a report card on teacher preparation programs across the state. The state looks at those teachers’ impact on their particular students. The report looks at students’ scores on standardized tests – TCAP here in Tennessee – to see how much, if any, the students improved because of a graduate’s teaching ability. Once that is done, the results are then linked to the university that the teacher came from. “The connection is between the teacher prep program and how many of your graduates have some kind of statistically positive impact on students,” said Dr. Candice McQueen, dean of the education department at Lipscomb. Now a law within the state, the schools must report their “completers” to the Tennessee Higher Education Commission. That means that everyone who graduates with a teaching degree must be reported to the commission so the reports can be filed. Lipscomb is fortunate enough to report several graduates as well. McQueen says the school’s placement rates are usually 95 percent or above. However, because of last year’s budget cuts, that rate was closer to 80 percent, which was still fairly high for the area. “We have school districts that really love our graduates,” McQueen said. “They will call us and recruit them, in a sense.” For this particular report, though, the state only looks at students that are in public...
