Dr. Lucien Yates, III, dean of The Whitlowe R. Green College of Education, has instituted an open door policy, allowing students to talk to him without first having to go through the chain of command.
“When I first came to Prairie View I realized that my office was off limits to students, and I wanted to change that,” Yates said.
Yates plans to host discussions each semester with both undergraduate and graduate students. The “Conversations with The Dean” enables students another opportunity to openly talk with faculty and administrators.
Yates said the College of Education is proactively taking steps to ensure it remains accredited with the National Council for Accredited Teacher Education. The council plans to visit Prairie View in November.
“Dr. Barry Pelphrey and I had to look at all of the programs and evaluate them,” said Yates. “We needed to make sure we were preparing students for the real world.”
At the College of Education’s back-to-school retreat, administrators stressed to the faculty the importance of including more writing in their syllabi in the upcoming year.
“I’m beginning to see our need to help our students with their writing,” Yates said.
According to the Texas Education Agency, Prairie View’s pass rate is at about 83-85 percent, but Yates said he’s not satisfied until that percentage increases to 100. The College of Education plans to use two methods to obtain the goal. The first is to critically examine the current curriculum. The administration wants to be sure that they are in fact teaching the students what will ultimately lead them to pass the teacher certification exam.
“We want to be efficient, effective and excellent,” Yates said.
The second method is to use the program True Outcomes. True Outcomes allows the administration to check the students’ portfolios to make sure they are accurately progressing.
“I’m never satisfied with the status quo,” Yates said, “I always want to strive for excellence, and to be the best and do the best we can do.