Language and Literacy Education Specialization Bylaws

Literacy Education Master’s Program Bylaws Department of Teaching and Learning, College of Education Washington State University

Last Revised by Faculty February 27, 2015 III. Faculty Senate Approval Date: GSC Approved 3.3.2015

I. Objectives

A. Degrees offered: M.A. and Ed.M. in Literacy Education

B. Discipline: The term “literacy” is a general reference to the study of literacy education.

C. Mission of Literacy:

1. To promote literacy by continuously advancing the quality of literacy instruction and research. Literacy is defined by the International Reading Association as “the ability to read, write, speak, listen, view, visually represent, and think in order to communicate and contribute to society” (Standards for Reading Professionals, 2010).

D. Program Objectives:

1. Students design and implement effective, research-based literacy instruction; 2. Students articulate how human development, language acquisition, culture, community, and policy shape their teaching practices; 3. Students engage in meaningful literacy reading and research; 4. Students advocate for students and families by collaborating with schools, communities, and educational agencies.

II. Membership

A. Faculty within the Literacy Program may be WSU tenured and tenure track faculty, WSU non-tenure track faculty, or WSU adjunct faculty, subject to the limitations and definitions in this document and in accordance with College of Education policies.

B. WSU Campus Participation

The Master of Arts in Education (MA) is offered through the Pullman and Vancouver campuses, and the Master of Education (Ed.M.) is offered

1 through the Pullman, Tri-Cities, and Vancouver campuses of Washington State University. Course scheduling and course delivery originate through collaboration with all three campuses unless otherwise arranged by the Department Chair and Literacy Program Coordinator on a course-by-course basis. Tenured, tenure track, and clinical faculty in Literacy areas at all urban campuses are entitled to act as chair, co-chair, or member of graduate student committees; teach graduate courses; and supervise research. Prospective master’s students apply to their home campus, and the home campus program faculty reviews their applications.

C. Disciplinary Expertise

Faculty within Literacy are expected to have a PhD or equivalent doctoral- level degree in a field related to Literacy, including, for example, literacy, reading, writing, and language arts. In addition, they must have demonstrated disciplinary expertise and experience in the mentoring and teaching of graduate students in their field.

D. Active Research Appropriate to Literacy

Literacy faculty must be actively involved in research and graduate level teaching related to Literacy as outlined in the current College of Education Tenure and Promotion Handbook.

E. Non-Tenure Track Graduate Faculty Non-tenure track faculty internal to WSU includes research, clinical, and affiliate faculty. These non-tenure track faculty, internal to WSU (research, clinical, affiliate faculty), may be active Literacy faculty and entitled to act as chair or member of graduate student committees; teach graduate courses; and supervise research.

F. External Individual Committee Members 1. Individual Committee Member Internal to WSU: Individuals not officially participating as faculty within Literacy (for example, a faculty member from another WSU department or program) may serve on graduate committees for Literacy students as long as they are a member of the faculty in their own program or discipline. 2. Individual Committee Member External to WSU Individuals not officially participating as faculty within any graduate program at WSU (for example, a faculty member from another university or research entity) may be approved to serve as a thesis/special project committee member for an individual student on a case-by-case basis. The committee chair for that student should forward the name and the curriculum vitae of the desired committee member to participating Literacy faculty (coordinated through the

2 appropriate program coordinator). Faculty will vote to include the external member with a simple majority vote for approval. Following WSU Graduate School guidelines, the student’s advisor drafts a memo request to the Graduate School and submits this memo along with the individual faculty member’s current curriculum vitae.

G. Application for Membership

1. Initial Graduate Faculty within Literacy are listed in Section VIII of this document and have been approved by the Literacy existing faculty, Literacy Program Coordinator, the Department of Teaching & Learning Chair, and the Dean of the Graduate School.

2. Candidates for Graduate Faculty participation within Literacy should be nominated by an existing Literacy Graduate Faculty member or may self- nominate. The nomination should include a letter of nomination, and the nominee’s curriculum vitae. The Program Coordinator will circulate application materials to all active Graduate Faculty prior to voting. Acceptance as Graduate Faculty requires a positive vote from a majority of faculty who respond to the vote.

3. In addition to a commitment to maintain the highest standards of mentoring for graduate students, anticipated contributions or qualifications for all successful Graduate Faculty applicants include one or more of the following:

a. History or reasonable expectation of an active, funded research program that can plausibly be relied upon as the source of continuing support of a Literacy graduate student.

b. History of or willingness to participate as appropriate in administrative, teaching, and other functions of the Literacy graduate specialization. This may include serving on graduate program administrative committees; serving as a project or thesis committee member or chair; or providing graduate level instruction.

c. History of publication of peer-reviewed manuscripts in a discipline related to Literacy within the last 3 years.

C. Continuation of Active Membership

1. Graduate Faculty appointments to Literacy will be reviewed for continuation of active membership by the program coordinator every 3 years with one-third of the membership reviewed each year. They will be evaluated for contributions to graduate instruction, research, and teaching.

3 Contributions to the Literacy program shall be a requirement for continued active membership. Contribution may take the form of:

a. Committee chair, co-chair or member for graduate students in Literacy b. Teaching or co-teaching a graduate course in Literacy c. Supervising research for graduate students in Literacy d. Serving in the administrative and committee structure of Literacy e. Peer-reviewed publication or grant procurement related to the Literacy specialization.

2. Faculty who do not make any of the contributions as stated in C.1 above to the Literacy specialization for three consecutive years will be designed as inactive Graduate Faculty. Inactive Graduate Faculty do not have voting rights. Initiation of any of these activities described in C.1 above will result in restoration of active Graduate Faculty designation.

E. Discontinuation of Membership Upon request of an active or inactive Graduate Faculty member, that individual membership will be discontinued. If that individual’s research and graduate training activity should change, they may reapply for Graduate Faculty participation at any time.

F. Membership Appeal Process Faculty appeal of any membership decision in Literacy must be made in writing to the Coordinator of Literacy within 30 calendars of the decision. The appeal is determined by a majority vote of all Literacy Graduate Faculty (see Section VIII for definition of quorum) and the Chair of the Department of Teaching & Learning. Final written appeal may be made to the Dean of the Graduate School within 30 calendar days of the Literacy Graduate Faculty vote.

III. Graduate Program Coordinators

A. The coordination of the Literacy Program will be composed of at least one faculty member serving as Coordinator. Co-coordinators are also an option.

B. Participating faculty within the program will choose the coordinator(s) of the Literacy Program. Final approval of the Program Coordinator(s) and compensation for work coordinating the program resides with the department chair(s) and Dean of the College of Education.

C. Duties of the coordinator [See attached document]

IV. Program Committees

4 Faculty members within the Literacy Program are responsible for advising and assisting the program coordinator(s). Areas in which the faculty shall assist and advise the program coordinators include: 1. Review, develop and update long-range goals for the program and plans for their attainment. These goals and plans shall be updated annually. 2. Serve as a sounding board for new ideas, changes, etc., in academic or administrative issues. 3. Provide guidance on administration of the Literacy Program. 4. Nominate members for service on other committees. 5. Assist with annual program assessment processes. 6. Develop an annual recruitment plan, set goals, implement and assess the plan. 7. Review all student applications and in conjunction with the program coordinator, decide the disposition of applications as to acceptance or rejection in a timely manner. 8. Make recommendations to the program coordinator regarding the financial support of graduate students for their first year. 9. Review the program curriculum and make recommendations for curricular improvements/renewal.

V. Graduate Student Committees

A. The initial selection, or subsequent changes, of a graduate student’s committee shall be determined jointly by the student and the student’s advisor. No change in the graduate student’s committee may occur without consultation first between the student and the student’s advisor, unless the change requested is the advisor/chair. In that case, the student may choose to initiate the request with the Department Chair. In accordance with the Policies and Procedures of the Graduate School at WSU, graduate students are not permitted to serve on the committees of other graduate students.

B. The chair of the master’s committee may be a permanent WSU tenure-track faculty participating as a graduate faculty of the student's program. Non-tenure WSU faculty (research, clinical, adjunct or affiliate) who are participating as graduate faculty within a program may serve on, co-chair, or chair a committee.

C. At least two other members of the master’s committee must be permanent WSU tenure-track faculty and members of the graduate faculty of WSU.

D. All three members noted above must hold a graduate doctoral degree comparable to the degree sought by the student. A fourth member may be a member of the graduate faculty of WSU but is not required to be permanent WSU tenure-track faculty.

5 E. If a minor is declared on the doctoral program, at least one member of the committee must be from the approved graduate faculty of the minor program. If this representative is a permanent WSU tenure-track faculty, he/she may fill the requirement of one of the WSU permanent tenure-track faculty members on the committee. When no minor is declared, no outside member is required. However, when outside supporting work is included in the program, an outside member is recommended. F. Committees may have more than three members; however, members must meet Graduate School policy and program bylaw guidelines. (See Chapter 1, section of the Graduate Faculty policies for more information.)

VI. Program Meetings

A. The Literacy Program coordinator shall call Literacy Faculty meetings as needed but at least once per academic semester. A written agenda will be made available in advance. Meeting notes from the preceding meeting will be available to the literacy faculty for review.

B. Other meetings may be called at the discretion of the program coordinator.

C. Special meetings of program faculty may be called by any faculty member.

D. Efforts will be made to communicate items of interest, including notification of a faculty meeting, to the faculty via e-mail.

E. Faculty may participate in meetings by telephone conference call or other electronic means.

VII. Quorum

A. For all general Literacy faculty meetings and votes unless otherwise indicated, a quorum shall be defined as a minimum of 50 percent of the Program membership. B. Unless otherwise indicated, a simple majority of the total number of ballots cast are required to pass a motion. C. In the event of a tie vote in which the entire Literacy faculty is eligible to vote, the Program Coordinator will decide the outcome of the vote.

VIII. Amendments to Program Bylaws

A. The Literacy Bylaws document shall be reviewed every 2 years by the current program coordinators.

6 B. Amendments to the Literacy Bylaws may originate from any eligible Literacy faculty member. Proposed amendments must be forwarded to the Literacy Program coordinator and shall be forwarded to the Literacy faculty electronically at least 2 weeks prior to the faculty meeting at which the amendments will be discussed. After discussion, a minimum 2-week period after the faculty meeting must precede any vote on amendments. Votes on amendments may occur at a faculty meeting or electronically. Amendments to the Literacy Bylaws require a positive vote from the majority of active Literacy faculty.

IX. List of Initial Graduate Faculty Participants

A. List of initial Literacy Graduate Faculty Participants:

B. The Coordinator of the Literacy Graduate Program is responsible for submitting an updated list of active and inactive Literacy Graduate Faculty participants to the Dean of the Graduate School for approval annually.

C. The following faculty are considered in good standing for Literacy Graduate Faculty Status:

Deanna Day-Wiff Michael Dunn Jane Kelley Stephen Kucer Sarah Newcomer Kelly Puzio Barbara Ward