Title II - Teacher Education

Higher Education Act - Title II Report

Student Characteristic

Catholic University welcomed the largest freshman class in its history in Fall 2006, with more than 860 students from 46 states and 22 countries. In addition, CUA expects to enroll about 100 transfer students and approximately 900 new full and part-time graduate and law school students.

CUA students represent a broad range of ages and come from various social, economic, and cultural backgrounds.  Altogether CUA’s student population including full-time and part-time undergraduate and graduate students is 6,130. Of the students 46.1 percent are female while 53.9 percent are male. The largest ethnic group is Caucasian representing 66.1 percent of the student population (3,852). Minority groups are represented by 6.3 percent Blacks, non-Hispanic (366), 5 percent Hispanics (293), 3.8 percent Asians or Pacific Islanders (219), and 0.1 percent American Indians or Alaskan Natives (8). Five percent of the student population consists of foreign students (304), and race/ethnicity of 18.7 percent of students is unknown (1088).

Unit faculty educate 207 undergraduate and graduate candidates altogether. Fifty-three percent of the candidates (110) are part time, mostly in the School Library Media Program. Thirteen percent of the candidates are male (27) and 87percent are female (180). Thirty-eight percent of the candidates are undergraduate (80) and 62 percent are graduate (127). The race/ethnicity profile of teacher education candidates closely approximates the CUA student population data.

Best Practices:

• Small classes taught by highly qualified, dedicated, full-time faculty – 100% hold doctorate and professional degrees.
• Fieldwork is carefully aligned to coursework with practical applications of theory to practice throughout candidates’ program of studies culminating in student teaching with over 400 hours of teaching.
• Early Childhood and Elementary Education majors complete two professional semesters before student teaching under the mentorship of cooperating teachers in the real world of teaching.
• Secondary Education majors have a joint major in their respective discipline and education and receive field supervision from both content and education professors.
• The student/faculty ratio for supervised practice teaching is 1.3/1.
• CUA’s Reflective Conceptual Framework, developed and refined through research and practice by faculty for more than 15 years, is carefully aligned to program, goals, objectives and national standards and helps prepare preservice teachers to consider the moral and ethical issues in teaching regular and exceptional students in schools.

Notable Features:

• CUA’s Education Unit has been accredited by the National Council for the Accreditation of Teacher Education (NCATE) since 1975 and has state approved programs for licensure dating from 1989.
• CUA has been accredited by The Middle States Association of Colleges and Secondary Schools since 1929.
• CUA is unique as the national university of the Catholic Church and the only higher education institution founded by the U.S. bishops.
• Most of CUA’s education programs have achieved national recognition by NCATE and the respective Specialized Professional Associations.
• Highly commended by NCATE for “use of a conceptual, reflective teacher education framework with an emphasis on reflection and with participation of the professional community including students, teachers, and school administrators. The students of CUA have chosen an excellent environment to achieve success in their higher education life.”
• Highly commended by the District of Columbia (State) for “A conscious outreach to serve the community, the District of Columbia Public Schools and the schools of the Archdiocese of Washington; the level of collaboration and involvement of faculty from the liberal arts, drama, art and music who provide joint advisement and supervision of student interns; responsiveness, innovation and risk taking in projects, grants and programs.”
• The Special Education Program was developed through a federally funded grant from the U.S. Department of Education and received recognition as a model for the development of special educators for Catholic schools and urban schools.

Single Assessment Pass-Rates 

Aggregate Institution-Level Pass-Rate Data