NEW YORK— January 4, 2019 –Watermark, the largest provider of educational intelligence solutions for higher ed worldwide, is pleased to welcome one of its newest partners, Greenville University located in Greenville, IL. Accredited by the Higher Learning Commission, Greenville University has selected Watermark’s assessment solution for use in its School of Education.
Accredited by the Council for the Accreditation of Educator Preparation (CAEP), Greenville’s SOE will use Watermark to report on candidate and departmental outcomes, as well as assess candidate preparedness for the classroom. Part of the School’s mission rests in preparing future teachers to create classroom environments that promote cooperation and responsibility, support self-worth, affirm the dignity of all students, and stimulate learning. This is why the School focuses programs around robust, practical classroom experiences, which begin during freshman year and are paired intentionally with coursework until the student’s senior year.
With Watermark, Greenville’s SOE will be able to advance its initiatives by:
In addition, the School will use the Educator Dispositional Assessment, developed by Watermark’s content partner, the Educational Dispositional Assessment Consultants. In using the EDA in Watermark, Greenville will have a valid and reliable measure of teacher candidate dispositions that can be used to track and monitor candidate dispositional behaviors as they progress through teacher preparation programs.
The EDA consists of dispositions and related indicators identified through research and explicitly aligned with CAEP Standards, InTASC Standards, and professional dispositional elements found in prominent teacher evaluation instruments. The EDA helps provide programs with the evidence needed to meet CAEP and state-level accreditation requirements, and when used with Watermark, can greatly simplify the rubric distribution, score collection, and reporting processes – while archiving data for quick reference at any time and increasing data transparency in the program.
“We chose Watermark because it will help us increase efficiency in our assessment process as we gather meaningful data, allowing us to improve both student outcomes and meet accreditation requirements. We see Watermark and EDA as a partnership enabling us to tell our story and address CAEP Standards around content and pedagogical knowledge, clinical practice, candidate quality, and quality assurance. Most importantly, Watermark will help us make sense of the data we have so that we can make evidenced-based decisions for improvement,” said Dr. Lisa Amundson, Dean of the School of Education at Greenville University.
“We’re honored to have Greenville University’s School of Education as our newest partner and look forward to supporting them through their CAEP accreditation process. Our goal is to provide the solutions that programs need to meet the challenges of effectively planning for assessment and using data to improve outcomes. With better data in their hands, we hope our partners can focus on learning from that data and using it to make meaningful improvements that positively impact students,” said Kevin Michielsen, CEO of Watermark.
Greenville University was founded in 1892 by the Free Methodist Church and provides a quality liberal arts education for over 1,200 students, offering over 50 undergraduate majors as well as adult and graduate programs available online or at partnership locations. The University’s School of Education has a 99% student passing rate for edTPA and boasts a unique accelerated classroom observation and student teaching experience. The School of Education also has traditional undergraduate, degree completion, and graduate programs.
With Watermark as its partner and more robust data demonstrating meaningful outcomes improvements across the program, the School of Education looks to be better prepared for its 2020 CAEP accreditation visit.
Watermark’s mission is to put better data into the hands of administrators, faculty, and students everywhere in order to empower them to connect information and gain insights into learning which will drive meaningful improvements. Through its innovative educational intelligence platform, Watermark supports institutions in developing an intentional approach to learning and development based on data they can trust.
Contact:
Victoria Guzzo
Corporate Communications
vguzzo@watermarkinsights.com