Elementary and Middle Grades Education

B. Houghton, interim head

B. Bell, R. Binkley, P. Bricker, E. Dean, V. Faircloth, T. Folger, K. Laveck, X. Li, M. Matoush, J. Perlmutter, T. Rose, D. Strahan, B. Tyson-Lofquist, W. Wang

The Birth-Kindergarten Program.
Admission and retention policies in the B-K program are based on the standards and guidelines of the State of North Carolina and the National Council for Accreditation of Teacher Education (NCATE). Approved institutions must have established procedures for implementing decisions regarding admission to and retention in the program. The state and NCATE guidelines require continuous evaluation of students admitted to the program.

Admission to the Birth-Kindergarten Program.
Students in the B-K program, regardless of concentration, must earn and maintain a GPA of 2.5 before being admitted to the program. Students must apply during the semester they complete BK 250. Students may accumulate no more than 12 semester hours in the major before being admitted to the BK program.

Birth-Kindergarten majors must maintain an overall GPA of 2.5 or better and passing grades in all courses required in the major. If a student’s overall GPA falls below 2.5, the student will have one semester to increase the GPA to the minimum 2.5 level. If after one semester, the overall GPA is not 2.5, the student is withdrawn from the major. The student may redeclare the major at a later semester when the minimum GPA is met. If a student receives an F in a required major course, the student must retake the course when it is offered and earn a passing grade. If a student fails any required major course twice, the student is withdrawn from the major.

Admission to the Professional Education Concentration.
Students in the professional education concentration must be admitted to teacher education (See Teacher Education) and are subject to all of the teacher education requirements. BK 250 and SPED 313 are the only courses in the professional education sequence that may be taken before admission to teacher education. The BK professional education sequence includes BK 250, SPED 313, EDEL 313, COUN 310, BK, SPED, EDEL 483, BK, SPED, EDEL 496.

Continuation in the B-K program. The requirements for continuing in the program are (1) a GPA of at least 2.5 on hours attempted (2) behavior which adheres to the code of ethics of the profession and (3) satisfactory participation in the required professional field experiences, which is prerequisite to internship. An evaluation of each field experience assignment will become a part of the student’s professional record.