Council on Teacher Education

Program Proposals Requiring Executive Committee Review and Approval

Proposals requiring review and approval by the Council’s Executive Committee include, but may not be limited to, those that:

Modify curricula:

• add new majors and/or degree programs
• establish new criteria
• substantially modify the curricula
• add new requirements
• remove required courses
• change "elective" option
• significantly change or revise course content (adding or removing course content or moving content from one course to another)
• change course titles, descriptions, and/or numbers
• change mode of course delivery (e.g., face-to-face courses become online or blended)
• delete programs

Modify timelines:

• change admissions requirements, timelines, or procedures
• increase or decrease credit hours (any change in hours to a degree)

Modify field experiences:

• decrease required hours for early field experiences
• decrease required time in placement related to student teaching
• change selection criteria for university supervisors or cooperating professionals

Administrative approval (by the Executive Director of the Council on Teacher Education) may be used for those proposals that reflect minor modifications to programs such as:

• substituting one course for another within the major
• updating courses to ensure that the program conforms to current course offerings
• replacing courses that have previously been dropped

In most cases, it is easy to distinguish between major and minor revisions and to determine the appropriate level of review.  In cases where the distinction is unclear, The Executive Director will determine the Executive Committee’s preference to discuss the proposal.  If one or more members of the Executive Committee indicate a preference for discussing the proposal, it will be placed on the next agenda.  If all members of the Executive Committee indicate that the proposal does not warrant extensive discussion and consideration by the full Committee, the Executive Director will administratively approve it.

For those proposals that are administratively approved, the Executive Director will routinely report the action taken on them to the Executive Committee.

Additional review and approval of proposals may be required by the Illinois State Board of Education; the Illinois Board of Higher Education; and/or the University of Illinois. The Council on Teacher Education will guide the process relative to the additional required reviews and approvals once the proposal has been approved by the Executive Committee.