POSITION IDENTIFICATION
TITLE Director, Professional Education Services
CLASSIFICATION NUMBER 1157
GRADE 47
CLASSIFICATION Exempt
IMMEDIATE SUPERVISOR Dean, College of Education
GENERAL FUNCTION
The Director, Professional Education Services supervises both advisement as well as field experiences and compliances. For the advisement component of the professional education services office, the director plans, organizes, and oversees quality academic advisement services for students in undergraduate education programs on the Springfield and West Plains campuses (Early Childhood, Elementary, Middle School, Special Education, and Child and Family Development), the Post Baccalaureate Teacher Certification program, and the Master of Arts in Teaching. The Director, Professional Education Services coordinates recruitment and marketing efforts for the College and serves as liaison with Outreach advisement in the Lebanon, West Plains, and Crowder locations. The Director, Professional Education Services collaborates with the Director, Secondary Education on advising issues and shared courses. The Director, Professional Education Services coordinates the PAWS program for students with low grade point averages and COE SOAR programming and works with community college education directors on transfer guides and four year plans. The Director, Professional Education Services develops departmental policies, procedures, and advisement guidelines and prepares long- and short-range goals and objectives. For the field experiences and compliances component of the professional education services office, the director oversees the operations of Educational Field Experiences. This includes oversight of all of the field and student teaching placement processes, compliances and background checks, memorandums of understanding with area schools, and systems of tracking and assessment for teacher education students. The Director works closely with the Teaching Certification Officer in adhering to state certification requirements and regulations.
MINIMUM ACCEPTABLE QUALIFICATIONS
Education: A Master's degree is required. Either the Bachelor's degree or the Master's degree must be in a recognized area of Education (e.g., early childhood, elementary, middle school, secondary, special), Education Administration, or Guidance and Counseling.
Experience: At least five years of experience in higher education is required and must include a combination of teaching experience and administrative or academic advising experience. Experience in positions that required knowledge of policies and administrative procedures for higher education is preferred. Experience working in an education program with teacher certification procedures or with elementary education advising is preferred.
Skills: Excellent verbal and written communication skills, interpersonal skills, computer literacy, and organizational and management skills are required.
ESSENTIAL DUTIES AND RESPONSIBILITIES
1. Manages the Professional Education Services office for the College of Education.
2. Supervises academic advisors, field placement personnel, compliance specialist, administrative specialist, student works, and out of area student teaching supervisors.
3. Collaborates with Certification Officer, Secondary Ed Director, COE Dean’s Office, COE Department Heads and COE faculty regarding COE advisement, field experiences, compliances, program changes and processes.
4. Oversees the Professional Education Services database and procedures pertaining to student teaching, certification, and assessment and communicates changes to student teaching and certification requirements and assessment reports associated with those changes to all stakeholders.
5. Oversees the student practicum and student teaching application and placement processes, updates to the Student Teaching Handbook, the University Supervisor-Student Teacher assignment process, and the cooperating teacher assignment process
6. Ensures that quality academic advisement is provided to education students at in a student-oriented environment, provides academic advisement to assigned advisees, develops policies, procedures, and advisement guidelines, and prepares long- and short-term goals and objectives for advisement, recruitment, and marketing.
7. Assures accurate information is provided to students seeking information about education programs or who are unsure of the education program they want to pursue.
8. Oversees the PAWS program for COE students on academic probation or having less than a 2.5 GPA, the peer-mentoring program for struggling COE majors, and the College of Education’s participation in SOAR.
9. Collaborates with the Internship Academy, a yearlong student teaching experience.
10. Serves as liaison with Outreach advisement at the Lebanon, West Plains, and Crowder
locations and trains Outreach advisors at those locations.
11. Serves as the subject matter expert for COE academic advising issues with the Director of Secondary Education, COE faculty, Registrar, Admissions, Career Center, etc.
12. Investigates and resolves academic advising and transfer issues for students and communicates with concerned parents following FERPA guidelines.
13. Coordinates marketing and alumni and recruitment events, manages outreach to alumni, and coordinates special projects.
14. Serves as liaison with community college education directors regarding transfer guides and four-year plans and advises transfer students planning to attend MSU within the next two years.
15. Represents COE Professional Education Services and COE on a variety of committees.
16. Maintains records for Transition point one, MEGA Assessments, program changes, and academic standings within the college and distributes MEGA fee waivers.
17. Develops a competent and effective advisement staff by hiring qualified applicants, providing in-service training and workshops, assigning appropriate academic advising responsibilities, and evaluating individual performance.
18. Remains competent and current through self-directed professional reading, developing professional contacts with colleagues, attending professional development courses, and attending training and/or courses as directed by the Dean.
19. Contributes to the overall success of the College of Education by performing other duties and responsibilities as assigned.
SUPERVISION
The Director, Professional Education Services is supervised by the Dean, College of Education and supervises 5 advisors, an administrative assistant, 3 field placement personnel, 1 compliance specialist, graduate assistants, and 5 student workers.
OFFICE OF HUMAN RESOURCES
REVISED JANUARY 2025