10 -- Implementation Issues:
Teaching Faculty and Cost and Resource Assessment

The intention of the program is to rely as much as possible on currently appointed members of the CUNY faculty for their research and expertise. We believe this is the most cost-effective way to leverage the strengths of the existing CUNY faculty, both at the Graduate Center and from the colleges. Core courses, Area Seminars in the concentrations and options, and Program Electives will be taught by faculty with appointments or joint appointments in the doctoral program in Curriculum and Policy Studies in Urban Education, but drawn mainly from the existing doctoral faculty. Many elective courses in the concentrations and options will be drawn from the regular course lists in other doctoral programs and taught by their existing faculty.

Distinguished faculty members in Education now teaching on the campuses, but not already members of the CUNY doctoral faculty, will be nominated by the program as members of the doctoral faculty in Curriculum and Policy Studies in Urban Education, but retain their current appointments. Colleges will be compensated for courses taught and students supervised by these faculty members by the distribution of central lines under the current allocation system. In addition, the University has identified the development of this doctoral program as a key component of the overall effort to strengthen each of the colleges' education offerings. This initiative is also a University budget priority that is expected to provide support for future faculty who will have significant participation in the proposed doctoral progam. The opportunity for such participation will also assist in recruitment of the best available faculty candidates for programs at the colleges.

See Section 11 for a preliminary list of CUNY faculty members who have already expressed their desire to participate in the proposed program. We will continue to identify and enlist the assistance of additional members of the CUNY faculty.

To strengthen faculty resources for this new program, we propose two new appointments to the Graduate Center faculty. These will be on re-allocated lines within the university and will not require the allocation of new faculty lines. In the first year (1999-2000) a search committee would be constituted to identify an outstanding scholar in curriculum studies in education who is also a specialist in qualitative research methods, to be appointed starting in the second year (2000-2001) of the program. In that year, also, a second search would be conducted for an outstanding scholar who is a specialist in educational policy studies.

Cost and Resource Assessment

Because of the strategy of relying on existing faculty resources, this program should produce relatively modest added costs to CUNY’s budget. We anticipate a small program in terms of student enrollment. The first-year entering cadre of students will not exceed 15 students, some of whom are expected to be part-time students and some others self-supporting full-time students (see below). We anticipate admissions of 15-20 new students each year over the first 5 years of the program, with the number of part-time and self-supporting full-time students growing within these limits according to demand, and the smaller number of full-time students eligible for and needing financial support increasing only as fellowship funds become available. We anticipate that after 6 years of operation, with a maximum of 15-20 admissions annually, the total number of headcount students, including those at Level III (maintenance of matriculation, dissertation work only), could reach approximately 100-120 students. The number of FTE students would be substantially less because of the relatively large number of part-time students expected.

Although in some fields part-time doctoral study is not encouraged, it is our belief that in the field of Education, as in other fields where professional experience provides an important basis for research work, a mix of part-time and full-time students is desirable. So also is the anticipated mix of local area students and those recruited nationally. We expect that a significant proportion of the local area students will be part-time students while continuing to pursue their careers; others will be educators on full-time leave. Most part-time students who are continuing their professional careers during doctoral study will be largely self-supporting, thus greatly reducing the otherwise pressing need to raise supplementary funds for full-time student support. The committee is acutely aware of the shortage of such funds. Because this program would be created without the need for new faculty lines, some contribution from the CUNY central administration to the funding of this new doctoral program should be used for student support. In addition, the Graduate Center administration is committed to aggressively seeking external support for the program (see below).

Another resource for student support is the very large demand for adjunct teaching faculty in the undergraduate and Master's level courses in Education on the CUNY campuses. Because of recent retirements, colleges with large Education programs currently have the ability to utilize Graduate Teaching Fellows and to hire more advanced doctoral students from the new program as adjunct teaching faculty. This connection to pre-doctoral programs in Education on the campuses is in fact a principal anticipated benefit from the new program.

In addition to the costs of student support, there will also be a need for one Assistant Program Officer, and for the normal operating costs of a Program office. Fortunately, because of the capital budget already allocated for the new 365 Fifth Avenue facility, there will be no additional costs incurred for office space or most normal operating equipment.

Finally, there will be some modest costs associated with library collection development. There is already a substantial collection that can support doctoral work in Education in the CUNY libraries. The Graduate Center library will incur a one-time cost to acquire a core collection of volumes not already owned there to support the core courses and readings for the First Examination. Because of the inter-disciplinary nature of the program's curriculum offerings, most other courses would already be supported by collections developed for other doctoral programs. Long-term costs for new acquisitions and particularly for serials will depend on a plan for co-ordinated collection development of materials to support advanced study and research in Education among the CUNY libraries. Discussions of such a plan have already been initiated. Development of the CUNY Digital Library (already funded at $10 million from the capital budget) should also provide support. The final full Proposal for this program will include line item cost estimates for library materials.

Research and doctoral education in the fields of curriculum and policy studies in Education tend to be generously supported by governmental and private agencies. In such fields as mathematics and science education and urban educational policy, national, state, local, and charitable foundation priorities make it very likely that the proposed program will be able to obtain substantial outside funding to support fellowships for doctoral students, internship programs, and research projects of the faculty. The 1998 research support budget of the U.S. Department of Education (excluding the $60 million for the National Center for Educational Statistics) was $128 million.The recently passed Higher Education Act of 1998 provides specifically for additional new funds to improve teacher education. The federal Fund for the Improvement of Post-Secondary Education also provides grants ($25-30 million annually) to support innovative new programs. The National Science Foundation (currently seeking an 8% increase for mathematics and science education, including graduate fellowships) and many programs in the U.S. Department of Education provide for fellowship support for doctoral study in science and mathematics education and other fields, particularly for students from traditionally under-represented groups. It is hoped that a significant proportion of doctoral students with such backgrounds can be recruited for this program, and conversations with the Graduate Center Office of Development indicate that several private funding sources will be interested in helping to provide opportunities for these students to become prepared for research and leadership positions in urban education. Locally, current initiatives by the New York State Department of Education and the New York City Board of Education seek to provide support for continuing professional development of senior educators, of whom those with strong research and policy analysis interests can be attracted to the new doctoral program. A more detailed analysis of prospects for external funding support will be included in the final Proposal document.