OF RECORD


The Pennsylvania English Fluency in Higher Education Act, signed into law in 1990, requires the University to evaluate and annually certify to the Commonwealth that all new under graduate instructional personnel are fluent in the use of the English language in the classroom. In 1990-91, at the request of the Deans of the undergraduate schools, the Provost's Office developed a single, University-wide standard of fluency and uniform procedures for the evaluation and certification of such fluency. These were published "Of Record" in Almanac, on May 28, 1991.

Last year, in response to some concerns expressed by both faculty and students, I ap pointed an ad hoc committee, chaired by Associate Dean Dwight Jaggard of the School of Engi neering, to review our standard of fluency and procedures to determine if any adjustments were needed. Although the Committee found that some fluency problems remain, for the most part the procedures have worked well. Graduate Group Chairs and Undergraduate Chairs in particular be lieve there has been great improvement in the quality of TAs since the inception of the English evaluation and certification procedures.

The committee did suggest some changes in the language of the Penn policy in order to clarify its intent. It also updated the policy to take account of the new Test of Spoken English (TSE) introduced in 1996 by the Educational Testing Service. This test uses a new scoring sys tem which must be reflected in our policy. It also will require a change in our certification form, which will be distributed later this semester.

Finally, the committee recommended that a very limited new category--Grader--be cre ated for graduate students who serve as graders and have very limited contact with undergradu ates solely through office hours. Upon the written referral of the graduate group chair, graduate students whose native language is not English and who receive scores on the Test of Spoken En glish of 45 or above but less than 60 may be certified as graders by passing the Grader Exam ad ministered by the English Language Programs. Passing of this exam, which is tailored to one-on -one questions and answers, will certify graduate students as sufficiently fluent in English to serve as graders with limited office hours, but does not certify them to undertake other instructional duties at a later date. Graders can have no responsibility for classroom teaching, tutoring, recita tion, or laboratory sessions.

I have accepted the recommendations of the ad hoc committee. The revised policy, which follows below, is effective immediately. In addition to publication in Almanac, it is being distributed as a Provost's Memorandum to academic deans, department chairs, and graduate groups chairs.

-- Stanley Chodorow, Provost

Procedures for the Evaluation and Certification of the English Fluency of Undergraduate Instructional Personnel

Pursuant to the requirements of the Pennsylvania English Fluency in Higher Education Act, the following procedures for the evaluation and certification of English fluency in the classroom of all undergraduate instructional personnel (as defined below) shall be effective immediately and supersede previous school or University procedures.

I. Undergraduate Instructional Personnel

All persons hired on or after July 1, 1997, as members of the Standing or Associated Faculties, Academic Support Staff, graduate and professional student teaching staff, or as tutors, or for other undergraduate instructional duties (including, for example, leading laboratory or discussion sections or holding office hours), regardless of rank or title, in the Schools of Arts and Sciences, Engineering and Applied Science, or Nursing, the Annenberg or Wharton Schools, or the Graduate Schools of Education or Fine Arts, must be evaluated and certified as having met the University's standard of English fluency in the classroom before completion of the hiring process. In addition, all individuals who hold appointments elsewhere in the University and who are to be engaged in the teaching, tutoring, or other instruction of undergraduates must also be evaluated and certified before appointment. Only members of the Visiting Faculty, instructional personnel whose entire undergraduate instruction (including office hours) will be conducted in a language other than English, and graduate students who have no direct instructional contact (including office hours) with undergraduates (e.g., some graders or research assistants) are exempt from this requirement.

II. Standard of English Fluency in the Classroom

To be certified by the University of Pennsylvania as "fluent in the English language in the classroom," a speaker must always be intelligible to a non-specialist in the topic under discussion, despite an accent or occasional grammatical errors. General and field-specific vocabulary must be broad enough so that the speaker rarely has to grope for words. Listening comprehension must be sufficiently high so that misunderstandings rarely occur when responding to students' questions or answers. While teaching, the speaker should be able to use transitions to show the relationships between ideas, and to set main points apart from added details. When asked an ambiguous question, the speaker should be able to clarify the question through discussion with the student. When asked to restate a main point, the speaker should be able to paraphrase clearly. When challenged, the speaker should be able to defend his or her position effectively and appropriately.

Prospective instructional personnel, regardless of rank or title, who do not meet the above criteria shall not be certified and may not be assigned to any undergraduate instructional responsibilities.

III. Certification Procedures

a) Newly-Hired Standing Faculty Members

Prospective members of the Standing or Associated Faculties, or of the Academic Support Staff, regardless of rank or title, shall be evaluated and certified by their department chairperson as to their English fluency in the classroom on the basis of one of the methods of evaluation listed in section IV, below. The department chairperson shall certify their English fluency in the classroom to their Dean, or to the Dean's designee (generally, the Undergraduate Dean), and the Dean shall certify same to the Provost.

b) Native English-Speaking Graduate Teaching Assistants

Prospective graduate teaching assistants whose native language is English shall be evaluated and certified by their department chairperson as to their English fluency in the classroom on the basis of one of the methods of evaluation listed in section IV, below. The department chairperson shall certify their English fluency in the classroom to their Dean, or to the Dean's designee (generally, the Undergraduate Dean), and the Dean shall certify same to the Provost. (This procedure applies to all native English-speaking graduate and professional student teaching staff, including those undertaking instructional duties as tutors, leading laboratory or discussion sections, graders, or holding office hours.)

c) Non-native English-Speaking Graduate Teaching Assistants

Prospective graduate teaching assistants whose native language is other than English who have not taken either the Test of Spoken English or the ACTFL Oral Proficiency Interview, or who score below 60 on the TSE or below Superior on the ACTFL, shall be referred by their department chairperson to the English Language Programs for professional evaluation of their English fluency in the classroom. [See section IV.a, below, for further information on these tests. Registration deadlines for evaluation by the English Language Programs are May 1 for the Fall term, November 1 for the Spring term, and March 1 for the Summer term, except for those prospective teaching assistants from abroad who are participating in the summer International Teaching Assistants Program or for whom departments have made special arrangements with the Director of English Language Programs.]

It is anticipated that most graduate students whose native language is not English will not be sufficiently fluent in the use of English in the classroom to undertake undergraduate instructional responsibilities during their first year of graduate enrollment at Penn. Such individuals may be able to acquire fluency in English in the classroom by enrolling in the ELP's summer International Teaching Assistants Training Program, or during the academic year, by enrolling in GAS 600 (fall semester) or the ELP's intensive English language and cultural familiarization courses, or through alternative programs appropriate to the student's needs. Graduate students placed in any of the above programs must be re-evaluated by the ELP before the Director may certify to the Provost that they are fluent in English in the classroom.

d) All Other Undergraduate Instructional Personnel

All other undergraduate instructional personnel, regardless of rank or title, shall be evaluated and certified by their department chairperson as to their English fluency in the classroom on the basis of one of the methods of evaluation listed in section IV, below. The department chairperson shall certify their English fluency in the classroom to their Dean, or to the Dean's designee (generally, the Undergraduate Dean), and the Dean shall certify same to the Provost.

IV. Evaluation and Testing

a) Methods of Evaluation

Department chairpersons and deans shall certify only those prospective instructional personnel whose English fluency in the classroom has been evaluated using one or more of the means of evaluation listed below and has been found to meet or exceed the standard of English fluency in the classroom set forth in section II, above.

The following methods of evaluation may be used as the basis for a departmental certification of all undergraduate instructional personnel except prospective graduate teaching assistants whose native language is other than English:

All prospective graduate teaching assistants whose native language is other than English shall be referred by their department chairperson to the English Language Programs for professional evaluation of their English fluency in the classroom, using the ETS Test of Spoken English (TSE) or future replacements, the ACTFL Oral Proficiency Interview, or the Interactive Performance Test (IPT) administered by the English Language Programs (and described in V.b, below).

b) Referral to and Consultation with the English Language Programs

Using one of the methods listed above, department chairpersons and Deans (or the Dean's designee) shall either certify to the Provost that a prospective faculty member or other undergraduate instructional personnel is fluent in English in the classroom or refer them to the English Language Programs (ELP) for further evaluation before they undertake any undergraduate instructional duties.

It should be borne in mind that, at the discretion of the department chairperson or the Dean, both native and non-native speakers of English may be referred to the English Language Programs for further evaluation before certification of their English fluency.

The department chairperson or Dean may find it useful, especially where the native language of prospective faculty members or instructional personnel is other than English, to consult with the Director of the English Language Programs before certification of English fluency regarding the advisability of further evaluation or the most appropriate method of evaluation.

c) Pre-Admission Testing of Non-native English-speaking Graduate Teaching Assistants

In order to facilitate the certification of all prospective graduate teaching assistants who are fluent in English in the classroom, schools and departments outside of SAS are strongly encouraged to adopt the existing teaching fellowship policy of the School of Arts and Sciences, and to require that prospective teaching assistants whose native language is other than English take the Test of Spoken English prior to appointment to undergraduate instructional duties:

"In order to hold an appointment as a teaching assistant in the School of Arts and Sciences, a student whose native language is not English must submit scores from the Test of Spoken English (TSE)," [1989-91 Graduate Admissions Catalog, p. 58].

V. Further Evaluation and Appeals

a) Further Evaluation by the English Language Programs

Prospective instructional personnel who are not certified under section III, above, shall be referred to the University's English Language Programs for further evaluation.

b) Interactive Performance Test

Graduate students whose native language is not English and who receive scores on the Test of Spoken English of 45 or above but less than 60 may be certified for classroom instruction by passing the Interactive Performance Test (IPT) administered by the English Language Programs. The IPT consists of a 10-minute mini-lecture with a question and answer component on a topic in the candidate's academic discipline.

c) Evaluation and Certification as Graders with Limited Office Hours

Alternatively, and upon the written referral of the graduate group chair, graduate students whose native language is not English and who receive scores on the Test of Spoken English of 45 or above but less than 60 may be certified as graders with limited office hours by passing the Grader Exam administered by the English Language Programs. Graders with limited office hours are defined as graduate students who are responsible for grading exams and assignments and holding individual appointments with undergraduate students for the purpose of explaining grades and answers to exam questions or assignments. Graders with limited office hours can have no responsibility for classroom teaching, tutoring, recitation, or laboratory sessions. Passing of this exam, which is tailored to one-on-one questions and answers, will certify graduate students as sufficiently fluent in English to serve as graders with limited office hours, but does not certify them to undertake other instructional duties at a later date.

d) Appeals of Certification Decisions

Appeals of certification decisions made by department chairpersons may be directed to the appropriate Dean, and appeals of certification decisions made by Deans or by the Director of English Language Programs may be directed to the Provost.

VI. Deadlines for Certification and Reporting

In the case of appointments to the Standing or Associated Faculties, all submissions to the Provost's Staff Conference or Mini-Conference for appointments in SAS, Wharton, SEAS, Nursing, ASC, GSE, or GSFA (and for any faculty members in other schools who will ever teach undergraduates) shall include in the required documentation a certification by the Dean stating that the candidate's fluency in the English language in the classroom has been evaluated and found to meet or exceed the University's standard of fluency. The Dean's certification shall also include a brief description of the means used to evaluate such fluency and the results of such evaluation. (The Provost's Memorandum of October 13, 1988, outlining required documentation for Provost's Staff Conference submissions will be updated and reissued to reflect this requirement.)

In all other cases, including graduate teaching assistants and academic support staff, the certification must be approved by the Provost before final approval of the appointment in the school or department and prior to the start of the term for which the individual is first hired for undergraduate instructional duties (specifically, by September 1 for the Fall term, by January 1 for the Spring term, and by May 1 for the Summer term).

Each Dean shall report to the Provost, no later than August 1 of each year, that all faculty and other undergraduate instructional personnel (as defined in section I, above) hired since the Dean's previous certification have been evaluated for English fluency in the classroom prior to their appointment and were found to meet or exceed the University's standard of fluency.

VII. Monitoring and Reporting of Complaints

a) Monitoring

Each school shall have in place one of the following procedures for the ongoing monitoring of English fluency in the classroom of all undergraduate instructional personnel:

b) Reporting of Complaints

In addition, each school shall ensure that all complaints regarding the English fluency of instructional personnel are reported (with the chairperson's evaluation of the complaint) to the Dean and Undergraduate Dean, and by the Dean (with a description of the resolution of the complaint) to the Provost, via the Deputy Provost in the case of faculty, and via the Vice Provost for Graduate Education in the case of graduate students.

VIII. Review of English Fluency Standards and Procedures

These standards and procedures will be reviewed periodically by the Provost's Council on Undergraduate Education, and in the light of Pennsylvania Department of Education regulations, when issued. It should also be noted that each school, at its option, may institute English fluency requirements more stringent than the minimum standards outlined above.

Please feel free to contact the Office of the Provost or the Director of English Language Programs should you have questions regarding the above.


Almanac

Volume 43 Number 26
March 18, 1997


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