Office of the Dean

A Message from Dean Renée A. Middleton

Renée A. Middleton
Dean

Greetings to students, alumni, school and community partners, parents and friends, and welcome to The Gladys W. and David H. Patton College of Education and Human Services website!

As you navigate through its pages, I hope you find this site useful and engaging. It opens a window to the exciting changes taking place in The Patton College and gives you a picture of our outstanding students, faculty and staff.

“Confluence of Quality: Collaboration, Commitment and Caring”

During this past academic calendar year, The Patton College focused on the theme “Confluence of Quality: Collaboration, Commitment and Caring.” As we charted the course to a new future, it was important for us to collaborate across departments, to renew our commitment to the field of Education and to care for our existing and new students, faculty, staff and alumni during this period of transition.

The Patton College played a pivotal role in Ohio University’s realignment of academic programs. Beginning July 1, 2010, The Patton College became the home of several excellent programs previously housed in the College of Health and Human Services. This is but one of the many exciting changes happening at OHIO.

On January 11, 2010, President Roderick J. McDavis announced a $13.3 million gift from 1938 alumna Violet L. Patton for the establishment of the Violet L. Patton Center for Arts Education, a new community arts education center to be operated by OHIO. Just three weeks later, he announced another transformational gift from Miss Patton: $28 million in honor of her parents, Gladys and David Patton. In honor of Miss Violet L. Patton’s parents, we will be known in perpetuity as The Gladys W. and David H. Patton College of Education and Human Services.

We will devote next year’s issue of Athenaeum to honoring the legacy of the Patton family, so please remember to tell us if you’re moving or if you have an alternate address (send updates to COEalumni@ohio.edu). You don’t want to miss it! The philanthropy of Miss Patton is remarkable and surpasses anything we ever could have imagined. It is truly transformational.

Where is the Patton College taking you?

When I began as Dean, we entered into a five-year vision and plan to position our College for national prominence, and I believe that we are well on our way. Together, we are enhancing the quality of our programs and the strength of The Patton College.

Over the past four years, the following goals have guided us:

Recruit and retain a diverse faculty and student body;
Increase and enhance research and scholarship;
Increase contracts and grant development and procurement;
Sustain and improve school and community partnerships.

We believe that diversity is a core value, so we continue to focus on the recruitment and retention of a diverse faculty and student body through the Rural/Urban Collaborative and other unique initiatives. Data reveals that the College has made significant gains with Diversity as a CORE value. We have doubled our diversity, and retention is up by 9 percent since 2005.

I am pleased to report that this past October we welcomed a Board of Examiners from the National Council for the Accreditation of Teacher Education (NCATE). The visit began in October, 2009. The Unit Accreditation Board issued their final accreditation report on May 7, 2010, which stated that we had met each of the six NCATE standards: candidate knowledge and skills; unit evaluation and assessment; field experiences and clinical practice; diversity; faculty qualifications; and unit governance.

Under NCATE guidelines, more than 91 percent of our faculty members engage in research or scholarship leading to a refereed or peer-reviewed publication, book, book-chapter, conference proceedings, or professional presentation at national and international conferences.

The Patton College is continuing to make steady progress to increase contracts and grant development. Since 2006, the College has been consistently awarded more than $2 million in grant and contract awards, and we hope to reach $3 million over the next three years.

Regionally, we are engaged with communities through our Professional Development Schools partnerships, and our ongoing efforts with the Coalition of Rural and Appalachian Schools (CORAS), the Southeast Ohio Teacher Development Collaborative (SEOTDC), and the Rural/Urban Collaborative. We established the Communications and Connections Taskforce to advance the work of “creating an aligned, agile, regional system of professional learning that meets the unique education needs of learners and the broader demands of a global society.”

I firmly believe that the future depends on our ability to work with our communities, schools, school leaders and institutional partners in higher education to prepare educators, practitioners, and human service professionals who are dedicated to lifelong learning. To this end, I will continue to honor my pledge to you, committing daily to these goals.

Whether you are a prospective student, a current student, an alumnus, friend, or guest, I encourage you to explore our site and drop me a line. I look forward to hearing from you!

Sincerely,

Renée A. Middleton, Ph.D.
Dean

For more information, please contact:
Ohio University
The Gladys W. and David H. Patton College of Education and Human Services
Office of the Dean
McCracken Hall 133
Athens, OH 45701-2979
740.593.9449