Dr. David Hill is leaving his administrative post at Plattsburgh State after spearheading the university's successful attempt to earn national accreditation for the teacher-education program.
That's the job Plattsburgh State hired the dean of education, health and human services to take on, and with the mission accomplished, he's stepping down to return to his first passion — teaching.
The key for Plattsburgh State will be to maintain the momentum Hill started and ensure teacher-education keeps its national accreditation for years to come and continues to evolve and produce top-notch educators.
Plattsburgh State, founded in 1889, opened a year later as a Normal School, or a teachers college, igniting a long history of producing educators.
It was renamed SUNY Plattsburgh when it joined the State University of New York System in 1948.
Today, area education administrators say Plattsburgh State graduates are among their finest teachers.
Despite the high praise, the National Council for Accreditation of Teacher Education denied Plattsburgh State's first bid at national accreditation in 2005.
The university knew it ran a worthy program, but with some faults, and, under Hill's guidance, set about improving teacher education.
This past October, the Teacher Education Accreditation Council granted Plattsburgh State's teacher-education program accreditation for five years, the highest number of years the organization can provide to first-time applicants.
The accrediting body also found the university to be "above standard" in many areas.
Shortly before the news was announced, Hill, who has largely been credited with securing the national accreditation, announced he was stepping down to join the university's faculty ranks this September. He'll teach at the university's branch campus in Queensbury and locally, and the search is under way for Hill's replacement, which should culminate by May.
Plattsburgh must ensure that the teacher-education program remains vibrant and continues to adapt to an increasingly demanding environment. But the university will have to do that without the leadership of the individual who helped revamp teacher education.
Hill says that shouldn't be a problem, stressing that the reinvention of teacher education at Plattsburgh State was a team effort around which he provided leadership.
A bottom-up community-building approach will ensure momentum at the university continues, Hill says. The university created a learning-community atmosphere, which means the accreditation effort didn't depend on one person and will not in the future.
This inquiry approach has faculty continuously questioning themselves and how effective instruction and the program is working. It includes multiple opportunities for feedback from teachers, administrators and students, all with the idea of striving to improve the system.
Sharing information, Hill says, ensures the program's coherence and continuity from one course to the next, while eliminating redundancies.
The program won't look the same five years from now, he says, but will be better.
Teacher education has been a program of distinction for the university and is a central part of its mission, involving most graduate students and 500 or more undergraduates. Without the program, those students wouldn't be studying and paying tuition at Plattsburgh State.
We are confident Plattsburgh State will continue to offer a quality teacher-education program well into the future.
