A Message From Dean Dass

May 1, 2024 | Pradeep ‘Max’ Dass

College of Education and Psychology Spring 2024 Newsletter

Dean's Message

Greetings,

As I write the Dean’s Message for our spring 2024 newsletter, I have almost completed two semesters here at UT Tyler. The fall and spring semesters together comprise what we call an academic year in the university. So, I have completed my first academic year here at UT Tyler! Where did the time go? It seems like only yesterday that I arrived here in town. Well, in this one year, a lot has happened in our College.

We had a number of new faculty and staff join our team within this past year. They are being introduced in this issue of the newsletter. Several of our academic programs received new or continuing accreditation or recognition:

• The Clinical Mental Health Counseling program received accreditation from the Council for Accreditation of Counseling and Related Educational Programs (CACREP).
• Our Master of Education in Reading program received national recognition from the International Literacy Association (ILA).
• All of our education degree programs that fall under the Texas Education Agency (TEA) purview, received full continuing accreditation from TEA.

We introduced several new elements into some of our degree programs:

• A new Dyslexia Certificate and a new Literacy Coach Certificate have been incorporated within the Master of Education in reading program.
• A new Behavior Specialist track has been incorporated within the Master of Education in special education program.

While we continue to improve and innovate our academic degree programs, we are also actively engaged in scholarly pursuits that advance knowledge in our various academic disciplines and impact our professional fields. Collectively the results of these scholarly pursuits inform continuous improvement of our academic programs in the spirit of the “teacher-scholar” model of scholarship, as well as positively impact practice in the fields of education, psychology and counseling. I am proud to say that for the 2022 – 23 academic year among all eight academic colleges in UT Tyler, the collective scholarly output of faculty in our College was in the second spot after the School of Medicine.

In keeping with our mission to serve our home region of East Texas, we have continued to foster and strengthen our relationship with regional school districts through our East Texas Center for School-Based Research and Instruction. The first meeting of this center for this year was held in February, when several districts’ superintendents or their designees came to UT Tyler and discussed the center’s activities for the upcoming year. The center is organizing two major events to be held at UT Tyler this summer for teachers:

• ‘Teachers Law School’ on June 29 in collaboration with the East Texas Chapter of the American Board of Trial Advocates (ABOTA).
• ‘Back to School Bash’ on August 8 to celebrate, honor and encourage teachers as they get ready to launch the new school year.

I thank you for your interest in and support of the life-changing work we do in our College and close my message with this Chinese proverb: Learning is a treasure that accompanies its owner everywhere.

We continue to strive in equipping people with this treasure!

Pradeep ‘Max’ Dass, Ph.D.
Dean, College of Education and Psychology