LCMS Convention Workbook St. Louis, Missouri — 2004, Page 24

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24 . SYNODICAL REPORTS

typical non-synodically certified teacher reveals a broad mix of
Christian doctrine, including numerous elements of historic Calvin-
ism, Arminianism, and Roman Catholicism. Anecdotal research
with more than 400 non-synodically certified teachers brings to
light that most frequently the non-theologically trained teacher rep-
resents generic American Christianity. The implication is obvious:
If the teacher’s understanding of Christian doctrine is a mixture of
popular Christian thought derived from Methodism, Presbyterian-
ism, Lutheranism, Roman Catholicism, the Southern Baptists, and
other denominations, the lessons taught in school will widely miss
the goals for which our schools were established in the first place.
The long-term implication is that the cherished doctrinal heritage of
our Synod will be understood by fewer and fewer people as the
years pass, and the Lutheran school will evolve into a generic
Christian school or merely a private school as, indeed, in some
communities it already has. If this trend is to be reversed, congre-
gations must seek teachers who are synodically trained or they
must enroll their non-theologically trained teachers in the Synod’s
teacher colloquy program.

Response of the Board for Higher Education

Many decades ago the Synod’s Board for Higher Education
called for the development of a teacher colloquy education program
that would address such fundamental academic courses as Old Tes-
tament, New Testament, History of the Christian Church, the
Lutheran Confessions, Lutheran Doctrine, World Religions, and
the Office of the Lutheran Teacher. The board also insisted upon an
examination of each candidate by representatives of a synodical
college faculty. Bylaws governing the teacher colloquy program
were written and adopted by the congregations of the Synod. Early
on, non-synodically certified teachers had to travel to the campus at
River Forest or Seward to avail themselves of the program. Gradu-
ally, colloquy instruction was made available on all 10 campuses of
the Concordia colleges. As the number of non-synodically certified
teachers continued to rise rapidly during the 1970s and the 1980s,
the Board for Higher Education authorized a video-based program
that provided some but not all of the required classes off campus.
The remainder of the classes and the faculty interview had to come
from one of the Concordias. Still later, many of the Concordia cam-
puses began to send professors to larger communities to offer sum-
mer teacher colloquy classes. Occasionally the colleges authorized
local pastors to teach colloquy courses when enough teachers were
interested in enrollment to form a cohort.

While program access was somewhat improved by these
changes, three significant problems arose in conjunction with the
new designs. First, the quality of instruction became uneven. In
some instances colloquy courses were as short as two days, while
the same course offered in other instances was equal to a full se-
mester. Student performance at the end of the program displayed
wide variance. Second, financial considerations also arose. At the
urging of the Districts, colloquy courses were offered at one-third
the price of the same classes on campus. While tuition for a New
Testament course on a typical Concordia campus ran $1,400, the
Districts were requesting colloquy courses at the $350-level. Fi-
nally, access to the teacher colloquy program could not be uni-
formly provided under any of the original designs. Those Missouri
Synod congregations located close to a Concordia had reasonably
good access, while the other half of our Synod’s congregations ex-
perienced far more difficult access.

During the synodical convention of 1998, a letter calling for sig-
nificant change to the delivery system for teacher colloquy educa-
tion and signed by the education executives from three of our
Synod’s largest Districts was given to the Board for Higher Educa-
tion. The request was timely, for already nearly half of the elemen-
tary, junior high school, and high school teachers in our Synod
were not synodically certified and the number was rising LO per-

2004 Convention Workbook

cent each decade. A more effective delivery system had to be de-
signed right away.

The Board for Higher Education had recently sought and had
been awarded a grant from the Marvin M. Schwan Charitable
Foundation to establish a distance-learning arm for the Concordia
University System. Later to become known as the Concordia Uni-
versity Education Network (CUEnet), the new organization was as-
signed the task of responding to the challenge raised by the 1998
letter. CUEnet began by identifying exceptional faculty from
around the Synod to teach and record each of the colloquy classes.
Such scholars as Dr. Robert Kolb from the St. Louis seminary, Dr.
Jack Preus from Concordia University, Irvine, and Dr. Patrick
Ferry from Concordia University Wisconsin were invited to par-
ticipate along with other outstanding professors. The teaching of
these individuals was captured on digital tape, edited, and prepared
for full-video delivery over the Internet. CUEnet also sought the
assistance of all of the theology professors and librarians from
throughout the church to identify those reference volumes that
would be the most desirable to place into an electronic library.
Again with assistance from the Schwan Foundation and Concordia
Publishing House, a CD was prepared to be utilized by teacher col-
loquy students.

The program designed by CUEnet was subsequently adopted
by the colleges and universities as a counterpart to their on-cam-
pus colloquy programs. Today the Concordia University System
offers teacher colloquy classes online while continuing to offer the
same classes in standard fashion on each campus. The online pro-
gram provides each student with a full-time mentor. Lessons are
designed in such a way as to involve students in group work
through threaded discussions. Tuition for the program is less than
half the charge for an on-campus, traditional course. Evaluation of
the program has been consistently above the 90th percentile among
the more than 500 students who have participated in the online
courses. As a result, the number of non-synodically certified teach-
ers enrolled in colloquy instruction has increased, but the challenge
before the Synod remains daunting, for while the enrollment of
teachers in the colloquy program has risen as a result of the online
offering, it has not kept pace with the number of non-synodically
trained teachers being hired every year.

Evaluation of the Concordia online Teacher Colloquy Program

CUEnet conducts a thorough assessment of the Concordia on-
line Teacher Colloquy Program on a regular basis. The assessment
program includes outcomes as well as student satisfaction. The
graphs below contain some of the results of this process, chosen to
reflect the efficacy of the pedagogy utilized for the online program.

The first graph indicates student satisfaction. At the end of each
course, students are asked by CUEnet to indicate their satisfaction
with the program by anonymously responding to a survey. The
items included below are representative of the overall results,
which have been remarkably consistent across eight cycles of
course offerings.

Satisfaction overall with the program |... -

Agree, program enriched spiritual life (of the F-
teacher)

Agree, online effective method of presentation

0 10 20 3 40 50 6 70 8 9 100
Percentile

The next graph reflects the evaluation of colloquy candidates
by theology and education professors from the faculties of the Con-