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Deborah Eldridge

Deb Eldridge

Director of Academic Engagement | Western Governors University

Salt Lake City, Utah, United States

Dr. Deborah Eldridge serves as Director of Academic Engagement for Western Governors University.

Areas of Expertise: 

Teacher Evaluation, Early Literacy, Teacher Education, Accreditation, Curriculum Design, Higher Education, Teaching, Multilingual Education, and Alternative Routes to Licensure

Education: 

Boston University: Ed.D., Language Literacy and Cultural Studies  1993

The University of Texas at Austin: M.A., Bilingual and Multilingual Education  1978

Social:  LinkedIn


Media.

Video.

Photos.

Biography.

Dr. Deborah Eldridge serves as Director of Academic Engagement of Western Governors University. Prior to that, Deb served as Dean and Academic Vice President of WGU’s Teachers College. Deb leads teams that are dedicated to academic outreach, grant-making, publication and presentations in collaboration with faculty and leaders.

Before coming to WGU, Deb was a Senior Vice President at the Council for the Accreditation of Educator Preparation (CAEP), the governing body that formed from the merger of the National Council for the Accreditation of Teacher Education (NCATE) and the Teacher Education Accreditation Council (TEAC). While serving in that role, she drafted the preliminary policies and procedures of CAEP and provided overall administration for all accreditation operations.

Prior to her work at CAEP, Deb was engaged in teacher preparation as a professor of literacy education, department chair of Curriculum and Instruction at Hunter College and Montclair State University, an Associate Dean responsible for accreditation at Hunter College, and then Dean of Education at Lehman College of the City University of New York. She was the primary author of two Teacher Quality Partnership grants/awards from the United States Department of Education: one for Lehman College and one for the American Museum of Natural History. Deb is a nationally recognized presenter on accreditation and is the author of numerous books and articles on teacher preparation and accreditation.

Accomplishments

Teacher Quality Partnership
United States Department of Education

Affiliations

  • Association for Advancing Quality in Educator Preparation: Member
  • American Association of Colleges of Teacher Education: Member
  • The Consortium of State Organizations for Texas Teacher Education: Member
  • National Association of State Directors of Teacher Education and Certification: Member
  • American Association of College Teacher Education, edTPA Policy Advisory Council
  • International Accreditation Council for Educator Preparation Programs
  • International Council on Education for Teaching, Vice President, North America

Selected media appearances and articles.

‘Basically I’m their teacher’: Washington has big plans for its 25,500 school paraeducators

The Seattle Times,  2019-07-28

In 2017, state lawmakers pledged to fully fund a mandatory, four-day training course for all paraeducators. But budget negotiations during this year’s legislative session provided only enough money to pay for half.

There’s also growing recognition that it’s not just paraeducators who need better training, and that the teachers that paraeducators are supposed to support could benefit from learning exactly how to work with the extra adult in their classrooms.

WGU Offers $50,000 in Scholarships to Strengthen Utah's Teacher Pipeline

WGU, 2019-03-25

“We are so proud to be able to give back to our local community in one of the most profound ways we can: educating our state’s educators,” said Dr. Deb Eldridge, Academic Vice President of WGU’s Teachers College. “Providing a high-quality, flexible path to a teaching degree at a cost Utah’s teachers can afford is what we do best, and this scholarship will allow us to serve even more Utahns.”

New Gallup Study Finds Student Satisfaction is Above Average at WGU

eLearning Inside,  2018-04-22

Western Governors University (WGU), an online competency-based institution, continues to make inroads in higher education. A new Gallup study suggests that WGU is also doing an outstanding job meeting its students’ needs and preparing its students for rewarding careers.