About Associate Dean Connie Fox

Dr. Connie Fox, Professor in the Department of Kinesiology and Physical Education, has served as Associate Dean in the College of Education since 2009.

In her role as Associate Dean, Dr. Fox is primarily responsible for curriculum leadership from course and program development to clinical experiences and outcomes. More specifically, this includes academic planning and curriculum review, coordination of internal and external program reviews, initial and advanced program certification, assessment and accreditation activities, and student services. The Associate Dean supervises professional staff in the Office of Student Services, Office of Assessment, and the Partnership Office. 
In her role as Associate Dean, Dr. Fox champions the College Diversity Plan. This plan represents the vision of social justice in all programs and for all teacher candidates. This vision includes establishing a curricular review process insuring that all candidates are able to use culturally responsive pedagogy and use universal design principles to improve learning for all. Fox has been responsible for each semester’s Planning Week activities around social justice, selecting key speakers and activities for professional develop of faculty and staff.

This year, the College Curriculum Committee is looking at extensive program revision to include course revisions to meet the new Illinois Professional Teacher Standards. Dr. Fox has been working with faculty to complete curriculum mapping for all courses to align with the new standards, align new assessments to the standards, and to plan for the Teacher Performance Assessment. These changes must be implemented in the coming months, and require extensive faculty development in addition to the curriculum revisions.

Expanding her faculty role on the College Council, Fox serves as the Dean’s representative to the Council. The Council is the primary faculty governance point for tenure, promotion, sabbatical and other key personnel decisions in the College. This year, the Council is working on revisions to the personnel process to streamline the merit system and align it to tenure and promotion more closely.

Dr. Fox has worked with the College of Education Office of Student Services (formerly Advising and Student Services), as they have undergone reorganization to include coordinators for recruitment, retention, student success and advising. This “one-stop” shop includes four graduate assistants who are in the Adult and Higher Education Student Services program, and are critical to the on-going success of undergraduate students in the College. This office is also responsible for oversight of the “Skills for Undergraduate Success”, a new course designed to introduce all Education majors to the concepts of social justice education and multi-cultural perspectives. These themes are then woven into course in each student’s academic major and skills are implemented in clinical and student teaching experiences.

Assessment activities are under the purview of the Associate Dean also. Dr. Fox reads drafts, provide feedback, makes suggested changes and reviews all assessment reports. This year, the Special Education, Early Childhood, Elementary Education, Literacy, and Curriculum and Instruction programs, from bachelor to doctorate, are under review from the Board of Higher Education. Reviews have been forwarded to the Academic Planning Council and results will be available in November. Routine NCATE and SPA reports are due in September and will be forwarded to the Illinois State Board of Education this year for their approval. Yearly annual program updates have been submitted to the Provost’s Office, and it is anticipated that the four programs who earned “Excellence” reviews last year will be joined by several more this year.

The Office of Partnerships is in the process of developing Professional Development Schools in 3 districts. Plans are underway for NIU courses to be taught in these schools, and for year-long clinical/student teaching to begin this fall. NIU is proud of our 34 partnership schools and districts who provide over 300 placements each semester for the College of Education.

Since joining the NIU faculty in 1984, Dr. Fox has built an impressive record of service to her department, to the university and to her field. In addition to her teaching duties, she served as Director of Teacher Education in Physical Education and Coordinator of Clinical experiences for her department. In the College, she has served on the College Council - with three terms as chair - as well as on the College Curriculum Committee. She has also been a member of the Physical Education Curriculum and Personnel Committees. At the University level, Dr. Fox has served on the Committee on Undergraduate Curriculum, the Undergraduate Coordinating Council, the Assessment Panel and the Academic Planning Council.

She was the first president of the American Association for Physical Activity and Recreation and has held leadership positions in a number of other professional organizations, including the American Alliance for Health, Physical Education, Recreation and Dance (AAHPERD); Midwest Association for College and University Physical Education; the Midwest District of AAHPERD; and the Illinois Association of Health, Physical Education, Recreation and Dance.

Dr. Fox has also represented the university and her field as a member of several committees for the Illinois State Board of Education, serving as Chair for both the Performance Standards Committee and the Assessment Advisory Committee in Health and Physical Development. She has an active research and scholarship agenda related to motor skill development, measurement and assessment in physical education, and performance standards.

Dr. Fox has received a number of honors and awards, including the Honor Award from the American Association for Physical Activity and Recreation, the Young Scholar Award from the Midwest Association for College and University Physical Education, the Scholar Lecture Award from the Midwest District AAHPERD MACUPE, and the Service Award from the Illinois Association of Health, Physical Education, Recreation and Dance. At NIU, she has received the College of Education Excellence in Teaching Award.

Working with a team of practitioners, Dr. Fox has developed Performance Indicators and Assessments of all 6 National Association for Sport and Physical Education (NASPE) Standards for Learning in Physical Education. The culmination of this assessment project was the publication of 2 books of nationally validated assessments (PEMetrics), and a monograph for the Measurement in Physical Education and Exercise Science illustrating the technical validity of the project. A web-based score reporting system and a web-TV site for training teachers to use the assessment system makes this project one of the most technically advanced in the world.

Dr. Fox received her bachelor’s degree in physical education from Wake Forest University, her master’s degree in physical education from Eastern Kentucky University, and her doctorate in physical education with emphases in curriculum, measurement, and educational administration from the University of Georgia.