By Arthur E. Wise
10/26/04 — This year is the 50th anniversary of the National Council for Accreditation of Teacher Education (NCATE) as the teaching profession’s accrediting body for teacher preparation.
NCATE was founded in 1954 as a non-profit, non-governmental accrediting agency by NSBA and four other organizations: the American Association of Colleges for Teacher Education, the Council of Chief State School Officers, the National Association of State Directors of Teacher Education and Certification, and the National Education Association.
These organizations represented the education field in 1954. Through the next half century, the various teaching disciplines grew as separate organizations. Associations of those teaching professionals, one by one, joined NCATE to help ensure quality in the preparation of teachers for our nation’s schools.
NCATE now is sustained by 34 member organizations representing the entire education profession and millions of Americans that have come together to strengthen teacher preparation.
Four policy boards, composed of representatives of the 34 member associations, set NCATE’s direction through development of standards and accreditation policies. The NSBA president, George H. McShan, a member of the Harlingen, Texas, school board, sits on NCATE’s Executive Board which sets NCATE policy.
NCATE accredits 575 institutions, which produce two-thirds of the nation’s new teacher graduates. One hundred more institutions are candidates for accreditation. These institutions use NCATE’s standards to help ensure quality in all programs that prepare educators to work in schools from preschool through high school.
There are many questions about the quality of teacher preparation programs: Do the teachers know the subject matter and how to teach it effectively? Can the teachers reach a diverse group of preK-12 students at different points developmentally? Can teachers establish a positive classroom climate? All of these questions can be addressed by asking only one question: Is the college of education accredited by NCATE?
Almost all of the 575 NCATE-accredited institutions offer high-quality post-baccalaureate programs geared to adults, and more than 130 of them offer programs specifically geared to ease financial barriers to teaching. In these programs, teacher candidates work in classrooms as teachers of record, interns, substitutes, and aides while enrolled in the program after initial coursework.
NCATE, the states, Puerto Rico, and the District of Columbia work together in tandem through 48 state/NCATE partnerships to increase the rigor of teacher preparation and streamline the process. Through the partnerships, institutions can accomplish professional accreditation and state approval simultaneously.
NCATE has 480 trained evaluators on its Board of Examiners who apply NCATE’s standards during on-site visits to institutions. Three members of NSBA’s Board of Directors have received the training and are carrying out on-site evaluations: William Meek of Bucyrus, Kan., Anthony Wong of Elkton, Md., and NSBA President-Elect Joan Schmidt of Fairfield, Mont.
More than 600 program reviewers contribute to the quality assurance process by reviewing individual programs in their specialty areas and granting national recognition to those that meet the standards in the various disciplines. These reviewers are members of 20 different specialty professional associations — from mathematics to physical education, from science to English-as-a-second language.
NCATE is an integral part of a continuum of quality assurance in teacher preparation and development. Three quality assurance mechanisms are at work during the three phases of preparation and development: professional accreditation, state licensing, and advanced certification.
NCATE has worked hard over the past decade and a-half to align accreditation, licensing, and advanced certification standards, and to ensure that licensing assessments are aligned with the profession’s standards.
In addition to the 575 institutions already accredited by NCATE, more than 100 others are candidates or precandidates for accreditation. The number of candidates has nearly tripled in the past five years.
High-quality teacher preparation is increasingly being equated with NCATE accreditation. For the past four years, U.S. News and World Report has identified colleges of education that are NCATE accredited in its widely read publication Best Graduate Schools.
Newsweek magazine also provides editorial space for NCATE in its “Teacher Training Showcase,” and Kaplan contains information on NCATE accreditation in its college guides.
This type of public recognition of the importance of professional accreditation in teacher preparation has only occurred because of the hard work of those involved in building the structure and stature of NCATE over the past two decades — including NSBA leaders.
As we move into the 21st century, let’s continue to work together to build an even stronger teaching force. We are thankful that NSBA had the foresight 50 years ago to begin to build a strong quality assurance arm for the teaching profession.
We can all work together to ensure that the hard work institutions do to garner accreditation status is recognized by the public as a mark of distinction and quality. Ensuring that the NCATE brand is visible helps distinguish professionally accredited NCATE institutions from others that do not participate in this quality assurance process.
I would encourage local school board members to include graduation from an NCATE-accredited institution as a criterion for teacher selection.
Arthur E. Wise is president of the National Council for Accreditation of Teacher Education in Washington, D.C.