TEAC received notice on May 3, 2012, that the Council for Higher Education Accreditation (CHEA) Board of Directors, acting upon the recommendation of CHEA’s Committee on Recognition, has renewed its recognition of TEAC formally for a ten-year term. The Board also recognized a wider scope of work — degree programs at baccalaureate, masters, and doctoral levels that prepare educators, in traditional and distance formats, internationally as well as within the US.

Three sessions — #6, Linking Assessment to Claims; #10, The Accreditation Panel and Accreditation Committee; and #11, Maintaining Accreditation (the Annual Report) — were supported with material from the Guide to Accreditation (available in the Literature section of the TEAC website).

The authors, each distinguished as a leader in higher education and quality assurance, were invited to identify an important trend or shaping factor in quality assurance, quality control, or measurement; to speculate on the mid-term consequences; and to suggest one or two concrete policy or programmatic actions that could be implemented now. The resulting essays are insightful and provocative and, collectively, challenge readers to understand better the political and social context of quality assurance in higher education and to influence its future.

 Click here for additional information.

Download a copy of Inquiry, Evidence, and Excellence: The promise and practice of quality assurance 

 WASHINGTON–In order to help ensure that every classroom in the nation has an effective teacher, a high profile Commission on Standards and Performance Reporting will develop rigorous accreditation standards for educator preparation that will raise the bar for preparation providers, the Council for the Accreditation of Educator Preparation (CAEP) announced today. CAEP is the new accrediting body being formed through the unification of two organizations charged with assuring quality in educator preparation—the National Council for the Accreditation of Teacher Education (NCATE) and the Teacher Education Accreditation Council (TEAC).

The Commission will ensure increased accountability through a focus on outcome data and key program characteristic data. CAEP has pledged to use multiple measures in its evaluation system, including new sources of data from state longitudinal databases. CAEP standards will also give increased attention to recruiting and admissions to help ensure a supply of candidates who are motivated to enter the teaching workforce, have characteristics associated with teaching success, and who are prepared in areas in which they are needed. CAEP will expect accredited preparation providers to take bold steps to recruit, prepare, and help develop effective teachers who can contribute their expertise to improving student performance in all schools.

“To attain or to continue professional accreditation, preparation providers will need to indicate evidence of effectiveness through data on candidate performance, and show how they are using the data for program improvement,” said James G. Cibulka, president of NCATE and CAEP.

 “The new standards and accrediting body will provide much needed leverage to move preparation forward toward new, more effective models that respond to the urgent needs of P-12 schools,” said Dr. Gene Harris, Superintendent and CEO of Columbus, Ohio, Public Schools, who will serve as a co-chair of the commission.

“New knowledge and more robust assessments of candidate and graduate performance are now available to preparation providers to ensure that the most effective teaching practices are everyday practice when graduates leave our programs,” said Dr. Camilla Benbow, Patricia and Rodes Hart Dean of Education and Human Development, Vanderbilt University, co-chair. “We anticipate that the combination of more rigorous requirements, performance assessments, and the availability of new data to increase transparency and drive changes in provider programs will generate the most significant change in educator preparation in its history.”

The Commission includes prominent critics of teacher education, as well as deans of schools of education; content experts in mathematics and reading; P-12 teacher, principal, and school superintendent leadership; alternative provider/charter leadership; state policymakers; representatives of education policy/advocacy organizations; and public members.

The Commission is taking the recommendations of a Blue Ribbon Panel on Clinical Preparation and Partnerships for Improved Student Learning to the next level. The Panel’s report, released a year ago, said it was time to “turn teacher education upside-down.” That Panel urged increased oversight and expectations for educator preparation and the expansion of new delivery models in which  teacher candidates work more directly in clinically-based settings from the beginning of their preparation as in medical education. The panel also called for preparation programs to operate in new types of partnerships between higher education and P-12 schools in which both systems share responsibility for preparation.

Strong Accountability Tied to New Data Systems, Assessments

The development of longitudinal data systems and of a new generation of performance assessments will dramatically improve the quantity and quality of evidence of student and teacher performance, allowing programs to study the impact of graduates on student outcomes within the accreditation process. New, more robust assessments, such as the TPA (Teacher Performance Assessment) being pilot tested in more than 25 states, and tools such as observational protocols and student feedback, will help identify effective teaching practices. Information from these assessments will inform preparation programs and will provide new data points previously unavailable.

“We are on the cusp of a revolution in educator preparation’s access to and use of data for program accountability and improvement,” according to Cibulka. “We will soon have access to richer sources of data than ever before, and CAEP and accredited preparation providers will use this data in the quality assurance system.”

CAEP will work with both states and individual institutions to help build their capacity to collect, analyze, and act on this data. By helping preparation programs learn how to use such data for internal improvement, CAEP can both address the need for accountability and help institutions improve. The development of the evidentiary base that CAEP will promote will help further define successful practice and foster transformation of educator preparation programs so that graduates can help improve all dimensions of P-12 student learning.

Through the development of the new standards and accompanying processes, CAEP’s quality assurance system will be characterized by the accreditor’s dual mission of accountability and improvement. CAEP’s decision-making will be transparent and will clearly recognize the qualities that matter in programs.

CAEP believes that all educator preparation providers should be subject to the same high standards of quality. To make this possible, one of the tasks of the Commission is to ensure accreditation standards are appropriate for all preparation providers. In the past, accreditation standards have been geared specifically to higher education institutions.

“To ensure the quality of teacher education the nation needs, accreditation must be bold and go beyond do no-harm measures to ensure excellence, said Arthur Levine, president, Woodrow Wilson National Fellowship Foundation, a CAEP board member, and a member of the standards commission.  “Satisfactory performance just isn’t satisfactory anymore. If we do our work properly, preparation providers will demonstrate that they meet higher standards; our expectation is that they will be able to demonstrate their impact through evidence of candidate and graduate performance.”

Support in helping to underwrite the costs of the Commission is provided by Tk20, Inc., Pearson, and Educational Testing Service (ETS). Tk20, Inc. and ETS are providing support for Commission meetings, and Pearson is providing support for outreach.

For more information, see CAEP Updates at www.ncate.org or http://www.ncate.org/Public/Newsroom/CAEPUpdates/tabid/788/Default.aspx. You can also visit www.caepsite.org and http://www.teac.org/news-events/caep/.

The Council for the Accreditation of Educator Preparation, to become operational in 2013, will accredit over 900 teacher education institutions across the nation, producing approximately 175,000 graduates annually.      

Supporters:

Tk20, Inc. www.tk20.inc

Educational Testing Service: www.ets.org

Pearson: www.pearson.com

What can educator preparation providers expect from CAEP in 2012?

Accreditation Paths

The three accreditation paths currently offered will continue under CAEP: Continuous Improvement, Inquiry Brief, and Transformation Initiative.

• These three paths are all characterized by a commitment to continuous improvement and transformation.
• The Continuous Improvement and Inquiry Brief paths continue to function as they have, guided by existing frameworks and supported by the same staff teams throughout the transition.
• Transformation Initiatives are major R&D undertakings and can be conducted by one provider or a group of providers. The Transformation Initiative path is now in pilot mode through 2015, and we encourage preparation providers to consider it. A Committee on Transformation Initiatives has been named to help develop policies pertaining to this accreditation path and vet preparation provider proposals.

 How will CAEP build on the strengths of NCATE and TEAC?

• CAEP is characterized by a continuous improvement focus, which both NCATE and TEAC have emphasized in the past.
• CAEP will continue the expectation for preparation providers to collect and analyze data, and to use that data for program improvement.
• CAEP will continue a two-step accreditation process in order to provide feedback to preparation providers prior to the on-site visit. The CAEP pre-visit feedback process will combine features of NCATE’s off-site review with features of TEAC’s formative evaluation process.

What will be new in CAEP?

• CAEP will feature a streamlined seven year accreditation visit with more targeted annual reporting of key outcome data and substantive changes, which provides constituencies with more pertinent information.
• NCATE and TEAC already expect programs to collect data on candidate performance continuously, and CAEP is committed to supporting continued improvement in data quality and increasingly effective use of data by all programs.
• CAEP will feature new decision rules for accreditation decision-making. This will help ensure increased consistency and accuracy in decision-making.
• CAEP will feature a list of recommended evidence sources, which is being updated and refined now.
• CAEP will feature a new Program Review with Feedback option, providing three options for states to select from as paths for program review.

What is the status of the transition to CAEP?

NCATE and TEAC are already in the process of transferring non-accreditation functions to CAEP and expect to complete these tasks no later than December, 2012. Because the U.S. Department of Education requires CAEP to perform a small number of accreditation decisions before it recognizes the new accrediting body, the transfer of accreditation functions will take place during 2013. However, those institutions with visits planned through 2014 will continue under current guidelines appropriate to the pathway selected.

 What is the status of CHEA recognition?

NCATE and TEAC are pursuing CHEA recognition of CAEP as soon as possible. In the interim, NCATE and TEAC each currently have applications pending for re-recognition under CHEA. NCATE and TEAC will retain CHEA recognition status as we proceed with recognition of CAEP. Given that CAEP is a new organization, Jim Cibulka and Mark LaCelle-Peterson are consulting with CHEA to determine how CAEP recognition can be expedited. CHEA will work with us to determine the most time-efficient approach to CAEP recognition.

Standards

What new set of standards is CAEP developing, and how has the development process been working?

Initial Standards Now

CAEP has initial standards right now which were generated by the NCATE and TEAC joint design team two years ago and encompass current NCATE and TEAC standards.

New Standards

A Commission on Standards and Performance Reporting was announced at the AACTE Annual Meeting in Chicago. A release to the press is forthcoming.

The Commission will be composed of distinguished leaders from all sectors of the field with broad experience and deep expertise.

The Commission’s agenda for the standards will be ambitious and will necessarily include reports and events which have transpired in the two years since the initial CAEP standards were completed. Some of the major reports, events, and policy context impacting the development of the new accreditation standards include

• Common Core Standards;
• InTASC standards;
• the report of the Blue Ribbon Panel on Clinical Preparation and Partnerships for Improved Student Learning, Transforming Teacher Education through Clinical Practice: A National Strategy to Prepare Effective Teachers (2010);
• National Research Council report, Preparing Teachers: Building Evidence for Sound Policy (2010), which highlights the following three areas within preparation for intense focus: content, clinical experiences, and quality of candidates;
• the increasing diversity of learners in 21^st century schools and the need to differentiate instruction;
• the need to increase P-12 student achievement in all schools, especially student achievement in high needs schools;
• TNE Learning Network’s research agenda and focus on clinical preparation;
• the McKinsey study on academic qualifications of teacher candidates in America versus other developed nations; other studies on recruiting/admissions in educator preparation; and
• the increasing number of pathways to teacher licensure.

The Commission’s work should take approximately one year. The draft standards will be made available for public comment and a final version is expected to be adopted by the CAEP Board during 2013.

Vision for the Future for CAEP and for Educator Preparation Providers

What is the vision for CAEP five years from now?

• CAEP will increase the use of key outcome data for accreditation decision making—which states are increasingly placing online and providers have access to—for example, new and better performance measures.
• CAEP will be discussing initial results of expanded research into how the components of preparation programs contribute to candidate and graduate effectiveness, and preparation providers would make changes to preparation programs accordingly.
• A national conversation on performance measures would have taken place, with the field embracing common definitions for program components—i.e., clinical experience, etc.–so that benchmarking against other like providers can occur.
  • (That point is somewhat speculative because we are not clear how much performance data will have been made available, but these are our optimistic assumptions!)
  • All states have partnerships with CAEP to increase the rigor of preparation, and increase the efficiency (state use of market data and placement data) and effectiveness of programs.

To date, TEAC has accredited 134 programs in 104 institutions of higher education in 25 states.

To date, TEAC has accredited 132 programs in 104 institutions of higher education in 25 states. TEAC has 222 members, 93 candidate IHEs, 10 affiliate IHEs, and 15 affiliate groups.