TEAC News Archive
NCATE and TEAC Boards Approve Resolution Moving toward a Unified Accrediting System
June 25th, 2009Both the NCATE Governing Board and the TEAC Board have approved an identical resolution that authorizes the president of each organization to work with other members of the NCATE/TEAC Design Team to create an organization that will serve as the entity for offering the nation a unified accrediting system in educator preparation affording a choice of comparable pathways for accreditation. The NCATE and TEAC boards approved the resolution on May 15, 2009, and June 21, 2009, respectively. The resolution established specific tasks for the joint design team to undertake during the coming year, including progress reports to the governing bodies of both organizations on a regular basis, with action to be considered individually or collaboratively in the 2009-2010 board meetings.
Comment by Jim Cibulka, President, NCATE: “I could not be more pleased that my colleague Frank Murray and I have been authorized by our governing boards to move forward on this important joint project. In a unified system we can better achieve our shared goals while still maintaining institutional choice among alternative processes. As NCATE’s recent redesign makes clear, both NCATE and TEAC strive to be models for institutions as learning organizations that continuously seek to improve. I look forward to the continued opportunity to work with Frank and the NCATE/TEAC Design Team to create a new, stronger accrediting system that represents the unified voice of our profession.”
Comment by Frank Murray, President, TEAC: “One of the happy outcomes of the joint NCATE/TEAC Design Team’s work so far this year has been the collegial and congenial manner in which the representatives of each organization have undertaken the study of the complex issues involved in the creation of a system of national teacher education accreditation that is unified in its goals and voice while offering the nation’s schools of education a genuine choice between the evolving NCATE and TEAC systems of accreditation. Like Jim Cibulka, I am eager to play a role with my NCATE and TEAC colleagues to make teacher education accreditation an indispensable partner in the much needed renewal and enhancement of schooling in the United States.”
NCATE’s Redesign in Line with TEAC’s Founding Principles
June 25th, 2009One of the benefits of the increased collaboration between TEAC and NCATE is what each has learned from the other. The changes NCATE is proposing are very much in line with TEAC’s principles and so we think the two pilot projects NCATE is undertaking for reaccreditation will be of great benefit to NCATE’s members and to the field at large. We are eager to see how the field responds to NCATE’s ambitious plans because they fit so well with TEAC’s approach. We have nothing but applause for this effort.
Those who are familiar with TEAC’s system will appreciate how the proposed NCATE “transformative initiative” resembles the requirements in TEAC’s quality principles that programs undertake inquiry into the factors that influence and enhance student success in the teacher education program. They will also see that the proposed NCATE “continuous improvement” reaccreditation option in which NCATE schools will be required to reach “target level,” a level beyond the “acceptable” level now required for initial accreditation, is also in line with TEAC’s quality principles. Many of the NCATE targets, for example, are claims TEAC’s accredited programs have made and supported with evidence.
Jim Cibulka, NCATE’s president, met with the TEAC Board at its June 21-23 meeting in Phoenix, Arizona, and explained the NCATE proposed redesign of reaccreditation options. The Board members were pleased to note how well NCATE’s initiative both aligned with TEAC’s principles and also preserved some key founding differences between our two approaches to teacher education accreditation.