Campus Connections: Teacher Quality

Ask the Expert

The National Council for the Accreditation of Teacher Education (NCATE) works to improve how America prepares its teachers by accrediting colleges and universities that meet national standards. Nearly 600 education programs -- which prepare two-thirds of the nation’s teachers -- are accredited, including most state universities. As vice president for institutional relations, Boyce Williams works with universities and colleges pursuing NCATE accreditation. For more, visit www.ncate.org

Why is ncate now focusing on "performance-based" standards? What are they? Performance-based standards answer the questions asked by every parent with a child in a new teacher’s classroom: How does the new teacher know what she is teaching? And how will my child learn what she is teaching?

It’s not enough these days for new teachers to simply know academic subject material. They have to know how to teach it to children with different learning styles. They have to both know their material and show that they know what to do with it. We want to know whether new educators can actually cause children to learn. Multiple assessment measures -- such as videotaping lessons, evaluating portfolios and journals, and testing student knowledge -- all help candidates learn how to teach to a variety of learning styles.

Why is accreditation so important?

The answer comes down to one thing: accountability. Accreditation is the ultimate measure of quality in new teachers, like a professional seal of approval, because it assures the public across the board -- parents, business leaders, policy-makers -- that candidates coming out of a particular institution have been prepared to teach using rigorous national standards that have been designed by the profession.

There are some programs that aren’t accredited that adequately prepare new teachers, but research has found that accredited programs produce the best teachers. Hospitals don’t hire doctors unless they’ve graduated from accredited schools; someday the same might be said for teachers. By holding teacher preparation programs to high standards, we are assuring the public that they can be confident in new teachers.

How does accreditation help connect tomorrow’s teachers with today’s classrooms?

One of the largest components of our standards is the importance of field experience -- both for education professors and education students. We now expect faculty to be in local public schools working with teachers, and to be inviting them into their classrooms to help facilitate case studies. We expect education students to have multiple experiences in a variety of local schools.

Through accreditation, we are slowly changing the view that students learn best while sitting in a classroom. You can’t become a good teacher if this is how you are taught. For so long, the culture has valued this type of exchange, but since accreditation places such an emphasis on hands-on work, we’re helping change the culture. Field experiences are rewarded and valued, as they should be.

What is the accreditation process?

To gain NCATE accreditation, an institution must meet standards that are set by teachers and other educators through a process that involves all education stakeholders. We make sure several things are in place -- for example, that there are criteria to monitor and evaluate teacher candidates, that the institution is state accredited, that the program they are delivering is grounded in research, and that the school has a belief about the teachers they are preparing.