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Educating Preservice Teachers: The State of Affairs

National Council for Accreditation of Teacher Education (NCATE)

The National Council for Accreditation of Teacher Education (NCATE) is a specialty organization that consists of 33 professional associations of teachers, teacher educators, content specialists, and local and state policymakers. NCATE has established a standards-based accreditation system that begins with preservice preparation and continues with teacher licensure and advanced professional development. These standards require institutions to "articulate the research base upon which their programs were developed" (NCATE, 2001a).

Even though NCATE accreditation is a rigorous process, it often is recommended as a way to reform the teacher education system. The National Commission on Teaching and America's Future (1996) proposes that all universities and colleges be required to obtain accreditation. In addition, the Educational Testing Service states that "proponents [e.g., Wise & Leibbrand, 1996)] have asserted that NCATE has led the way in changing teacher preparation to match more rigorous licensing and master teacher certification requirements and in encouraging links between student and teacher standards" (Gitomer, Lathman, & Ziomek, 1999, p. 8). This same study suggests that students attending NCATE-accredited institutions have higher passing rates on the Praxis test than those attending other institutions.

In the last decade, NCATE has moved from an evaluation system oriented to the curriculum, to a system oriented to candidate performance. In the next three years, the following new performance-based accreditation standards will be in place:

• Candidate knowledge, skills, and dispositions
• Assessment system and unit evaluation
• Field experiences and clinical practice
• Diversity
• Faculty qualifications, performance, and development

These accreditation standards help to align NCATE with standards and licensing assessments of the National Board for Professional Teaching Standards. They also integrate technology into the accreditation system. They have been test-piloted with 30 institutions (NCATE, 2001b), and NCATE is in the process of producing implementation guides.

As of October 2001, 517 institutions were accredited (NCATE, 2001a), and another 83 were candidates or precandidates for accreditation. Of these 517 institutions, 118 are in NCREL's seven-state region. (See Table 1.)

Table 1. Teacher Education Programs in the NCREL Region

State	Number of Approved Teacher-Education Programs	Number of NCATE- Accredited Institutions	Percentage of NCATE-Accredited Institutions
Illinois	57	18	32 %
Indiana	37	33	89 %
Iowa	32	5	16 %
Michigan	31	15	48 %
Minnesota	26	17	66 %
Ohio	50	19	38 %
Wisconsin	33	11	33 %

Given the number of colleges and universities with approved teacher-education programs in NCREL's region, the figures are relatively small. Only two of seven states—Indiana and Minnesota—have more than 50 percent of NCATE-accredited colleges and universities.

During the accreditation process, NCATE examines many subject areas. This paper focuses only on standards for the following:

• Elementary English language arts
• Middle and high school English language arts
• Reading specialists, reading coordinators, and teacher educators

The professional organizations that comprise NCATE help by providing grade-level and content-based standards and reviewing programs for such content. Because multiple organizations are involved in the NCATE review process, each organization has developed its own criteria. For example, the Association for Childhood Education International (ACEI) has developed program standards for elementary teacher education. The curriculum standard for English language arts states:

"Candidates demonstrate a high level of competence in use of English language arts and they know, understand, and use concepts from reading, language and child development, to teach reading, writing, speaking, viewing, listening, and thinking skills and to help students successfully apply their developing skills to many different situations, materials, and ideas." (NCATE, 2000)

For middle and high school English language arts, NCATE partnered with the National Council of Teachers of English (NCTE), which developed Initial Programs for Middle/Junior High and Senior High School English Language Arts Teaching. The framework consists of the following five standards. (For additional information, refer to the Standards and Matrix (Adobe^® Reader^® PDF)from Initial Programs for Middle/Junior High and Senior High School English Language Arts Teaching.)

• Structure of the Basic Program
• Attitudes for English Language Arts
• Knowledge of English Language Arts
• Pedagogy for English Language Arts
• Field-Based Experiences in English Language Arts (NCTE, 1997)

NCATE also accredits programs for reading specialists, reading coordinators, and teacher educators in the area of reading. For these standards, NCATE partnered with the International Reading Association (IRA), which developed Standards for Reading Professionals. When being evaluated, each of the programs uses the same standards. The evaluator specifies on the form which program is represented and then rates it, using the following four levels of proficiency:

The 16 areas of literacy competencies for reading professionals were developed by the IRA to cover knowledge and beliefs about reading, instruction and assessment, and organizing and enhancing a reading program. (For additional information, refer to Standards for Reading Professionals.) (Adobe Reader PDF)

1. Theoretical Base
2. Knowledge Base
3. Individual Differences
4. Reading Difficulties
5. Creating a Literate Environment
6. Word Identification, Vocabulary, and Spelling
7. Comprehension
8. Study Strategies
9. Writing
10. Assessment
11. Communicating Information About Reading
12. Curriculum Development
13. Professional Development
14. Research
15. Supervision of Paraprofessionals
16. Professionalism (IRA, 1998, pp. 9-22)

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