School of Education Receives Professional Accreditation

Jackson, TN--Studies show that teacher quality is the most important factor in P-12 student achievement. But how do we know that our children's teachers enter the classroom ready to help them learn? Professional accreditation is one way to ensure the public that schools of education are graduating well-qualified teachers ready for today's classrooms. Union University's School of Education and Human Studies has proven its commitment to producing quality teachers for our nations' children by achieving accreditation this month under the performance-oriented standards of the National Council for Accreditation of Teacher Education (NCATE), the organization responsible for professional accreditation of teacher education.

Union University is one of 46 schools of education that received either initial or continuing accreditation by NCATE's Unit Accreditation Board in it most recent round of decisions. NCATE accredits 516 institutions. Those institutions produce two-thirds of the nations' new teacher graduates.

NCATE-accredited schools must meet rigorous standards set by the profession and member of the public. NCATE standards expect accredited schools of education to ensure that subject matter content, and how to teach it, is a priority; to emphasize school district collaboration; to ensure that candidates can use technology in instruction; and to prepare teacher candidates to teach students from diverse backgrounds. The standards also require the school of education to design a conceptual framework for each program that is based on current and established research and best practice.

The redesigned 1995 accreditation standards emphasize teacher performance. They focus on what teacher candidates should know and be able to do, and expect candidates to demonstrate specific skills. Multiple types of performance assessment are expected throughout the program of study, and candidate competence is assessed prior to the completion of the program. NCATE will soon be implementing even more rigorous performance-based standards for teacher preparation institutions with its "NCATE 2000" plan.