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THE
STATE EDUCATION DEPARTMENT /
THE UNIVERSITY OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK / ALBANY, NY
12234 |
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TO: |
Committee on Higher Education and Professional Practice |
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FROM: |
Johanna Duncan-Poitier |
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SUBJECT: |
Teacher Education Accreditation
Requirement |
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DATE: |
August 23, 2005 |
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STRATEGIC
GOAL: |
Goal
3 |
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AUTHORIZATION(S): |
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SUMMARY
Issue for
Discussion
Should the Board of Regents provide a process by which quality teacher education programs may continue their offerings if they do not meet the December 31, 2006, accreditation deadline?
Reason(s) for Consideration
Review of
Policy.
Proposed
Handling
The
issue will come before the Higher Education and Professional Practice Committee
for discussion at its September 2005 meeting.
Procedural
History
The Board
of Regents adopted a new teaching policy, "New York’s Commitment: Teaching to
Higher Standards," in 1998. As a
result of that policy, in 1999 the Board adopted section 52.21(b)(2)(iv)(c)(1)
of the Commissioner’s Regulations, which requires New York State teacher
education programs to become accredited by an acceptable accrediting
organization by December 31, 2006.
Background
Information
New York's 114 teacher education programs must be accredited by one of the following organizations: the National Council for Accreditation of Teacher Education (NCATE), the Teacher Education Accreditation Council (TEAC), or the Regents (Regents Accreditation of Teacher Education—RATE). To date, forty-seven accreditation actions have been completed and the remaining sixty-seven institutions have either had an accreditation visit and are awaiting the decision or are scheduled for a visit through the fall semester of 2006. Six of these institutions have accreditation visits scheduled for late fall 2006. These institutions will likely not receive an accreditation decision until after the December 31, 2006 deadline.
Two
institutions that chose accreditation by NCATE are now addressing the conditions
that resulted in
Recommendation
The Regents support the modification of the conditions and process in Regulations so that teacher education programs may continue their progress toward accreditation after December 2006. The process should be consistent with Regents teaching policy and apply only to quality programs with a focus on limiting any negative impact on students enrolled in those programs.
For example, Regulations could be amended to allow institutions that are awaiting an accreditor’s decision to continue their teacher education programs after December 31, 2006, pending that decision.
For programs
that are addressing issues raised by accreditors, the Department could provide
an opportunity to make necessary changes through a planned improvement
process. The Department, for
example, could offer a corrective action process modeled on that used with
programs that do not meet the standard requiring an 80 percent pass rate on
teacher certification examinations.
Programs would prepare a three-year corrective action plan to detail how
they will address the issues raised by the accreditor. The plan would include timeframes for
implementing each improvement and for a second site visit within the three
years. If the Department accepts
the plan, the institution could continue to offer and accept candidates into its
teacher education programs.
Timetable for
Implementation
With the
Committee’s concurrence, draft regulations will be prepared for discussion by
the Committee in January 2006, and action in February 2006.