50 years and counting: Education college earns national accreditation
Released: December 21, 2004
The University of Wisconsin-Whitewater’s College of Education is celebrating its 50th anniversary of continuous accreditation from the National Council for Accreditation of Teacher Education (NCATE). UW-Whitewater is one of the original institutions that were first accredited when NCATE was founded in 1954.
According to Jeffrey Barnett, Dean of UW-Whitewater’s College of Education, NCATE is a national accreditation agency for colleges of education. It operates on a five-year cycle, which includes an on-site evaluation in the fifth year. Its members must subscribe to very high national standards that deal with the quality of faculty, quality of curriculum and quality of facilities.
This fall, the college was formally approved again by NCATE.
“When students enroll in an NCATE-accredited university they know they are going to get excellent faculty, a high-quality curriculum and excellent facilities,” Barnett said. “We passed all six of the required standards.”
Barnett says the College of Education’s strength can be traced to “a very good curriculum and an excellent assessment plan along with an extremely effective faculty.” Barnett also points to the UW-Whitewater’s excellent relationship with public schools. UW-Whitewater is one of the largest producers of teachers among 33 institutions in Wisconsin. More than 2,200 are currently enrolled in eight departments.
While the latest on-site evaluation continues to give UW-Whitewater’s College of Education high marks, according to Barnett, several areas of weakness were identified.
“We need to be more systematic in assessing dispositions (attitudes) to be a teacher,” Barnett said. “We believe we are currently assessing dispositions, but we are not doing it nearly as formally as we need to.”
Two other weaknesses identified include the need for more classroom work on course management and more feedback from UW-Whitewater alumni and their employers.
Among the most difficult standards to achieve are developing opportunities for students to work with diverse peers.
“We have a number of different minority groups on campus,” Barnett said. “But that does not guarantee any kind of integration of minority and non-minority groups. We must systematically find ways that all students in UW-Whitewater’s teacher-education have the opportunity to interact.”
Currently, all College of Education students must complete the observation and participation portion of their degree program in diverse school settings. The university currently uses 94 school districts to place students in field study and student teaching assignments. A new standard indicates that once students have been admitted to professional education, at least one of their student teaching field experiences must occur in a diverse setting.
Not all colleges of education are professionally accredited. NCATE now accredits 588 colleges of education with 100 more seeking NCATE accreditation. These institutions produce two-thirds of the nation’s new teacher graduates annually.
- Tom Pattison,pattisot@uww.edu
