“NCATE: Is “Lowering the Standards the Way to Go?”

Abstract

While NCATE asserts that its major purpose is the identification and accreditation of high quality teacher education programs, support for NCATE among teacher educators is limited. In this article, NCATE's intent of accrediting only high quality programming is argued to be overly grandiose. Instead, NCATE should focus on identifying weak programs. Conceptual and practical arguments are presented in support of this minimalist mission for NCATE. Consensus (the basis for standard setting) is much more compatible with a minimalist approach to accreditation than with an approach aimed at a particular conception of high quality. In addition, the protection of the public's interest in teaching and teacher education is more appropriately viewed as protection from incompetence than as a guarantee of high quality. In a more practical sense, NCATE already operates in a minimalist way in that few programs are denied accreditation, and those teacher educators seeking fundamental programmatic reform typically are neither motivated nor guided by NCATE standards. Suggestions are given for moving NCATE toward a more minimalist mission.