Council For The Accreditation Of Educator Preparation Research Articles

Understanding the 2012 NSTA Science Standards for Teacher Preparation

The purpose of this article is to present the new National Science Teachers Association–Standards for Science Teacher Preparation (NSTA–SSTP). The Council for the Accreditation of Educator Preparation (CAEP) is the new national accreditation organization for programs of education. NSTA collaborates with CAEP to establish content specific standards for the evaluation of science education programs. Recently, NSTA has developed new science teacher education standards that reflect the research base associated with what a new science teacher should know. The standards were developed from national guidelines and the research literature on science education. The new NSTA–SSTP reflect the knowledge, skills, and dispositions that a newly certified teacher must know and be able to do. The paper concludes with a description of how to submit a report to CAEP and NSTA for accreditation of a secondary science education program.

Accreditation of Professional Preparation Programs for School Health Educators: The Changing Landscape.

The health education profession is committed to maintaining the highest standards of quality assurance, including accreditation of professional preparation programs in both school and community/public health education. Since 2001, the Society for Public Health Education (SOPHE) has increased attention to strengthening accreditation processes for preservice programs. This article focuses on the preparation of school health educators and the evolving philosophies and approaches concerning quality assurance, with particular attention to recent changes in teacher education and national professional accreditation entities. The unification of the National Council for Accreditation of Teacher Education (NCATE) and the Teacher Education Accreditation Council (TEAC) to form the Council for the Accreditation of Educator Preparation (CAEP) as the single voice for teacher accreditation presents an opportunity to create a model unified accreditation system. Such a system can improve and enhance the stature of the teaching profession, raise expectations and the performance standards for teacher education candidates, and strengthen the standards for the evidence used to support claims of quality. During this transition period from NCATE and TEAC to CAEP, a School Health Education Accreditation Working Group convened by SOPHE recommended to the SOPHE Board of Trustees that SOPHE urge health education professionals to monitor and provide input into the emerging standards and processes for school health educator program accreditation. The Working Group also recommended that both health education professionals and the stakeholder professional organizations advocate for strong quality assurance standards for school health educator professional preparation programs. The Working Group anticipates future changes in quality assurance processes and curricula to keep pace with new accreditation requirements and the results from the latest role delineation research for health education specialists.

Foreign Language Student Teaching: Do Supervisor Qualifications Really Matter?

AbstractAccording to national standards for foreign language (L2) teacher education programs established by the ACTFL and the Council for the Accreditation of Educator Preparation (CAEP), L2 student teachers must be supervised by university faculty who are qualified L2 educators. An exploratory study was conducted to better understand the impact of content‐specific pedagogical knowledge, L2 experience, and qualifications on the effectiveness of the university supervisor. Its purpose was to compare the beliefs of L2 teacher candidates and supervisors with and without L2 teaching qualifications to explore the extent to which these three groups share similar beliefs about effective L2 teaching. Results indicated that all participants demonstrated general pedagogical knowledge associated with good teaching practices. However, supervisors without L2 teacher training and experience were less familiar with theories of L2 acquisition, standards, and best practices than were their counterparts with L2 teaching qualifications. Lacking pedagogical content knowledge related to L2 teaching, the generalist supervisors were unable to provide appropriate feedback to their L2 interns, had lower expectations for their interns, and relied more heavily on others to provide them with support.