Education Week - July 14, 2021 - 17

AAQEP
¶
Accreditation By the Numbers
CAEP
Total number of providers
participating in accreditation
system: 158
¶
¶
Number of accredited providers so
far: 35
Number of states with AAQEP
members: 25, plus Guam and
Virgin Islands
¶
¶
Number of programs accredited
with note: 2
Number of programs that have
had accreditation denied or
¶
Total number of providers
participating in accreditation
system: 700
¶
¶
Number of accredited providers so
far: 423
Number of states with CAEP
members: 45, plus the District of
Columbia and Puerto Rico
¶
¶
¶
Sources: AAQEP, CAEP
Number of programs with
probationary accreditation: 40
Number of programs accredited
with stipulations: 40
Number of programs that have
had accreditation denied or
revoked: 9
school psychology. The college of education
had previously been accredited by CAEP and
decided to make the switch because of the opportunities
for flexibility and collaboration,
said Ebony Terrell Shockley, the executive
director of teacher education at the University
of Maryland. AAQEP's accreditation process
was just as rigorous as CAEP's, she said, but
it was less rigid.
" It doesn't mean you're less rigorous because
you're choosing to look at a wide range of data
that supports the variety of institutions you
have, " Shockley said. " Everybody doesn't have
to meet the same standards in the same way
to demonstrate proficiency or to excel across
a particular standard. ... It is not just based on
compliance, it is based on performance with
multiple measures and multiple perspectives. "
Meanwhile,
the college of education at
the University of Utah is nearing the end
of its first seven-year term with CAEP-its
accreditation expires December 2023. (The
program was among the first to be reviewed
by CAEP in 2016, although it initially received
probationary accreditation because
it did not meet one part of the standard on
program impact. The college received full
and that was never quelled. I think the competition
will certainly stand. "
Since AAQEP's emergence, she said, CAEP
has " really softened its own language. " And
indeed, CAEP has worked to respond to some
of the more common complaints. In December
2020, the accreditor unveiled its new standards,
which will go into effect in 2022. They
are the second set of standards in CAEP's history,
revised due to a requirement in the organization's
bylaws to review the standards every
seven years.
CAEP kept many of its demands for evidence-including
the 3.0 GPA requirement-
but removed the requirement that candidates
score in the top half of those assessed on nationally
normed achievement tests. Koch said
that language was " distracting " from the standard's
intent. " People were hung up on the test
scores, " he said.
Some in the field had argued that such a
requirement posed a barrier to Black and Hispanic
candidates, who tend to score lower than
their white and Asian counterparts on standardized
tests like the SAT or ACT.
CAEP also revised its standard on program
impact to remove references to specific data
points, such as value-added measures. Those
data can still be used as evidence, Koch said,
but they were never required, and providers
had mistakenly thought they were.
" When we surveyed the field, ... people's impressions
of what the standards were requiring
versus what the wording of the standard was
[were] very different, " he said. " And we tried
many, many means of trying to educate them
about them and what flexibility was actually
there, but there were certain terms that people
just can't get around right now. "
CAEP also added more of an emphasis on
technology, equity, and diversity in its standards.
Providers are now asked to disaggregate
candidate data by race, ethnicity, and any other
categories that may be relevant for the provider's
mission, such as socio-economic status or
the geographic region they're from.
Accreditors balance improvement
with accountability
As CAEP went through its standards revision
process, Koch said there was a " balancing
act " between flexibility and rigor. It's important
for the profession, he said, for there to be a
tough-and, he argues, singular-set of standards
for teacher-preparation providers.
CAEP has given probationary accreditation
to 40 programs and denied or revoked the accreditation
of nine programs. But AAQEP has
accredited some of the programs that didn't
meet CAEP's standards, Koch said.
" Continuous improvement is important-it's
one of our standards and it's really key, but so is
accountability, " he said. " I really can't be convinced
that giving everybody a pass and saying
it's all about continuous improvement without
accountability is the right answer. "
LaCelle-Peterson said all programs that
are accredited by AAQEP must demonstrate
evidence of program quality. For instance,
Alfred University in western New York had
its CAEP accreditation revoked and was
then accredited by AAQEP, but only after a
two-year improvement process in which the
institution made significant changes to its
program, he said.
AAQEP's accreditation process, LaCelle-Peterson
said, is not easy- " our quality expectations
are as high or higher " than CAEP's, he
said-but there is a lot of support.
'It can be burdensome, [but] it's
necessary work'
Institutions pursuing accreditation through
AAQEP are grouped into cohorts and have
video calls monthly in which they share tips
for meeting some of the standards, like how
to get in touch with graduates to determine
how they've adapted to their own classrooms.
Those meetings have been particularly valuable
during the pandemic, LaCelle-Peterson
said, since institutions leaned on each other to
figure out remote instruction and manage student-teaching
experiences.
He added that the recognition from the
Council for Higher Education Accreditation
validates AAQEP's approach.
" CHEA's new standards really increase the
emphasis on accreditation not stifling innovation
but actually supporting it, and really respect
local institutional context, " LaCelle-Peterson
said. " I think our standards and our
system are tremendously well set up for that.
[We prioritize] outcomes and quality, [but it's]
not about standardizing the means you use to
get there. "
The University of Maryland, College Park
is one of 13 providers that earned accreditation
from AAQEP last year, both for its initial
teacher-preparation program and its graduate
programs in reading, school counseling, and
Tuesday, August 3, 2021
2-3 PM ET
edw.link/AdvanceEquity
Culturally Relevant Pedagogy
To Advance Educational Equity
Join a discussion with nationally
recognized education researcher,
Dr. Gloria Ladson-Billings, and
school and district leaders who
are employing new practices
to build a culturally responsive
education environment that
connects students, teachers,
and families this year.
GUESTS:
* GLORIA LADSON-BILLINGS, Former
Kellner Family Distinguished
Professor of Urban Education,
University of Wisconsin, Madison
* Emily Amick, Director of Professional
Learning, PowerMyLearning
* JOYCE BECKLES-KNIGHTS,
Principal, Brooklyn Landmark
Elementary School
* ERICA THOMAS, Lead DirectorPersonnel,
Black Student
Achievement, Office of the
Superintendent, Los Angeles
Unified School District
accreditation in 2019.) Mary Burbank, the
assistant dean of the college of education,
said the program has decided to stick with
CAEP and pursue accreditation under its
new standards.
" To be shifting gears when we have established
patterns for data collection-it's not only
inefficient, it leaves the potential for gaping
holes in the way we're looking for program effectiveness, "
she said.
And CAEP's communication and support
has evolved over the past several years as the
organization has grown, she said. With the new
standards, CAEP's " awareness of the landscape
of data collection " seems to be " much
more realistic, " Burbank said.
Ultimately, she said, going through the accreditation
process is an opportunity for teacher-educators
to look systematically at how
they're preparing teachers.
" The intent of accreditation in my mind is
always to improve programs and better prepare
future teachers, " Burbank said. " It can be
burdensome, [but] it's necessary work. If the
goal is to be reflective and better serve students
and ultimately K-12 students, then that helps to
manage the more technical pieces. "
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