‘All Things Accreditation’ TAG Holding Welcome Meeting Oct. 14

By Roberta Ross-Fisher

Topical action groups (TAGs) are groups formed within AACTE to provide a forum for individuals with common interests to network, collaborate, conduct research, and develop policy with the support of AACTE, which provides operational funds, publicity, meeting space at the Annual Meeting, and support that comes from affiliation with the Association. For more information, visit http://aacte.org/professional-development-and-events/tags.

Do you feel tangled up in the educational maze known as accreditation and want to know more? Looking for others who share your interest? Now is a great time to join the AACTE All Things Accreditation TAG!

As its name suggests, this TAG exists to provide members with collegial support in the areas of regional, functional, and national accreditation with the ultimate goal of improving the quality of programs among educator preparation providers (EPPs). When the TAG was first founded in early 2014, members agreed upon the following statement of purpose:

Function as a networked improvement community that can build profession-wide capacities around accreditation and assessment, with a future goal of developing best practices. Develop a set of guiding questions that enable institutions undergoing accreditation to navigate the various influences on this process (institutional, state, and national). Explore the possibility of creating a repository of physical documents that will assist with accreditation within the AACTE online community.

Since the statement of purpose was adopted, our membership has been focused primarily on the new Council for the Accreditation of Educator Preparation (CAEP) standards and accreditation process. Several members recently attended the 2015 Fall CAEPCon in Washington, DC, and some have been receiving training as CAEP site visitors. Attending CAEP conferences, webinars, and site visitor training can be extremely useful for better understanding the five standards and how the quality of EPPs will be measured.

Moreover, AACTE is offering some excellent online courses that focus on helping educators hone their skills in important topics such as Building Quality Assessments and Using Data for Improvement, both of which play essential roles in the CAEP accreditation process. TAG members report finding the weekly discussions and resources in those two courses very beneficial.

Our group will hold several activities this year, including a web meeting tomorrow. Please join us for any of the following events:

2015-16 Calendar of Events: All Things Accreditation TAG

* We will send out the link for each web meeting a few days before each event. To receive notifications, simply sign up through the link on the All Things Accreditation TAG page.

As TAG members shape the group’s agenda and activities, an active membership is essential. Please reach out to the officers with ideas or recommendations and participate in web meetings and at face-to-face conference gatherings.

Tags: accreditation, membership

Roberta Ross-Fisher

Western Governors University