AACTE Subcommittee Completes Accreditation Survey, Refines Liaison to CAEP Board
The AACTE Board of Directors subcommittee formed to engage in conversation with the Council for the Accreditation of Educator Preparation (CAEP) has concluded surveying AACTE members regarding their perspectives related to CAEP, standards, and accreditation in general. Thanks to all who responded to our survey!
The survey, which invited feedback last fall, received responses from 176 respondents in 46 states. Members of the subcommittee met with AACTE President/CEO Sharon Robinson on January 21 to begin an initial review of the responses. This month, we will finalize our review of the data and present our findings and recommendations to the AACTE Board of Directors, which commissioned the work last spring. At this point, we can report that the standards that garnered the most desire for continued dialogue and attention were Standards 3 and 4. Following the February Board meeting, we will share more specific themes from the survey.
The feedback that many of you provided will serve as a framework to guide the subcommittee’s ongoing collaboration with CAEP following the AACTE Board resolution of 2015, which articulated AACTE members’ commitments and concerns with the still-developing accreditation process. Since then, our conversations with CAEP leaders have been positive and productive. In fact, we have begun working to define the role of the AACTE representative who serves on the CAEP board—a position that has not been articulated clearly, so the AACTE Board charged the subcommittee with clarifying this role with the best interests of both organizations in mind. Essentially, the representative is to be an effective vehicle for communication and collaborative policy development.
We look forward to the opportunity to continue our work with CAEP in a manner that will move the entire profession forward in a structure of meaningful continuous improvement rather than compliance. We will continue to keep our members informed on our progress! Many thanks to our colleagues on the subcommittee, who have invested significant time to these collaborative efforts: Jane Bray (Old Dominion University, VA), David Cherry (Whitworth University, WA), John Jacobson (Ball State University, IN), and Carol Vukelich (University of Delaware).
Renée A. Middleton, dean of the Patton College of Education at Ohio University, is 2015-2016 secretary of the AACTE Board of Directors and chair of the subcommittee on CAEP. AACTE Vice President Rodrick Lucero works with the subcommittee.
Tags: AACTE governance, accreditation, membership
