Education Week: The Complicated, Divisive Work of Grading Teacher-Preparation Programs
An article in Education Week discussing the different routes to accrediting educator-preparation programs features COE’s Ebony Terrell Shockley.
The national accreditation of educator-preparation programs—voluntary in most states—has a long, varied history. Currently, two accreditors determine the quality of providers offering education-preparation programs, the Council for the Accreditation of Educator Preparation (CAEP) and the Association for Advancing Quality in Educator Preparation (AAQEP).
With previous accreditation from CAEP, COE earned national accreditation for its educator preparation programs from AAQEP in 2020. The switch in accreditation, which was equally rigorous but less rigid, was brought on by opportunities for flexibility and collaboration, Dr. Terrel Shockley said.
“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,” Dr. Terrell Shockley is quoted in the Education Week article. “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.”
CAEP has accredited 423 providers since 2016, while AAQEP has accredited 33 since 2019.
Dr. Terrell Shockley is the executive director of teacher education and an associate clinical professor at COE, with a research focus of underrepresented groups and teachers in STEM, literacy, and other education contexts.
