Currently, NCATE has partnerships with 50 states, including Puerto Rico and Washington DC, to conduct joint NCATE accreditation and state approval reviews. New Hampshire and Vermont remain the only two states with which NCATE does not have a partnership.

At its October 16-17, 2008 meeting the NCATE State Partnership Board unanimously approved the following motions:

1. Renewal of the Maryland/NCATE Partnership: “To renew the partnership agreement to conduct joint reviews for state approval and NCATE accreditation in Maryland.”

2. Deferral of accreditation visits: “With the approval of the appropriate state agency, NCATE will provide all accredited institutions, except those with focused or probation visits or those with documentation due to remove a condition/provision, the opportunity to defer their visits for one year, beginning with visits in January 2009. NCATE will work with its state partners to determine the schedule of future reviews.”

3. Streamlining: “The NCATE State Partnership Board recommends to the Executive Board that the NCATE president be asked to return in Spring 2009 with a comprehensive set of recommendations for further streamlining and improvements to the NCATE unit accreditation and program review process and an estimate of additional costs and/or cost savings.”

Other Highlights of the Meeting:

• A presentation summarizing the work of the Specialty Areas Studies Board (SASB) Task Force on guidelines for development of Specialized Professional Association (SPA) program standards by Emerson Elliott, NCATE Director of Special Projects. A lively discussion followed.

• A report by Shari Francis, NCATE Vice President of State Relations that Nebraska and Puerto Rico have satisfactorily addressed the conditions placed on their partnership renewals at the 2007 SPB meeting. As previously requested by the Board, Oregon continues to revise its approval process and program and unit standards to more closely align with NCATE.

• A request by the California Commission on Teacher Credentialing that the Specialty Areas Studies Board allow it to recommend programs for national recognition by the SPA’s. The SASB motion states: “The SASB approves with condition the California application that would allow for state program approval to lead to national recognition. NCATE staff are directed to review the California Handbook and verify the specific details of the California process. If, after reviewing the handbook, staff have concerns with the content, staff will convene a conference call of the P & E committee to discuss these issues.”

• Proposals for editing and streamlining NCATE’s online state partnership agreement. Board members worked diligently to clarify and remove redundancy from the current forms.

• A lively discussion with Antoinette Mitchell, Vice President for Accreditation concerning NCATE policies for off campus programs, branch campuses, and distance learning.

• An introduction to NCATE’s new Accreditation Information Management System (AIM) with emphasis on the information available to state contacts.

• A presentation by Tricia Coulter, Learning Point Associates, Deputy Director of the National Comprehensive Center for Teacher Quality familiarizing Board members with the extensive education policy resources available on the Teacher Quality website.

• A report by Margie Crutchfield, Associate Vice President, Program Reviews on the status of the program review system. This semester 1100 programs submitted reviews and 95% of the SPA reviews were completed on time. The percentage of programs granted national recognition has steadily improved.

• The President’s report presented by James Cibulka emphasizing the need for continued efforts to streamline NCATE processes to make them less time consuming and more conducive to program improvement. He also outlined measures that NCATE can take to reduce the expenses to institutions in these difficult economic times.

• A report by Jane Leibbrand, NCATE Vice President for Communications highlighting a recent survey of withdrawn institutions that should provide more information for the streamlining process and a Washington policy briefing focusing on teacher assessment and program improvement attended by several NCATE critics.