"Since 2000, NCATE has been leading the reform movement for accountability in higher education by requiring colleges of education to produce performance based assessments to measure candidate’s proficiencies, programs, and unit operations. Regional accreditation organizations are now requiring the same rigorous value-added assessments and are asking faculty from education to be leaders at their institutions. This paradigm shift is creating a culture on college campuses towards innovation and quality improvements." Dr. Barbara Chesler Buckner, Coastal Carolina University
The NCATE accreditation system
is a voluntary peer review process that involves a comprehensive
evaluation of the professional education unit (the school,
college, department, or other administrative body within the
institution that is primarily responsible for the preparation
of teachers and other professional school personnel). The review
is based on the NCATE Unit Standards, a set of research-based
national standards developed by all sectors of the teaching
profession. Accreditation requires an on-site review of the
unit and a review of the individual programs within the unit.
Using NCATE unit standards, a group of examiners, known as
the Board of Examiners (BOE), conducts an on-site visit and
evaluates the unit's capacity to effectively deliver its programs.
The review of individual programs is a paper review conducted
by the state or by specialized professional organizations,
depending on the type of partnership NCATE has developed with
the unit's state. This section includes information on the
following: