Both the NCATE Governing Board and the TEAC Board have approved an identical resolution that authorizes the president of each organization to work with other members of the NCATE/TEAC Design Team to create an organization that will serve as the entity for offering the nation a unified accrediting system in educator preparation affording a choice of comparable pathways for accreditation.

The NCATE and TEAC boards approved the resolution on May 15, 2009 and June 21, 2009, respectively. The resolution established specific tasks for the joint design team to undertake during the coming year, including progress reports to the governing bodies of both organizations on a regular basis, with action to be considered individually or collaboratively in the 2009-10 board meetings.

"I could not be more pleased that my colleague Frank Murray and I have been authorized by our governing boards to move forward on this important joint project. In a unified system we can better achieve our shared goals while still maintaining institutional choice among alternative processes. As NCATE’s recent redesign makes clear, both NCATE and TEAC strive to be models for institutions as learning organizations that continuously seek to improve. I look forward to the continued opportunity to work with Frank and the NCATE/TEAC Design Team to create a new, stronger accrediting system that represents the unified voice of our profession."

James G. Cibulka, President, NCATE

"One of the happy outcomes of the joint NCATE/TEAC Design Team’s work so far this year has been collegial and congenial manner in which the representatives of each organization have undertaken the study of the complex issues involved in the creation of a system of national teacher education accreditation that is unified in its goals and voice while offering the nation’s schools of education a genuine choice between the evolving NCATE and TEAC systems of accreditation. Like Jim Cibulka I am eager to play a role with my NCATE and TEAC colleagues to make teacher education accreditation an indispensible partner in the much needed renewal and enhancement of schooling in the United States."

Frank Murray, President, TEAC

In January, 2009, TEAC and NCATE issued a joint statement titled ‘Towards a Unified Accreditation System for Educator Preparation.’