Baylor School of Education Receives Professional Accreditation

April 12, 1999

by Lori Scott Fogleman

Baylor University's School of Education has achieved accreditation under the performance-oriented standards of the National Council for Accreditation of Teacher Education (NCATE), Dr. Robert Yinger, dean of the School of Education, announced today.
"We are pleased with this affirmation of program excellence from NCATE," Yinger said. "National accreditation is an important indicator of quality for our professional programs. The Baylor School of Education is undertaking new initiatives to raise standards and expectations for our teacher preparation programs even higher."
NCATE-accredited schools, like Baylor, must meet rigorous standards set by the profession and members of the public. NCATE standards expect accredited schools of education to ensure that subject matter content, and how to teach it, is a priority; to emphasize school collaboration; to ensure that candidates can use technology in instruction: and to prepare teacher candidates to teach students from diverse backgrounds. The standards also require the school of education to design a conceptual framework for each program that is based on current and established research and best practice. NCATE will soon be implementing even more rigorous performance-based standards for teacher preparation institutions with its "NCATE 2000" plan. Baylor's School of Education will be re-evaluated under these news standards in 2002.
Meeting NCATE accreditation standards also helps institutions prepare new teachers for new, more rigorous licensing standards in many states. NCATE accreditation standards incorporate the model state licensing principles developed by a task force of the Council of Chief State School Officers. NCATE has accredited approximately 500 institutions who, together, produce two-thirds of the nation's new teacher graduates.
NCATE is recognized by the U.S. Department of Education as the professional accrediting body for schools, departments and colleges of education. On-site visits, document review and accreditation decisions are all carried out by professionals from the education community, including teachers, school specialists and teacher educators, as well as members of the public and educational policymakers.
For more information, call the Baylor School of Education at (254) 710-3111. More information about NCATE is available at www.ncate.org .