The National Council for the Accreditation of Teacher Education, as well as a state of Louisiana counterpart, will be visiting the Nicholls campus from Oct. 18-22 to evaluate the university’s college of education.
The purpose of the NCATE visit is to make sure the college of education has the proper requirements for continuing accreditation. NCATE will be looking for documented evidence that shows that Nicholls’ teaching candidates and faculty are performing to the required levels set by the national board.
According to O. Cleveland Hill, dean of the college of education, NCATE’s basic premise is that test grades are no longer evidence of a performer’s work. Other documentations must be demonstrated to show that candidates can do what they are supposed to be able to do. Portfolios, lesson plans and classroom logs are examples of documentations that show candidate capabilities.
Another major aspect of the visit will be to make sure that the teaching program has adequate resources to prepare prospective teachers. This evaluation will include discussions with the university president, university vice presidents, Hill and various people in the area kindergarten through high school settings to compile answers regarding the progress of the education department.
“They (NCATE) want to make sure that we (the college of education) are collaborating with people,” Hill said, “they want to make sure we are not just sitting in here in this ivory tower developing courses for people who are going to go out and teach school children. So they want to make sure that we are collaborating with school partners to make sure that they provide input for the way we design our program.”
The NCATE visit will also branch out into the rest of the university. Examiners will be speaking with other university faculty members outside of the college of education to make sure that the candidates are receiving the content knowledge that they need to go out and become effective teachers. This is important, according to Hill, in the fact that colleges of education are very unique. It is the only college at a university that does not teach the educational content in the college. Englishes, mathes and social sciences are taught outside of the college of education which means the college must work closely with other colleges on campus to make sure teacher candidates are getting the proper background knowledge as well.
Once the NCATE team has come in and observed the workings of the college, a written report will be given to the college of education and editing will be allowed. The college will also be able to rejoin any aspects of the visit that were not agreed upon by the college and the board of examiners to the existing written report. Both reports will then be sent to NCATE’s headquarters in Washington for review, and the final decision for continuing accreditation will be handed down to Nicholls in March of 2004.
“My expectations for this (visit) is that we will demonstrate that we have an excellent program,” Hill said, “Teacher preparation is not a college of education function. It is a university function. Everybody in the university is involved in preparing teachers because all the research shows that if you want to have quality students coming out of the schools, they have to have quality teachers. It is no longer a college function. It is an institutional function and it is a community function.”