NewsRelease
|
|
UNCG School of Education Receives Full Re-Accreditation
GREENSBORO--The School of Education at The University of North Carolina at Greensboro has received full re-accreditation by the National Council for Accreditation of Teacher Education (NCATE).
|
|
Dr. Dale Schunk, dean of the UNCG School of Education, announced the approval, which was for the maximum period of five years. The UNCG school is one of 36 departments or schools of education nationally that received either initial or continuing accreditation by NCATE's Unit Accreditation Board. Nationally, there are approximately 1,200 institutions that prepare teachers, of which only 539 have been accredited by NCATE.
"This accreditation is a mark of quality for UNCG's teacher education programs," said Schunk. "We have been measured on NCATE's rigorous standards and have met every criterion. For the second time, the accreditation team did not note a single program weakness or offer any suggestions, which is highly unusual.
"NCATE accreditation is important for our school because it gives UNCG a high profile nationally among institutions that are preparing teachers for the classroom. This reaccreditation is a testament to the faculty here and to attention they have paid to meeting the standards."
The re-accreditation comes on the heels of news that U.S. News & World Report has ranked the school's counselor education program as third nationally and all of its graduate programs in 29th place. The school's undergraduate programs have been ranked number one in the state for two straight years by the N.C. State Board of Education.
The NCATE site visit to UNCG last fall involved an extensive self-study. Coordinator of the preparation was Dr. Ceola Ross Baber, associate dean for teacher education and director of the UNCG Teachers Academy.
The U.S. Department of Education recognizes NCATE as the professional accrediting body for schools, departments and colleges of education. Evaluations consist of on-site visits, document and self-study reviews, and they are carried out by professionals from the educational community.
NCATE revises its standards every five years to incorporate best practices and research in order to insure that all standards reflect a consensus about what is important in teacher preparation today. Meeting NCATE accreditation standards also helps institutions prepare new teachers for new, more rigorous licensing standards in many states. The standards incorporate model state licensing principles developed by the Council of Chief State School Officers.
The UNCG School of Education has 55 full-time faculty members and 40 part-time faculty members who teach in six departments. There are approximately 750 undergraduate students and 900 graduate students. The School has six departments: Department of Curriculum and Instruction, Department of Educational Leadership and Cultural Foundations, Department of Counseling and Educational Development, Department of Specialized Education Services, Department of Library and Information Studies and Department of Educational Research Methodology. Studies are offered leading to bachelor's, master's and doctoral degrees.
The school also is host to the Southern Regional Vision for Education (SERVE), which is one of 10 federally funded, regional education laboratories. Its overall purpose is to assist state and local educators in North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia, Florida, Alabama and Mississippi. The School of Education is now in its third five-year contract to operate SERVE as the federal government's regional education laboratory.
###