NCATE for Dummies

1. NCATE for Dummies AKA: Everything You Wanted to Know About NCATE, But Didn’t Want to Ask

2. What is NCATE? • The National Council for Accreditation of Teacher Education (NCATE) is a national accrediting body for schools, colleges, and departments of education authorized by the U.S. Department of Education. • Approximately seventy percentof the 189 doctoral granting institutions are NCATE accredited or candidates for accreditation

3. Is Outcomes Based Concerned with Candidates’: Knowledge Skills Dispositions Necessary to promote student learning Is Not Course Based Concerned with Candidates’ course grades or GPA Which is inconsistent between universities, programs, and instructors NCATE Focus: A Shift

4. What is NCATE Accreditation? • Accreditation is a process for assessing and enhancing academic and educational quality through voluntary peer review. • Individual Programs (majors) have an opportunity to gain “National Recognition” status • The University educator preparation Unit is the body that is accredited

5. NCATE Review Process • Program Level: Individual Programs evidence candidates’ attainment of professional standards in the discipline (Specialized Professional Association) • Unit Level: The overall functioning of preparing persons who work in P-12 education settings

6. Program Level Review Evidence Candidates’ attainment of knowledge skills, and dispositions that meet: • State Standards • Standards developed by Professional Bodies Consistent with NAU Office of Academic Assessment requirements

7. Data • Evidence collected in specific Artifacts • Artifacts are actually Candidates’ work with detailed measures of assessing it • 6 - 8 Artifacts or Assessments evidence that candidates have met all the standards

8. Data • Artifacts from more than one course might be used to evidence that one particular standard has been met (i.e knowledge of the subject matter) • One Artifact might demonstrate Candidates’ proficiency in more than one standard (i.e. Lesson plan)

9. 5 Outcomes are Prescribed • Content Knowledge (state licensure exam) • Content Knowledge (additional evidence) • Ability to Plan Instruction or Fulfill Professional Responsibilities • Knowledge, Skills and Dispositions applied in Clinical Practice • Candidate Impact on Student Learning* or Ability to Create Supportive Learning Environments

10. Assessment Process Faculty determine which Artifacts in each of these categories evidence each of the professional standards

11. Assessment Rubrics • Faculty develop detailed rubrics to evaluate the work of each Artifact • This is Key to evidencing Candidates’ competencies • Must measure outcomes prescribed by the standards • Example: Lesson plans include objectives that are observable and measurable • Non Example: Lesson plans are 2 pages long • Criteria for evidence that meets the standard must be established - there has to be a “cut point”

12. Artifacts are assigned, collected, and evaluated (usually within specified courses)

13. Data Collection • Electronic Portfolio • Provides students a mechanism by which they see learning as a whole in their major, rather than a compilation of courses • Allows us to automatically download data into electronic spreadsheets • Allows us to provide necessary reports by standard to the programs

14. NCATE Timelines • Spring ’09 • NCATE Board of Examiners Visit • Jan. ’08 • Submit Specialized Professional Association (SPA) Report (includes one full year of data) • Spring ’07 • Launch full data collection processes

15. Fall 2006 • Finish any signature assignments and rubrics • Finalize Master Syllabi • Communicate with Statewide faculty • Training: Use of assignments and rubrics, TaskStream • Pilot finalized assessments

16. Program Level Categories • Initial: Any program that prepares candidates for entry into a specialized position. This can include Undergraduate or Graduate degrees. • Advanced: Any program that furthers a certified and/or practicing professional’s preparation. Cannot include undergraduate degrees.

17. Unit Requirements of Programs: Artifact Data • Content Knowledge • Pedagogical Content Knowledge • Professional and Pedagogical Knowledge and Skills • Dispositions • Student Learning Effectiveness

18. Unit Requirements of Programs: Other Data • Design, Implementation, and Evaluation of Field and Clinical Experiences • Candidates’ Development and Demonstration of Knowledge, Skills, and Dispositions To Help All Students Learn • Ability to Plan and Implement Instruction that Addresses Diverse Students

19. Unit Requirements of Programs: Functional • Transition Points: points in the program at which candidates are evaluated to determine whether they have the knowledge, skills, and dispositions to continue further • Minimum of 4 Transition Points • Must be stated generally enough to be used by all programs at the same level in the unit

20. Initial Programs Admission to Teacher Program Admission to Capstone Course Completion of Capstone Course Completion of Program Advanced Programs Admission to Program? Completion of Foundation Coursework? Admission to Capstone Course? Completion of Capstone Course? Completion of Program? Proposed Transition Points

21. Conceptual Framework • Candidate Competencies • Initial • Advanced

22. Entering Fall 2006: Process • Practice Effective Communication • Reduce Work Redundancy • Assist with Technical Support/Training • Help with Challenges: departmental, college, university • Help Accomplish Goals of Effective Programs