For background, previous stories, and Web links, see our Issues Pages on Teaching as a Profession and Professional Development . Some college presidents and faculty members have grumbled for years about the accreditation process for teacher education programs. The fledgling Teacher Education Accreditation Council has been nurtured for the past five years by the Washington-based Council of Independent Colleges. The accreditation council also plans to submit this summer an application seeking formal recognition as an accrediting agency from the Education Department, said Cecil Miskel, the dean of the education college at the University of Michigan and a leading force behind the council. The effort to launch a new accrediting body grows out of longstanding tensions over the control of teacher education.
States grant licenses to teachers who graduate from approved preparation programs.
CATE is made up of representatives from 31 national organizations with a stake in teaching, ranging from both national teachers' unions to subject-matter groups to state policymakers. The alternative accrediting effort is founded on the opposing belief that states should retain full control over approving teacher education programs and licensing teachers, and that accreditation should remain voluntary and separate from licensure. TEAC's founders also intend for college and university presidents to play a major role in governing the new council. Draft principles circulated last fall indicate that institutions would be expected to pay close attention to students' learning and to have a commitment to preparing professional educators. Institutions would not be held to external standards set by the teaching profession.