Lipscomb's NCATE accreditation continued by board and state
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Lipscomb University's teacher education department has received official notice from the National Council for Accreditation of Teacher Education (NCATE) that the program has been accepted for re-accreditation for another term, which will consist of seven years. Lipscomb's re-accreditation continues years of NCATE accreditation enjoyed by the teacher education department, said Mike Hammond, dean of education and professional studies at Lipscomb.
"This accreditation allows graduates to know that they are certified at the highest level in teacher education. The program at Lipscomb had to pass rigorous testing and must abide by rigorous standards of achievement and documentation to be accepted for this continuation of our accreditation. We had a very good visit with the NCATE representatives and state representatives, and received excellent comments about our program from their review."
With teacher education majors focusing on academic paths from concentrations all over campus, the re-accreditation process was a campus-wide initiative.
"This was a united effort to meet the accreditation standards, with all areas of academic study across the campus getting involved," said Hammond. "Each of the academic departments had to submit paperwork documenting the assessment of their students' academic success in that concentration."
The three main areas of focus during the process of continuing accreditation ensured that Lipscomb's program properly assesses student performance, keeps proper data on the results of those assessments and constantly uses the data to improve the program. The assessments must evaluate the success of the program based on the performance of the student using the standards of NCATE and the state of Tennessee and the standards of the Lipscomb University mission and conceptual framework of the teacher education program.
NCATE is a non-profit, non-governmental alliance of national professional education and public organizations representing millions of Americans who support quality teaching. NCATE is the teaching profession's mechanism to help establish high quality teacher, specialist and administrator preparation. Through the process of professional accreditation of schools, colleges and departments of education, NCATE works to make a difference in the quality of teaching, teachers, school specialists and administrators, according to NCATE's mission.
For more information about Lipscomb's Department of Education or about the NCATE accreditation, contact Hammond at 615.279.5814 or by emailing mike.hammond [at] lipscomb.edu.
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