The Daily Bulletin Archive

Receiving accreditation from the National Council for Accreditation of Teacher Education (NCATE) is not just about preparing for the Board of Examiners campus visit in April. Buffalo State began its preparations immediately after receiving its last reaccreditation in 2003. The process is a multiyear, year-round effort that requires enormous collaboration. And the endorsement itself is more than just a formality.

Ronald Rochon, dean of the School of Education and associate vice president for teacher education, says the upcoming site visit is a chance to showcase Buffalo State. “This is our opportunity to show external bodies our innovative approaches to pedagogy and programs,” said Rochon. “NCATE is part of our continuing evolution. The site visit allows us to demonstrate the changes we’re implementing.”

One of the first schools in the nation to receive accreditation, Buffalo State has laid claim to NCATE distinction since 1954, the year NCATE was founded. Today, NCATE accredits 632 colleges, and more than 100 others are seeking accreditation.

Provost Dennis Ponton said that seeking both institutional and disciplinary accreditation is a means for Buffalo State to validate the quality of its educational offerings and to ensure continued compliance with professional standards. “NCATE accreditation requires that both the institution and our teacher education programs demonstrate professional levels of excellence,” he said. “In this, the accreditation is similar to what we hold with the Middle States Association of Colleges and Schools and with the New York State Board of Regents.”

Buffalo State’s NCATE coordinators recently began soliciting third-party comments about the college’s performance. All feedback, as well as documentation for the site visit, will be compiled by December 31. Buffalo State will stage a mock visit on January 23 and 24, and will make an electronic exhibit room available to the NCATE’s Board of Examiners (BOE) beginning February 11. The BOE will then visit the campus from April 12 to 16.

After the BOE’s visit, Buffalo State will receive a final report within 52 days. The college will submit a response within 30 days, and may also submit revised program reports responding to any concerns. By October 2008, the Unit Accreditation Board will render an accreditation decision.

Despite the rigors of preparing for the visit, Mary Todd, Buffalo State’s newly hired accreditation coordinator and associate professor of education, says preparation for the next reaccreditation always begins immediately following the last accreditation. “NCATE is not a one-shot deal,” she said. “We need to submit reports each year, and we get feedback and suggestions from the council in response. So besides the site visit, they’re regularly checking in as if to say, ‘Tell us what you’re doing to continually improve.’”

The BOE evaluates six areas: candidate knowledge, skills, and dispositions; assessment system and unit evaluation; field experiences and clinical practice; diversity; faculty qualifications, performance, and development; and unit governance and resources. Buffalo State will receive one of three accreditation decisions, depending on its performance: continued accreditation, accreditation with conditions, or accreditation with probation. If Buffalo State were to receive either of the latter two designations, NCATE would offer ample opportunities to address concerns within six to 18 months and receive full accreditation upon re-review.

“It’s not easy to maintain NCATE accreditation,” said Lori Quigley, associate dean of the School of Education and coordinator of NCATE accreditation. “Each professional education program within the teacher education unit has its own individual accreditations to focus on, in order to maintain national recognition by their specialized professional associations, or SPAs. Since last spring, 19 of these programs at Buffalo State submitted extensive reports to NCATE for review by SPA program evaluators. I truly commend the teaching faculty for their efforts to make our presentations look seamless.”

One reason why the Buffalo State community is able to communicate with one voice to NCATE is because of regular Teacher Education Council meetings. The council consists of faculty members who represent all academic departments as well as deans from each of the college’s four schools. They deliberate on program changes and state and federal mandates affecting teacher education institutions and candidates, and also make recommendations on how to improve and strengthen Buffalo State’s 68 teacher education programs.

Nevertheless, there is an incredible volume of documentation to manage. Quigley and Rochon say this is one of the main reasons why the college hired Todd, formerly the director of teacher education at the University of Pittsburgh at Bradford and an NCATE consultant while working at other institutions. Todd said the paperwork used to amount to tens of thousands of pages.

But because of Buffalo State’s long-standing history with NCATE, the council selected the college as one of 21 institutions in a pilot program designed to streamline the submission process for institutional reporting. “The pilot program puts our college in a leadership role,” said Rochon. As part of the changes, site visits are slated to take place every seven years as opposed to the current five years. And according to Todd, the streamlined approach makes data collection electronic, thereby reducing the amount of paperwork.

Regardless of any new changes, ongoing yearly reports, and the site visits, Todd says all things related to NCATE simply boil down to one focus: educating children. “You’ve got to prepare the best possible candidates to educate our children,” said Todd. “NCATE keeps us on our toes.”

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Reminder: Graduates, parents, schools, and community organizations are encouraged to submit third-party feedback about the School of Education’s performance for the upcoming NCATE accreditation review.