School of Education E-newsletter

by: Marilyn Feldmann, NCATE Coordinator

September 30th through October 2nd, The Citadel's School of Education hosted a three-person team representing the National Council for Accreditation of Teacher Education (NCATE) and a two-person team representing the State of South Carolina. Representatives from the South Carolina Department of Education and Commission on Higher Education also participated in this visit. Members of these review teams examined our documents and met with faculty, current and former students, and community partners to determine if our programs are in compliance with national and state standards.

Preparations by the faculty for this review began more than two years ago. Faculty members in the School of Education and from across the campus worked together to develop an assessment system, collect candidate performance data, analyze the data, and use the data to make program improvements. The visit proved to be very successful with the NCATE team concluding that previous areas for improvement have been corrected and no new areas for improvement identified.

Also, the teams concluded that previous not met assessment standards are now met. The teams have submitted their recommendations to the NCATE office in Washington, D. C. Based on this very positive review and recommendations, we anticipate a full accreditation ruling by the NCATE Unit Accreditation Board at its meeting in April 2008.

Congratulations and a hearty thank you is extended to everyone who helped prepare for this accreditation visit! Special thanks are also extended to candidates, recent education graduates, P-12 teachers and administrators, and faculty members in Education and from across the campus participating in the interviews with the NCATE/State teams! These interviews confirmed that we have reason to be proud of The Citadel's excellent education programs.