Teacher-College Group Presses for Single Accrediting Body

From: Education Week
The umbrella group for teacher colleges wants a single accrediting body to elevate the status of teaching as a profession, but the move is under fire from some members who see it as a blow against the smaller of the two groups that judge teacher education programs. Members of the American Association of Colleges for Teacher Education, a Washington-based group that represents nearly 800 teacher colleges, voted 158-151 at the group’s annual conference here last week to renew a resolution calling for a single accreditor. Although the resolution has been on the books for a while, it wasn’t controversial when last voted on five years ago because the National Council for Accreditation of Teacher Education, or NCATE, founded in 1954, was the only major player on the scene. The Teacher Education Accreditation Council, or TEAC, formed in 1997, was still a newcomer.