In October, the Continuous Improvement Commission of the Council for the Accreditation of Educator Preparation continued the National Council for the Accreditation of Teacher Education (NCATE) accreditation for teacher education programs in Penn State Harrisburg’s School of Behavioral Sciences and Education.
“I am pleased with the commission’s decision to continue accreditation for our teacher education program,” said Dr. Catherine Surra, director of Penn State Harrisburg’s School of Behavioral Sciences and Education. “This accreditation lends much credit and upholds the program’s longstanding commitment to quality teacher education through our solid curriculum, talented faculty, and extensive partnerships with in the region’s school districts.”
This accreditation decision indicates that the school and its programs meet rigorous standards set forth by NCATE. The next accreditation review will occur in spring 2021.
The NCATE accreditation covers Penn State Harrisburg programs in Elementary Education, Early Childhood Education, secondary education English, Social Studies, and Mathematics, and the master’s program in Teaching and Curriculum.
Founded in 1954, NCATE is the teaching profession’s mechanism to help establish high quality teacher preparation. According to Dr. Boyce Williams, vice president for institutional relations at NCATE, accreditation is the ultimate measure of quality in new teachers because it assures the public across the board — parents, business leaders, policymakers — that candidates coming out of a particular institution have been prepared to teach using rigorous national standards that have been designed by the profession. Research has found that accredited programs produce the best teachers.
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