Citizen/Multimedia
Title: “NCATE: Uploaded”
Summary: This video, a parody of The Matrix, depicts the trials and hoops that the Teacher’s College at Emporia State University had to go through to become accredited by NCATE.
Topic: Accrediting all schools of education
Category: Citizen, Stakeholder/Multimedia
What is it: An amatuer video created by Jason Knowles
Publication Information: Youtube.com, Nov. 10, 2006
Author: None listed
Support:
- Jason Knowles, creator of video, graduate student at Emporia State University; candidate for Ph.D at Virginia Tech
- Elu Chen, editor of video, graduate student at Emporia State University
- National Council for the Accreditation of Teacher Education (NCATE), widely-used accreditation agency
- “No Child Left Behind Act” (Nickel-B), enstated in 2001 with the objective of giving all children an equal education
- The Matrix, movie made popular by its special effects
Audience and Agenda: This video was created purely for entertainment, most likely intended for those personally involved in their accreditation process.
Usefulness: Although this video was created for fun, it shows some of the ludicrous lengths that schools have to go through to become accredited. Many teacher programs complain the compilation of the data that NCATE requires is pointless and tedious. The spoof video also references an obscure and nonsensical critisism the NCATE examiner had about their teaching program. The vague standards that NCATE upholds result in amiguous reviews that hold no relevance as to the quality of the program itself.
Works Cited:
- Graduate profile for Jason Knowles on Virginia Tech’s website: http://www.cctad.vt.edu/main/content/Knowles.html
