Institutional #4
Title: “NCATE Issues Call for Action; Defines Professional Dispositions as used in Teacher Education”
Summary: In response to numerous critiques, NCATE addresses the absence of a very controversial term in their standards. The term “social justice” as a quality that teachers should possess was said to previously exist in NCATE’s standards. NCATE claims that it this standard was never inflicted upon its accredited schools and the accrediting agency therefore was not making any political, statement by submitting revised standards without the phrase in question.
Topic: Accrediting all schools of education
Category: Institutional: Business
What is it? A statement posted on the news page of the NCATE’s website
Publication Information: NCATE: The Standard of Excellence in Teacher Preparation: Nov. 13, 2007,
Author: None listed
Location: http://www.ncate.org/public/102407.asp?ch=148
Accessed: Mar. 10, 2009
Support:
- National Council for Accreditation of Teacher Education (NCATE), the accrediting agency employed by most accredited schools of education
- NCATE Executive Board, thirty representatives who manage the standards, finances and administration for the institution
- No Child Left Behind act (NCLB), an controversial act set in place in 2001 by congress to “close the (student learning) achievement gap”
- Commentators, those who speculated in ignorance on the practices of the NCATE
As this news posting was in response to backlash against their organization, NCATE retorted by addressing who was making negative claims, “commentators,” and established who was handling the issue, NCATE Executive Board. Also, the NCLB act gave grounds on which to defend their actions. The bulk of the statement focused on the values of the NCATE, rather than clarifying facts and details. The objective was to establish repore by laying out what the NCATE stands for and believes in rather than picking over arguments and logistics.
Audience and Agenda: The obvious audience for this posting are potential and current clients of NCATE accreditation. The other audience that NCATE should be trying to reach is the media, namely academic journals that inform academe of current news in the education world. NCATE is a for-profit, private accrediting agency that, among other various fees, charges its accredited institutions annual dues between$15,000 and $280,000. NCATE has accredited 632 institutions with almost 100 more waiting in the wings.
Usefulness: The submission of this “press release” to smooth over any stabs at NCATE’s image shows readers that NCATE truly is an accreditation giant to be reckoned with. The undertone of the article is passive and confident, conveying that there is no reason to jump to conclusions, NCATE had nothing to do with the scandal they are accused of. NCATE claims that they never included social justice as a mandatory standard; therefore, they are exempt from any problems relating to the term. Never does NCATE admit that they are responsible for inclusion and implementation of “social justice” by schools of education under NCATE’s exemplary suggestion. NCATE also does not express their stance on usage of social justice as a means to judge teachers. This article shows the character of NCATE.
Works Cited:
- Description of Executive Board: http://www.ncate.org/goviernance/execb.aspx?ch=86
- The “About” page for NCATE: http://www.ncate.org/public/aboutNCATE.asp
- No Child Left Behind Act: http://www.ed.gov/policy/elsec/leg/esea02/beginning.html#sec1
- Trivializing Teacher Education, by Dale D. Johnson, Bonnie Johnson, Stephen J. Farnga, and Daniel Ness
