PAST AWARD THEMES AND WINNERS

This award is sponsored by AACTE's Committee on Professional Preparation and Accountability to highlight models developed by institutions addressing professional and public accountability. For more information about the Best Practice Awards, visit the AACTE awards page.

In February 2008, St. Cloud State University’s Teacher Quality Enhancement (TQE) Center within theCollege of Education received the Best Practice Award in Support of Research on Teacher Education Quality and Accountability. This award, sponsored by AACTE’s Committee on Professional Preparation and Accountability, highlights
and supports the efforts of AACTE institutions in addressing issues of program quality and accountability.  The Committee sought to recognize a school, college, or department of education that had shown leadership in developing research on professional preparation and accountability issues. The innovative model of student teaching being implemented at St. Cloud State University involves the use of co-teaching between the teacher candidate and the cooperating teacher. Researchers used two academic measures to determine the impact of co-teaching on learners: the Minnesota Comprehensive Assessment (MCA) and the Woodcock Johnson III-Research Edition (WJIII-RE). With two years of data supporting
the use of co-teaching as a way to increase K-12 student academic performance, researchers found a statistically significant positive effect on reading and math scores for students in co-taught classrooms as well as a significant decrease in unexcused absences and classroom disruptions.

2006: "Accountability: Beyond the Minimum"

Winner: University of Cincinnati
Through a unit-wide effort, the use of data as the basis for decision making and continuous improvement has become part of the culture at the University of Cincinnati College of Education, Criminal Justice, and Human Services. Educator preparation programs are professionally and publicly accountable to the program, the college, the unit, the university, and the profession. The commitment of the unit to the continuous improvement of programs and their impact on students and clients has led to the development of a full-time Office of Assessment and Continuous Improvement. This office serves not only educator preparation programs, but all programs in the college. Faculty attitudes have evolved from perceiving data collection, aggregation, analysis, and application of results as an annoyance to an expectation that yearly data analysis and aggregation will be provided and that all administrative, programmatic, and procedural change are data driven.

2005: "Accountability: Beyond the Minimum"

Winner: Western New Mexico University
Western New Mexico University?s School of Education (SOE) has achieved outstanding recognition for the way it meets institutional and accreditation requirements. Continuously since 1893, the SOE has gone beyond this culture of assessment to achieve a level of accountability measured in service to the diverse and multiply challenged communities it serves. It ensures that students who start from a point of educational disadvantage rise to a standard of competitive excellence. The SOE creates programs that inspire students to careers based in community service. It shapes its curriculum to the cultural context of the communities in which its students will teach, preparing them to be effective educational leaders in the Hispanic, Native American, and Anglo cultures of the Southwest. It assists indigenous people in finding ways to strengthen their traditional cultures and languages. The SOE has responded in times of crisis, helping to rebuild a shattered economy and address the social needs of families stricken by hard times. This service is seen in partnerships with low-performing schools and in developing technology that offers new options to reduce the growing teacher shortage in New Mexico. In better serving its constituent communities, the SOE also enriches its curriculum, passing on a legacy of service to generations of future teachers.

2004: Assessing Dispositions Through a Unit Assessment System

Winner: University of Arkansas at Little Rock
The Department of Teacher Education at the University of Arkansas at Little Rock has been developing and refining a unit assessment system including assessment of dispositions since 1995. Based on state and specialty association guidelines, the program assessment comes from data drawn from the evaluation of student dispositions at five gateways: admission, admission to student teaching, completion of an internship, graduation, and induction year. The evidence is reviewed at an annual stakeholders meeting, and faculty members revise programs and assessment instruments as needed.

2003: Basing the Accreditation Process on Conceptual Frameworks

Winner: Montana State University-Billings
The Initial Conceptual Framework (ICF) of the College of Education and Human Services at Montana State University-Billings serves as a cornerstone to the teacher education program. Developed jointly by the college's faculty, school district personnel, members of the College of Arts and Sciences, and teacher candidates, the ICF links candidates' curriculum, field experiences, and assessment through a portfolio process that spans the length of the preparation program. The ICF also captures the college's commitment to professional dispositions, diversity, and technology integration through developmental competencies infused throughout the framework. Additional expectations include that candidates collect evidence of their impact on student learning during field experiences.

2002: Using Technology to Support Accreditation

Winner: Idaho State University
Using an instructional design model formulated by Kemp (1999), Idaho State University developed and implemented an accreditation Web site to document institutional performance relative to NCATE standards and to demonstrate their accountability for preparing educators. The accreditation Web site serves as a dynamic documentation and management system that enables university officials, faculty, and partners in PK-12 schools continual access to accreditation exhibits and candidate performance data. Because the information is instantly accessible to all partners, data-based decisions for program approval are part of Idaho State's mission and the structure in which the university and its partners do their work.

In addition to the short-term benefits of facilitating the work of the accreditation site visit team, the Web site serves as a mechanism to report evidence of candidate performance relative to national, state, and institutional standards. The immediate and continuous availability of data and information about candidate performance and program quality provide the infrastructure through which Idaho State University shares accountability responsibilities with its partners involved in educator preparation.

2001: Leadership in Diversity

Winner: Kean University
The School of Education at Kean University has twice been cited for its efforts and results on behalf of diversity by NCATE Board of Examiners teams. During the most recent NCATE review in 1999, the Board of Examiners identified two strengths of the professional education unit: commitment to diversity and collaboration with other members of the professional community. For example, in addition to developing several award-winning precollegiate programs that encourage students of color to pursue teaching careers, the school has a number of collaborative programs with surrounding school districts. Recently funded Title II partnership and recruitment projects and a GEAR UP program enhance collaboration between the School of Education and the P-12 sector, as well as increasing the quality and diversity of teacher candidates.

The School of Education's diversity plan serves as a model for institutions around the nation. The plan's mission statement explicitly values diversity and cultural understanding. In combination with recruitment and retention efforts, the diversity plan contributes to increasingly diverse faculty and student bodies. Assessment of candidates' competencies at program completion indicates that candidates are well prepared to work with diverse student populations, including those who speak languages other than English and students with exceptionalities.

2000: Collaboration Between Faculty in Teacher Education and Arts and Sciences Faculty

Winner: California State University-Dominguez Hills
California State University-Dominguez Hills School of Education's Blended Liberal Studies/Teacher Education Program blends subject matter study with professional preparation for undergraduate students who will teach elementary school and represents a new approach to teacher preparation. The new program is designed for community college transfer students who have completed their general studies and enter the university as juniors. The curriculum consists of six semesters of upper-division study that connects liberal studies with course work for the multiple-subject credential. Students take three blended courses in mathematics, science, and multiculturalism. In addition, they visit local public schools for observation and participation field activities, take additional courses in educational methods and theory, and do student teaching. The entire sequence of study is completed at the undergraduate level. When finished, students have a bachelor's degree in liberal studies and an elementary teaching credential. The new program was developed in response to the critical need for credentialed teachers in local schools to be better prepared in a shorter period of time, without loss of quality.

1999: Linking Professional Accreditation to Student Learning

Winner: University of Cincinnati
Cincinnati Professional Practice Schools is a partnership among the University of Cincinnati College of Education, Cincinnati Public Schools, and the Cincinnati Federation of Teachers, committed to increased student achievement, induction of new teachers and ongoing professional development of experienced teachers, and inquiry directed toward the improvement of practice. The Cincinnati Initiative for Teacher Education is the teacher preparation component of the partnership, featuring in-depth content area knowledge and a year-long internship in a Professional Partnership School (PPS). Interns are organized into professional teams, led by a lead teacher mentor and supported by career teachers and university faculty. Interns in PPSs are paid, load-bearing teachers of record with contractual rights, a situation that increases the stakes for everyone.

1998: Support for Accreditation through External Efforts to Teacher Education Programs

Winners: Florida International University, Tennessee State University, St. Augustine's College (North Carolina), and University of Tennessee-Martin
These institutions promoted accreditation through presentations and participation in national, regional, state, and local conferences; encouraged faculty to participate in national, regional, and state accreditation review teams; and developed materials and resources related to accreditation and program improvement. The efforts of these collaborations modified and improved the way institutions approach, seek, obtain, and maintain national accreditation.

1997: Support to Institutions Seeking NCATE Accreditation

Winners: Charles Stewart Mott Foundation and Lilly Endowment, Inc.
These two private foundations were honored for their outstanding service in providing major gifts that enabled NCATE and AACTE to assist historically black colleges and universities with development of their teacher preparation programs and with preparation for national accreditation. These grants enabled establishment of the Historically Black Colleges and Universities Teacher Education Technical Support Network and the provision of technical assistance to numerous institutions pursuing initial NCATE accreditation.

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