Kent State’s College of Education, Health and Human Services (EHHS) has been awarded accreditation under the guidelines of the National Council for Accreditation of Teacher Education (NCATE). The credentials will be valid from 2016 until 2023.

NCATE is a national-level, discipline-specific accreditor recognized by the Council of Higher Education accreditation (CHEA), according to Alicia Crowe, associate dean of EHHS.

In order to qualify and maintain NCATE accreditation, a university must “engage in thorough data collection and documentation related to rigorous student preparation in content knowledge,” Crowe said.

In the state of Ohio, the Department of Higher Education mandates all post-secondary institutions’ collections of educator preparation programs be accredited by the NCATE.

In the United States, institutions with educator preparation programs accredited under NCATE standards are now served by a single, specialized accreditation system called the Council for the Accreditation of Educator Preparation (CAEP), according to a June 1 Kent State news release.

The EHHS accreditation comes following a site visit in November 2015 by the NCATE, where more than 300 students, faculty, staff, pre-kindergarten through 12th grade (P-12) partners and alumni participated in on-site interviews, according to the news release. Currently, more than 900 educator providers participate in the CAEP accreditation system

“This level of participation from our most critical stakeholders served as a testament to the quality of our educator preparation programs, and we are grateful for their participation,” said Mark Kretovics, interim dean of EEHS, in the news release.

EEHS provides both undergraduate and graduate P-12 education programs that include “initial teacher licensure programs in early, middle and adolescent education, as well as … multi-age programs and special education,” Crowe said.

Additional programs include educational administration, school psychology and others that prepare individuals for advanced or administrative licenses to work in P-12 settings, according to Crowe.

Participation in the NCATE accreditation process allows for institutions like Kent State to determine and keep track of the performance of their programs and of their students in the classroom setting, Crowe said.

“As we move forward in the next seven years, in which our accreditation standards will change, Crowe said, “we will continue to think about our programs and how to improve them based on standards set forth by our national organizations.”

EEHS has continuously been accredited under NCATE standards since 1957, Crowe said.

Contact Alex Delaney-Gesing at [email protected].