The Professional Education Unit at West Chester University is currently accredited by the National Council for Accreditation of Teacher Education (NCATE). This accreditation covers both initial teacher preparation programs and advanced educator preparation programs on the WCU campus and at our location in Philadelphia. However, the accreditation does not include individual education courses that we offer to P-12 educators for professional development, relicensure, or other purposes. WCU is a charter member of NCATE and has been continuously accredited since 1954.

July 1, 2013 was the day of the de facto consolidation of NCATE and the Teacher Education Accreditation Council (TEAC), making the Council for the Accreditation of Educator Preparation (CAEP) the new, sole specialized accreditor for educator preparation. WCU's upcoming accreditation visit by NCATE will be our last by that organization after 60 years. After our 2014 visit is complete, the Professional Education Unit at WCU will begin to address the new CAEP standards of educator preparation as we look toward our first CAEP accreditation visit in 2021.

The mission of both NCATE and CAEP is accountability and improvement of educator preparation. The accreditation process establishes rigorous standards for educator preparation programs, holds accredited institutions accountable for providing continuous evidence of meeting these standards, and encourages unaccredited schools to demonstrate the quality of their programs by working for and achieving professional accreditation.

Standards

The NCATE standards used in our current review of the Professional Education Unit include:

• Standard 1: Candidate Knowledge, Skills, and Professional Dispositions
• Standard 2: Assessment System and Unit Evaluation
• Standard 3: Field Experiences and Clinical Practice
• Standard 4: Diversity
• Standard 5: Faculty Qualifications, Performance, and Development
• Standard 6: Unit Governance and Resources