School of Education Receives an A: Scores Perfect on NCATE Accreditation
01/24/2008

OXFORD, Miss. - The University of Mississippi School of Education has earned a perfect score from the National Council for Accreditation of Teacher Education.

According to UM education dean Tom Burnham, the school met every NCATE standard, at both the undergraduate and graduate levels. NCATE officials cited no areas where improvement is required, he said.

"If NCATE identified success according to letter grades, it would be an A," said Fannye Love, associate dean of education and NCATE coordinator. "This continued accreditation affirms both the quality of our programs as well as the quality of our faculty and students."

NCATE is the nation's top accrediting agency for establishing superior teacher-preparation programs. An NCATE charter member, the UM education school has been continuously accredited since 1954.

Not only did the school receive continued accreditation for another seven years, but its assessment approach is serving as a national model, Burnham said.

"NCATE was impressed with our assessment system, the level of collaboration from our local school districts as well as the way we included data to help build learning communities among our faculty," Burnham said. "Other universities are now looking to UM as a leader in the accreditation process."

Among its education and service efforts, the School of Education:

 

  • Houses the Mississippi Teacher Corps program, the nation's most competitive two-year alternate-route teaching program. Since its creation in 1989, the program has trained more than 400 participants, who have helped educate an estimated 80,000 students across the Mississippi Delta.
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  • Helped propel Mississippi to sixth in the nation for the number of classroom teachers with National Board Certification, thanks in part to the World Class Teaching Program, which mentored more than half the teachers statewide seeking national certification.
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  • Offered professional development training to more than 700 Mississippi school administrators last year through its Leadership Development Program on how to implement instructional leadership and coaching in their schools.
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  • Places effective school principals throughout Mississippi, thanks to a $2 million gift from Donna and Jim Barksdale, which not only funded the redesign of the master's degree curriculum in school administration, but also offers a $10,000 signing bonus to those who take an administrative position in the state.
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  • Prepares reading and literacy teachers with skills to effectively teach all children to read through the new Center for Excellence in Literacy Instruction, which was established with a $1.5 million Robert M. Hearin Foundation grant.
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    Headquartered in Washington, D.C., NCATE accredits 700 colleges and schools of education with nearly 100 more seeking NCATE accreditation.

    For more information on programs in the School of Education, go to

    http://www.olemiss.edu/depts/educ_school2/.