The National Council for Accreditation of Teacher Education (NCATE) is developing a "performance-based" approach to program quality review in accreditation. The pilot area is standards for elementary teacher preparation programs. The concept, in brief, is that "performance" information that describes elementary teacher candidate knowledge and ability to teach--"outputs"--would become the basis for decisions on the quality of elementary teacher preparation programs. The new approach would replace information about course offerings and experiences--"inputs"--as the basis for determining program quality.

The Program Standards for Elementary Teacher Preparation were prepared by a Committee whose work was supported by the Pew Charitable Trusts, the Carnegie Corporation of New York, the MacArthur Foundation, and an anonymous benefactor. In addition, the assessment portions of the standards, in Part II and the Appendix of the paper, were supported in part by the Office of Educational Research and Improvement through the National Partnership for Excellence and Accountability in Teaching. The reader should not assume any endorsement from the federal government of this project.

The Drafting Committee for these standards was comprised of representatives from 19 associations, organizations or projects, fourteen of which are NCATE constituent members, including the following:
American Alliance for Health, Physical Education, Recreation and Dance/National Association for Sport and Physical Education (AAHPERD)
American Association for Colleges of Teacher Education (AACTE)
Association for Childhood Education International (ACEI)
Association for Teacher Education (ATE)
Council for Exceptional Children (CEC)
International Reading Association (IRA)
National Association for Education of Young Children (NAEYC)
National Association of Elementary School Principals (NAESP)
National Council for the Social Studies (NCSS)
National Council of Teachers of English (NCTE)
National Council of Teachers of Mathematics (NCTM)
National Education Association (NEA)
National Middle School Association (NMSA)
National Science Teachers Association (NSTA)

Six additional representatives broadened the Committee's expertise and its connections with related NCATE efforts. Two Committee members, experienced in curriculum, teacher preparation, and accreditation issues, came from the Council for Basic Education (CBE) and the National Office for Arts Accreditation in Higher Education (NOAAHE). Two individuals represented the collective developmental work of states on licensure standards and assessments with the Council of Chief State School Officers "Interstate New Teacher Assessment and Support Consortium (INTASC)" project. And, finally, two Committee members represented NCATE's organizational interests in performance standards from a program quality perspective, the Specialty Areas Studies Board (SASB) and the State Partnership Board (SPB) program.

The members of the NCATE elementary program standards Drafting Committee, and their positions during the preparation of the standards, were:
Ron Areglado, Associate Executive Director of Programs, NAESP, Alexandria, Virginia
Pauletta Bracy, Associate Professor, School of Library and Information Sciences, North Carolina Central University, Durham, North Carolina
Sue Bredekamp, Director of Professional Development, NAEYC, Washington, DC
Ivy Chan, Special Education Teacher, Olympia, Washington
Nancy Edwards, Professor of Mathematics Education, Missouri Western State College, St. Joseph, Missouri
Samuel Hope, Executive Director, National Office for Arts Accreditation in Higher Education, Reston, Virginia
Alan J. Koenig, College of Education, Texas Tech University, Lubbock, Texas
Karen K. Lind, Professor of Science Education, University of Louisville, Louisville, Kentucky
Kenneth McEwin, Department of Curriculum and Instruction, Reich College of Education, Appalachian State University, Boone, North Carolina
Roderick J. McDavis, Dean, College of Education, University of Florida, Gainesville, Florida
Mary McFarland, Instructional Coordinator of Social Studies, K-12, Parkway School District, St. Louis County, Missouri
Nancy Quisenberry, Interim Dean, College of Education, Southern Illinois University, Carbondale, Illinois
Diana Rigden, Director, Teacher Education Program, Council for Basic Education, Washington, DC
Elaine Scott, former member of the Arkansas State Board of Education, Little Rock, Arkansas
Robert C. Small, Jr., Dean, College of Education and Human Development, Radford University, Radford, Virginia
Melinda Solmon, Associate Professor, Department of Kinesiology, Louisiana State University, Baton Rouge, Louisiana
Kendyll Stansbury, West Ed, San Francisco, California and former member of the Connecticut State Department of Education staff
James Turner, Professor, College of Education, Mississippi State University, Mississippi State, Mississippi
JoAnne Vacca, Professor, Teaching, Leadership and Curriculum Studies, College and Graduate School of Education, Kent State University, Kent, Ohio
Judith Wain, Executive Director, Minnesota Board of Teaching, St. Paul, Minnesota

Members of the Committee want to acknowledge and thank John Hattie who has served as a consultant for the Committee's work. While he worked with us, Dr. Hattie was Professor and Chair of Educational Research Methodology at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro. He has recently returned to his native New Zealand to accept the post of Dean of the school of education at the University of Aukland. The results of Dr. Hattie's expertise, mentoring, and congenial good sense are especially prominent in Part II and the Appendix of this paper dealing with performance measurement issues, but are reflected throughout. The Committee and I also want to thank Nelda Owsiak and Craig McClellan of the NCATE staff who not only ensured that the Committee's meetings were expertly arranged, but who made lively contributions to the deliberations and assured a valuable flow of information among us.

Content Copyright 2000 by the National Council for Accreditation of Teacher Education. All rights reserved

Format and Programming Copyright 2000 by the Association for Childhood Education International. All rights reserved

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