National Council for Accreditation of Teacher Education
Program Standards
For
Elementary Teacher
Preparation
Source Documents for the Program
Standards
Standard 1
Standard 2
Standard 3
Standard 4
Standard 5
The following publications were used by the Drafting Committee in shaping the form and
content of standards in Part I:
- Model Standards for Beginning Teacher Licensing and Development: A Resource for State Dialogue, INTASC, CCSSO, 1992
- Middle Childhood/Generalist Standards for National Board Certification, National Board for Professional Teaching Standards, 1996
- Preparation of Early Childhood Teachers, Association for Childhood Education International, position paper, 1997
- Preparation of Elementary Teachers, Association for Childhood Education International, position paper, 1997
- Toward a Vision of ElementaryTeaching and Learning, Connecticut State Department of Education, John O'Neal, Kendyll Stansbury, Anthony Rigazio-DiGilio, 1995 draft
- Elementary Education Teaching Standards, Connecticut State Department of Education, 1996 draft
DEVELOPMENT, LEARNING, AND MOTIVATION
Standard 1. Development, learning, and motivation
Candidates know, understand, and use
the major concepts, principles, theories, and research related to development of
children and young adolescents to construct learning opportunities that support
individual students' development, acquisition of knowledge, and motivation.
Supporting explanation
Candidates for elementary teaching base their teaching and related professional
responsibilities on a thorough understanding of developmental periods of
childhood and early adolescence. In curriculum planning, instruction, and
assessment of student learning, they consider, accommodate, and integrate the
physical, social, emotional, cognitive, and linguistic developmental characteristics
of children and young adolescents. Candidates draw on developmental knowledge
to plan curriculum that is achievable but also challenging for children at various
developmental levels. They draw upon an in-depth knowledge of child and young
adolescent development and learning to understand students' abilities, interests,
individual aspirations, and values, and they adapt curriculum and teaching to
motivate and support student learning and development. Candidates for
elementary teaching understand that the ways in which cultures and social groups
differ are important and affect learning. They recognize when an individual
student's development differs from typical developmental patterns and collaborate
with specialists to plan and implement appropriate learning experiences that
address individual needs. Candidates know that all children can learn when
developmental factors are recognized, respected, and accommodated, and they
demonstrate that knowledge in their practice. They consider diversity an asset
and respond positively to it.
Source documents for Development,
Learning, and Motivation
- NAEYC Position Statement on Developmentally Appropriate Practice in Early Childhood Programs Serving Children from Birth through Age 8, National Association for Education of Young Children, 1997
- NMSA/NCATE-Approved Curriculum Guidelines Handbook, National Middle School Association, 1997
- Draft Standards for Teachers of Middle Childhood, Indiana Professional Standards Board, 1996
- Promoting Social and Emotional Learning: Guidelines for Educators, Maurice J. Elias et al., Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development, 1997
CURRICULUM
Standard 2.1. English language arts
Candidates demonstrate a high level of competence in
use of the English language arts and they know, understand, and use concepts from
reading, language and child development, to teach reading, writing, speaking,
viewing, listening, and thinking skills and to help students successfully apply their
developing skills to many different situations, materials, and ideas.
Supporting explanation
Candidates are adept at teaching the fundamentals of the English Language Arts.
They model effective use of English, including its syntax, lexicon, history,
varieties, literature, and oral and written composing processes. Candidates
understand how elementary children develop and learn to read, write, speak, view,
and listen effectively. They use their knowledge and understanding of language,
first and second language development, and the language arts to design
instructional programs and strategies that build on students' experiences and
existing language skills and result in their students becoming competent, effective
users of language.
They teach students to read competently and encourage students' enjoyment of
reading through multiple instructional strategies, technologies, and a variety of
language activities. Candidates teach children to read with a balanced
instructional program that includes an emphasis on use of letter/sound
relationships (phonics), context (semantic and syntactic), and text that has
meaning for students. In addition, candidates teach students a variety of strategies
to monitor their own reading comprehension. They are also familiar with, able to
use, and recommend to students many reading materials based on different topics,
themes, and a variety of situations and consisting of different types, including
stories, poems, biography, non-fiction, many categories of literature written for
children, and texts from various subject areas. As a part of teaching students how
to read, candidates encourage elementary students' understanding of their
individual responses to what they read and sharing those responses. They help
students think critically about what they read.
Candidates provide both instruction in and opportunities for elementary students
to develop effective writing and speaking skills so that they can communicate
their knowledge, ideas, understanding, insights, feelings, and experiences to other
students and to parents, teachers, and other adults. They provide their students
with many different writing and speaking experiences in order to teach the skills
of writing and speaking. They enable students to explore the uses of different
types of writing and speaking with different audiences and in different situations.
Candidates help students develop their capacities to listen so that they understand,
consider, respond to, and discuss spoken material, including non-fiction, stories,
and poems.
Candidates know what preconceptions, error patterns, and misconceptions they
may expect to find in students' understanding of how language functions in
communication, and they are able to help students correct their misunderstandings
of the development and uses of language. Candidates use formative and
summative assessment to determine the level of students' competence in their
understanding of and use of language. They use the results of such assessment to
plan further instruction.
Source documents for English Language
Arts
- Guidelines for the Preparation of Teachers of English Language Arts, National Council of Teachers of English, 1996 edition
- Standards for the English Language Arts, National Council of Teachers of English and the International Reading Association, 1996
- Standards for Reading Professionals, International Reading Association, 1998
- Preventing Reading Difficulties in Young Children, Committee on the Prevention of Reading Difficulties in Young Children, Catherine E. Snow, M. Susan Burns, and Peg Griffin, editors; National Research Council, 1998
Standard 2.2. Science
Candidates know, understand, and use fundamental concepts in the
subject matter of science--including physical, life, and earth and space sciences--as
well as concepts in science and technology, science in personal and social
perspectives, the history and nature of science, the unifying concepts of science, and
the inquiry processes scientists use in discovery of new knowledge to build a base for
scientific and technological literacy.
Supporting explanation
Candidates have a broad general understanding of science and they teach
elementary students the nature of science, and the content and fundamentals of
physical, life, earth and space sciences, and their interrelationships. They are
familiar with, and teach, the major concepts and principles that unify all scientific
effort and that are used in each of the science disciplines:
- systems, order, and organization
- evidence, models, and explanation
- change, constancy, and measurement
- evolution and equilibrium
- form and function.
Candidates engage elementary students in the science inquiry process that
involves asking questions, planning and conducting investigations, using
appropriate tools and techniques to gather data, thinking critically and logically
about relationships between evidence and explanations, constructing and
analyzing alternative explanations, and communicating scientific arguments and
explanations. They introduce students to understandings about science and
technology and to distinctions between natural objects and objects made by
humans by creating experiences in making models of useful things, and by
developing students' abilities to identify and communicate a problem, and to
design, implement, and evaluate a solution. They know naive theories and
misconceptions most children have about scientific and technological phenomena
and help children build understanding. Candidates understand the use of
assessment through diverse data-collection methods as ways to inform their
teaching and to help students learn scientific inquiry, scientific understanding of
the natural world, and the nature and utility of science.
Source documents for science
- National Science Education Standards, National Academy Press, especially chapters 3, Science Teaching Standards, 4, Standards for Professional Development for teachers of Science, and 6, Science Content Standards, 1996
- Pathways to the Science Standards: Elementary School Edition, L. Lowery, National Science Teachers Association, Arlington, 1997
- Benchmarks for Science Literacy, Project 2061, American Association for the Advancement of Science, Oxford University Press, 1993
- The Future of Science in Elementary Schools: Educating Prospective Teachers, Senta A. Raizen and Arie M. Michelsohn, editors, The National Center for Improving Science Education, 1994
- NCATE Program Standards, "Programs for Initial Preparation of Teachers of Science," prepared by the National Science Teachers Association, approved by National Council for Accreditation of Teacher Education, 1998
- Technology for All Americans: A Rationale and Structure for the Study of Technology, International Technology Education Association, 1996
- Standards for Technology: Content for the Study of Technology, International Technology Education Association, March, 1999
Standard 2.3. Mathematics
Candidates know, understand, and use the major concepts,
procedures, and reasoning processes of mathematics that define number systems
and number sense, geometry, measurement, statistics and probability, and algebra
in order to foster student understanding and use of patterns, quantities, and spatial
relationships that can represent phenomena, solve problems, and manage data.
Supporting explanation
Candidates are able to teach elementary students to explore, conjecture, and
reason logically using various methods of proof; to solve non-routine problems; to
communicate about and through mathematics by writing and orally using
everyday language and mathematical language, including symbols; to represent
mathematical situations and relationships; and to connect ideas within
mathematics and between mathematics and other intellectual activity. They help
students understand and use measurement systems (including time, money, temperature, two and three dimensional objects using non-standard and standard
customary and metric units); explore pre-numeration concepts, whole numbers,
fractions, decimals, percents and their relationships; apply the four basic
operations (addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division) with symbols and
variables to solve problems and to model, explain, and develop computational
algorithms; use geometric concepts and relationships to describe and model
mathematical ideas and real-world constructs; as well as formulate questions, and
collect, organize, represent, analyze, and interpret data by use of tables, graphs,
and charts. They also help elementary students identify and apply number
sequences and proportional reasoning, predict outcomes and conduct experiments
to test predictions in real-world situations; compute fluently; make estimations
and check the reasonableness of results; select and use appropriate problem-solving
tools, including mental arithmetic, pencil-and-paper computation, a
variety of manipulatives and visual materials, calculators, computers, electronic
information resources, and a variety of other appropriate technologies to support
the learning of mathematics. Candidates know and are able to help students
understand the history of mathematics and contributions of diverse cultures to that
history. They know what mathematical preconceptions, misconceptions, and
error patterns to look for in elementary student work as a basis to improve
understanding and construct appropriate learning experiences and assessments.
Source documents for mathematics
- Professional Standards for Teaching Mathematics, National Council of Teachers of Mathematics, 1991
- Curriculum and Evaluation Standards for School Mathematics, NCTM, 1989
- Principles and Standards 2000 for School Mathematics, NCTM, (forthcoming, April 2000)
- Assessment Standards for School Mathematics, NCTM, 1995
- NCATE Program Standards, "Programs for Initial Preparation of Teachers of Mathematics," prepared by the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics, approved by the National Council for Accreditation of Teacher Education, 1998
Standard 2.4. Social studies
Candidates know, understand, and use the major concepts and
modes of inquiry from the social studies--the integrated study of history, geography,
the social sciences, and other related areas--to promote elementary students'
abilities to make informed decisions as citizens of a culturally diverse democratic
society and interdependent world.
Supporting explanation
The social studies include history, geography, the social sciences (such as
anthropology, archaeology, economics, political science, psychology, and
sociology) and other related areas (such as humanities, law, philosophy, religion,
mathematics, science and technology). Candidates are able to use knowledge,
skills, and dispositions from social studies to organize and provide integrated
instruction in grades K-6 for the study of major themes, concepts and modes of inquiry drawn from academic fields that address:
- culture
- time, continuity, and change
- people, places, and environment
- individual development and identity
- individuals, groups, and institutions
- power, governance, and authority
- production, distribution, and consumption
- science, technology, and society
- global connections
- civic ideals and practices.
Candidates use their knowledge of social studies to help students learn about
academic fields of knowledge, as well as major themes that integrate knowledge
across academic fields. They develop experiences to help elementary students
learn about the historical development of democratic values; the basic principles
of government and citizenship in a democratic republic; the past, present, and
future; spatial relations; the development of nations, institutions, economic
systems, culture, and cultural diversity; the influences of belief systems; and the
humanities. Candidates are able to help students read, write, listen, discuss,
speak, and research to build background knowledge; examine a variety of sources
(e.g., primary and secondary sources, maps, statistical data, and electronic
technology-based information); acquire and manipulate data; analyze points of
view; formulate well-supported oral and written arguments, policies, and
positions; construct new knowledge and apply knowledge in new settings. They
use formative and summative assessments in planning and implementing
instruction.
Source documents for social studies
- NCSS Standards for Social Studies Teachers, National Council for the Social Studies, 1998
- Expectations of Excellence: Curriculum Standards for Social Studies, National Council for the Social Studies, 1994
- National Standards for History, National Center for History in the Schools, 1996
- Geography for Life: National Geography Standards, The Geographic Education Standards Project, National Geographic Society, 1994
- Voluntary National Content Standards in Economics, The National Council on Economic Education, 1997
- National Standards for Civics and Government, Center for Civic Education, 1994
Standard 2.5. The arts
Candidates know, understand, and use--as appropriate to their own
knowledge and skills--the content, functions, and achievements of dance, music,
theater, and the several visual arts as primary media for communication, inquiry,
and insight among elementary students
Supporting explanation
Candidates understand distinctions and connections between arts study and arts
experiences. They recognize that arts instruction must be sequential. Candidates
encourage the kind of study and active participation that leads to competence and
appreciation. Consistent with their own knowledge and skills in the arts
disciplines, they work alone, with arts specialist teachers, and/or with other
qualified arts professionals enabling students:
- to communicate at a basic level in the four arts disciplines--dance, music, theater, and the visual arts--including knowledge and skills in the use of basic vocabularies, materials, traditional and technology-based tools, techniques, and thinking processes of each arts discipline
- to develop and present basic analyses of works of art from structural, historical, and cultural perspectives
- to have an informed acquaintance with exemplary works of art from a variety of cultures and historical periods
- to relate basic types of arts knowledge and skills within and across the arts disciplines, and to make connections with other disciplines.
Candidates
understand that student competence at a basic level serves as the foundation for
more advanced work. They understand that there are many routes to competence,
that elementary students may work in different arts at different times, that their
study may take a variety of approaches, and that their abilities may develop at
different rates.
Source document for the arts
- National Standards for Arts Education; What Every Young American Should Know and Be Able to
Do in the Arts, Consortium of National Arts Education Associations (American Alliance for Theatre & Education, Music Educators National Conference, National Art Education Association, and National Dance Association), 1994
Standard 2.6. Health education
Candidates know, understand, and use the major concepts in
the subject matter of health education to create opportunities for student
development and practice of skills that contribute to good health.
Supporting explanation
Candidates understand the foundations of good health, including the structure and
function of the body and its systems and the importance of physical fitness and
sound nutrition. They help students understand the benefits of a healthy lifestyle
for themselves and others as well as the dangers of diseases and activities that
may contribute to disease. Teacher candidates are alert to major health issues
concerning children and the social forces that affect them, and of the need to
impart information on these issues sensitively. They address issues in ways that
help students recognize potentially dangerous situations, clarify misconceptions,
and find reliable sources of information.
Source document for health education
- National Health Education Standards; Achieving Health Literacy, Joint Committee on National Health Education Standards (Association for the Advancement of Health Education, American School Health Association, American Public Health Association), American Cancer Society, 1995
Standard 2.7. Physical education
Candidates know, understand, and use--as appropriate to
their own understanding and skills--human movement and physical activity as
central elements to foster active, healthy life styles and enhanced quality of life for
elementary students.
Supporting explanation
Candidates understand physical education content relevant to the development of
physically educated individuals. They structure learning activities to ensure that
students demonstrate competence in many movement forms, and can apply
movement concepts and principles to the learning and development of motor
skills. Teacher candidates know that physical inactivity is a major health risk
factor in our society and recognize the critical importance of physically active life
styles for all students. They help students develop knowledge and skills
necessary to achieve and maintain a health-enhancing level of physical fitness.
Teacher candidates appreciate the intrinsic values and benefits associated with
physical activity. They are able to structure movement experiences that foster
opportunities for enjoyment, challenge, self-expression, and social interaction,
and that elicit responsible personal and social behavior and respect for individual
differences among people in physical activity.
Source documents for physical education
- Moving Into the Future; National Standards for Physical Education, National Association for Sport and Physical Education, 1995
- National Standards for Beginning Physical Education Teachers, Beginning Teacher Standards Task Force of the National Association for Sport and Physical Education, the American Alliance for Health, Physical Education, Recreation and Dance, 1995
Standard 2.8. Connections across the curriculum
Candidates know, understand, and use the
connections among concepts, procedures, and applications from content areas to
motivate elementary students, build understanding, and encourage the application
of knowledge, skills, tools, and ideas to real world issues.
Supporting explanation
In their instruction, candidates make connections across the disciplines and draw
on their knowledge of developmental stages to motivate students, build
understanding, and encourage the application of knowledge, skills, and ideas to
lives of elementary students across fields of knowledge and in real world
situations. Candidates help elementary students learn the power of multiple
perspectives to understand complex issues. Through personal actions and
teaching, they demonstrate scholarly habits of mind, including:
- a desire to know
- constructive questioning
- use of information and systematic data
- acceptance of ambiguity where it exists
- willingness to modify explanations
- a cooperative manner in responding to questions and solving problems
- respect for reason, imagination, and creativity
- honesty.
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.
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