Teacher Education Accountability and the Public Trust

The title of our organization, the American Association of Colleges for Teacher Education, implies that we, as an association, have a dual accountability. A part of that accountability is, of course, to our member institutions. The other dimension of that accountability is to the public. AACTE's goal is to ensure coherence between these two dimensions of accountability for teacher education.

Teaching is, above all, a moral act.[1] Teachers--and because of our role in the preparation of educators, teacher educators--are in a position of influence and exercise a form of stewardship for educational values and standards. AACTE, as the professional organization most directly responsible for teacher education, must be accountable to the public to prepare educators who in turn do not violate that public trust.

Legal authority for the professional preparation of educators is vested in each individual state. Institutions of higher education, teacher education programs, and states find themselves facing the same dilemma: constraints on resources coupled with increasing demands for public accountability. A goal shared by states, institutions, and teacher educators is the desire to answer accountability demands in a responsible manner, without defining the preparation of educators in such a narrow context that accountability appears at odds with major values of the education profession. Recent history provides reminders that educational accountability may sometimes be conceived within an ideology predicated upon production and political expediency, resulting in an orientation toward conformity, passivity, and diminished creativity. The resolution of this dilemma is to focus the concept of accountability on basic values and high standards that educators share for the teaching of all students.

High Standards for Teacher Education Accountability

Our basic values and high standards lead us, as teacher educators, to hold ourselves to:

• Serve first and foremost as an advocate for P-12 students, especially for promoting the growth and development of all students;

   

• Promote diversity in teacher education faculty, candidates, curriculum, and programs;

   

• Be accountable to the education public: parents, other citizens, and state agencies directly responsible for teacher licensure and program approval;

   

• Be accountable to prospective teachers for their preparation to meet state licensure expectations (including knowledge of subject matter and of the students to whom those subjects are taught);

   

• Involve in governance those who have been appropriately prepared and/or licensed for professional practice;

   

• Be informed by the best practice and most current research on teaching and learning theory and practice, including the commitment to active scholarship by teacher education faculty; and

   

• Operate in collaboration with professional agencies responsible for quality assurance in the teaching profession.

Consequently, we hold any teacher education quality assurance bodies (including licensure, accreditation, and certification) to these same principles.

Collaborative Accountability

In recent years, states have undertaken major reforms in teacher licensure that reflect the seriousness of their commitment to accountability for teacher preparation. Through INTASC and related efforts, states have taken steps to link teacher licensure to P-12 standards; to license teachers through performance assessments rather than indirect or proxy measures; to center the licensure process directly on individual teacher performance rather than indirectly on approval of programs; and to establish periodic re-assessment of teachers linked to emerging frameworks for relicensure. These movements toward a fully licensed teaching profession have powerful implications for the preparation of teachers in institutions of higher education.

AACTE recognizes other essential support for accountability provided by initiatives such as the teacher certification system being developed by the National Board for Professional Teaching Standards, and its efforts toward a comprehensive continuum of quality assurance for teacher education. AACTE also applauds initiatives for improving teacher education undertaken by IHE presidents through collaboratives such as The Renaissance Group and initiatives such as Project 30 that involve liberal arts faculty. These integrated efforts toward professional and institutional accountability represent a recognition of responsibility to the broader P-16 educational continuum.

AACTE's efforts to ensure coherence between accountability to the profession and the public function in tandem with our responsibilities to higher education institutions in which teacher preparation is housed. Professional education programs, and AACTE by extension, have numerous forms of internal accountability to support institutional mission, academic standards, and resources. Effective and professionally responsible teacher preparation programs contribute significantly to the leadership role that presidents and higher education institutions can play in P- 16 improvement and reform--an agenda of ultimate benefit to the institution itself.

AACTE needs to move forward toward a shared responsibility with other groups in the profession on behalf of P-16 education, and to build mutual accountability around the students we serve. To that end, we believe that the principal means of quality assurance and accountability is the partnership of professional organizations in developing standards and conducting standards-based review of teacher preparation institutions. AACTE strongly endorses national professional accreditation as a major tool for achieving high standards that supports the learning of all students and that provides a high level of accountability to the public trust we hold.

Approved by AACTE Executive Committee
July 1999

1. Sockett, H. (1990). Accountability, trust, and ethical codes of practice. In J.I. Goodlad, R. Soder, and K. A. Sirotnik (eds.), The Moral Dimensions of Teaching. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.

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