KU dean named to two organizations dedicated to producing better teachers
LAWRENCE — Rick Ginsberg, dean of the University of Kansas School of Education, has been named to positions with two organizations dedicated to ensuring improving education across the country and producing a new generation of excellent educators.
Ginsberg has been appointed to the National Commission on Standards and Performance Reporting for the new accrediting body that unifies two current accreditors, the Council for the Accreditation of Educator Preparation. He also was recently elected chairman of the board of directors of the American Association of Colleges of Teacher Education. Ginsberg is currently chairman of the Professional Teaching Standards Advisory Board in Kansas.
“It is a great honor to represent the University of Kansas in these national positions with important organizations like CAEP and AACTE. CAEP is emerging at a significant time in the nation’s history when the need for stronger schools is recognized as key for our future,” Ginsberg said. “The new commission will help CAEP work towards meeting that goal. Both these organizations are dedicated to improving the preparation of educators in institutions of higher education to better meet the needs of all students in the nation’s P-12 schools.”
Council for the Accreditation of Educator Preparation
The council’s purpose is to ensure that every classroom in the nation has an effective teacher. The group will develop rigorous accreditation standards for educator preparation. It is the new accrediting body for schools of education and was formed by the unification of the National Council for the Accreditation of Teacher Education and the Teacher Education Accreditation Council.
“To attain or to continue professional accreditation, preparation providers will need to indicate evidence of effectiveness through data on candidate performance and show how they are using the data for program improvement,” said James G. Cibulka, president of the two unified councils.
The council has said all educator preparation providers should be subject to the same high standards of quality. To make this possible, one of the tasks of the Commission is to ensure accreditation standards are appropriate for all preparation providers. In the past, accreditation standards have been geared specifically to higher education institutions.
The Council for the Accreditation of Educator Preparation, to become operational in 2013, will accredit over 900 teacher education institutions across the nation, producing approximately 175,000 graduates annually.
American Association of Colleges of Teacher Education
Ginsberg was named chairman of the board of directors at the Association’s meeting last week in Chicago. The organization is a national alliance of programs that produce teachers, representing nearly every higher education institution that educates teachers in the United States.
“AACTE strives to focus its membership on ways to strengthen educator preparation working closely with partners in the P-12 schools,” Ginsberg said. “Finding ways to assist colleges and universities to better meet the needs of today’s students is paramount in the work of those active with AACTE.”
The organization aims to make statements about high-quality educator preparation, maintain a presence in education policy making, strengthen teacher preparation programs and increase the diversity of education candidates and improve programs’ curriculum.