I am helping D19 research schools to apply to for next year for elementary education. We were told to only consider NCATE accredited schools. We have gone to the website and are a little confused as there appears to multiple type of certifications.
CAEP Accredited EPPs and
NCATE EPPs
Is there much of a difference between the two? Is one better than other?
Also, how do you evaluate or compare schools for their teaching programs
@DCNatFan - little late to this thread, but better late than never I always say!
D19 is looking into SecEd and I have been researching the same way…and although the NCATE word is still used on many schools websites and such, as of 2016 the NCATE and TEAC accrediting bodies were disbanded and all rolled into the new accreditation body CAEP. NCATE/TEAC standards are no longer used for accreditation. So you should look for CAEP accreditation where you can.
I’m assuming though, if they are NCATE accredited now and didn’t need to be accredited again until 2018 or later, that should be fine as a good guide…when they are re-certified, they will change it to the CAEP accred.
Since we are looking at SecEd, it’s working a little different for us as D needs both a Math program and an Ed program, but we found these websites helpful as well:
https://www.nctq.org/review
https://www.teachercertificationdegrees.com/schools/
Hope that helps…happy to continue the conversation going if you have more questions…this Ed journey is difficult to navigate but helpful to have other resources.
@ILMom13579 Thanks for the response and agree the Ed journey is extremely difficult to navigate. D19 is really focused on early childhood education and we are trying to steer or at least consider elementary education with a possible minor in early childhood. We think that will give her some more flexibility and options. We are also encouraging her to try in work in special education as well. We have found some interesting programs at a few schools that over double majors.
I actually reached out to one school D19 was looking at because they were not listed on the NCATE site but their website said they were certified. They responded and actually provided their certification letter and they also reached out to NCATE and had the website fixed.
My D has her UG degree in childhood and elementary ed with a concentration in music and a master’s in special ed. She taught for one year and then left the classroom. She now works for an educational technology firm doing teacher support and training.
Her degree is from a SUNY school and my advice is that a state school is probably more than sufficient for a teaching degree. I would have been upset, irate, furious and heartbroken had my D (and/or I) incurred tons of student debt for her to get a degree from a private school and she then left the profession after one year. There is an incredible amount of attrition in teaching. My D was someone who everybody thought would stay the course and become a long term teacher. Instead, she lasted one school year. While she has parlayed her degree into a job she loves, it’s with a start up so she doesn’t have the level of medical coverage the NYC DOE provides, she doesn’t have a traditional pension and she doesn’t have union protection. Coming from the program she did, my D easily passed her licensing exams and was hired by the first school she interviewed at. She then disregarded my advice to continue interviewing and when her first choice turned out not to be what she hoped for, she quit the profession instead of looking for something else.
@techmom99 - glad to hear your daughter had another avenue she could take when teaching didn’t work for her. And I agree that limiting debt is definitely a priority esp. since you pretty much HAVE to get a masters if you want to get very far in your field. The state school route is the way I would love for my D to go but we have fairly serious lack of money issue that is hampering our search a bit. There are only, I think, a handful of IL state schools that have decent math programs and of those only a couple have decent SecEd programs. Add to that our state schools are still reeling from the budget crisis the state was in recently…there isn’t a lot of money to give out, even to residents! With her stats at the moment, we are finding some private schools, both in and oos, with better programs and that are as cheap or may come in even under our state schools. It all makes the search that much more daunting.
@DCNatFan - I’ve got a spreadsheet of the schools we are looking at with what each program offers. For us, I’ve listed the specific math classes she needs to take and then the specific ed classes along with how much “in classroom/student teaching/tutoring, etc” time is required in the program. Amazing when you actually see it in black and white how different each school program can be! One of our state schools only requires 8! math classes while most of the privates are 10+. The ed classes are all pretty similar so I haven’t worried to much about those. I’ve seen that there is no shortage of early childhood/elementary ed teachers in lots of places so definitely having a specialty such as SpecEd or a second language will for sure give her a boost when it comes time to interview.