College of Education under review

by Stephanie Kitts

Daily Lobo

The College of Education is being reviewed to determine its eligibility for renewal of state and national accreditations.

The review happens every seven years, said Richard Van Dongen, deputy dean for the college.

"It's a way of making sure that there is ongoing self-study and that the programs try to keep up to date and improve themselves along the way," he said. "This is true of almost every professional accreditation process."

New Mexico's Public Education Department observed the college from Wednesday to Friday.

The National Council for Accreditation of Teacher Education will observe the college until Wednesday.

It will make recommendations to the college's administration, which will evaluate their findings, Van Dongen said.

He said he is unsure when the review teams will make a decision on the accreditation renewal.

The review applies to initial teaching licensure, advanced licensure for counseling and the principalship and advanced continuing education for teachers, Van Dongen said.

The teams will look at six aspects of the college, including how its graduates perform, students' field experience and the faculty's qualifications.

"They are trying to determine if what we say in the reports holds up to what they observe in what we do or don't do," he said. "We know that this review will help us see where we are not."

The college has been preparing for this review for the past several years by evaluating its students and faculty, Van Dongen said.

"The self-studies are very valuable because you don't often have much chance to pause and reflect on what you are doing or what you're not doing," he said. "And you don't have much chance as a collective to compare how you're progressing as far as other institutions go."

The review teams will look at the reports the school provides from the self-studies and compare them to the performance of the school during the visit, Van Dongen said.

They will also be interviewing faculty, students and superintendents from school districts around the University, he said.

Student Rachel Fitzwater said the review will impact her job options when she graduates.

"It's important for my college to be accredited so that I have a wider variety of options to get hired," she said.