Council for the Accreditation of Educator Preparation (CAEP)
Eastern Michigan University, founded as the Michigan State Normal School in 1849, has maintained a reputation for excellence in the preparation of teachers, administrators, and other school personnel throughout Michigan and around the world. Accredited by the National Council for the Accreditation of Teacher Education (NCATE) since its inception in 1954, we are happy to announce continued success in that we received full accreditation from the Council for the Accreditation of Educator Preparation (CAEP) on May 30, 2018. CAEP is the successor to NCATE. As part of this accreditation we discovered two areas of improvement we are working on as we create rich and meaningful clinical experiences for all future teachers. These are 1. The EPP does not have a plan to co-select, prepare, evaluate, support, and retain high-quality clinical educators. (Component 2.2) and (2) The EPP does not have a plan to design clinical experiences of depth, breadth, and sufficient diversity to ensure that candidates demonstrate their developing effectiveness and positive impact on all students' learning development. (Component 2.3).
We are very proud of this accomplishment and validation of the quality of our teacher preparation programs and graduates. The accreditation process is a celebration of the hardworking faculty and staff who are committed to supporting the university students studying to be teachers and the communities in which we serve. This is not only a testament to our programs, but to the partnership amongst the university students, faculty, communities, and P-12 partners to develop high quality teachers. Graduates of Eastern Michigan University’s teacher preparation programs are well prepared to make a difference in children’s and families’ lives, and communities’ in which they reside.
What does accreditation mean? At Eastern Michigan University we do not do anything for the sole purpose of “accreditation”. We believe in the standards set forward by CAEP and consider the accreditation process an opportunity to demonstrate and receive external national validation that we are meeting those standards. We engage in this rigorous process to identify our strengths while striving towards continuous improvement.
We are committed to each of excellence in teacher preparation because we believe in developing high quality teachers ready to work with all students in any school setting. Our accreditation status verifies that our candidates are held to high standards for success in learning content and pedagogical knowledge and have demonstrated this knowledge through performance on classroom assessments and grades, standardized tests [PDF], and the real test – evaluation of actual classroom instruction.