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NEWS
| October 9, 2003
Education
College prepares for national accreditation
team
If awarded, UTA would be the first
in the UT System to have the national status.
By Cindy
Terry
Contributor to The Shorthorn
UTA’s College of Education could be the first in the system
to be nationally accredited.
A team from the National Council for the Accreditation of Teacher
Education will finish its visit next week. Elaine Wilmore, educational
administration associate professor, said UTA should know the decision
in a month.
Officials say the college should have a good feel as to where the
university stands by the time the team leaves.
“We have worked very hard,” she said. We’re very
excited.”
National accreditation will give students a “leg up”
on competition after graduation, said professor Mary Lynn Crow.
In a public opinion poll conducted by Penn and Schoen research firm,
82 percent of the public favors requiring teachers to graduate from
nationally accredited professional schools.
“It’s going to make our students look better,”
she said.
Officials have gone to great lengths to prepare the college for
the team’s visit, Wilmore said.
“I was up until 4 a.m. last night,” she said. “And
I expect the rest of the week will be the same.”
Wilmore said the accreditation team will begin Saturday studying
whether the college meets the designated standards. According to
the accreditation firm’s Web site, it emphasizes content knowledge,
professional knowledge and practice in the classroom.
Sunday night, the college will showcase each of its programs, and
faculty, students and alumni will be available for questions.
“This is one of the most important parts of the visit,”
Wilmore said.
The team will conduct interviews with almost everybody in the college
Monday and Tuesday.
Then the college waits.
But efforts have already earned UTA recognition within the state.
The Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board recognized the former
school as a college in August.
Much of the credit can be given to Education Dean Jeanne Gerlach,
some say. Hired in 1997 for what she refers to as “a charge
to build” an education college, Gerlach and her peers have
done just that.
The college has grown by more than 700 percent in the last six years.
With the addition of the Kinesiology Department in 1999, it now
houses three departments and resides in seven facilities throughout
the UTA campus.
“The last time a college was named at UTA was in the ’70s,”
said Gerlach, referring to the College of Liberal Arts.
Wilmore explained that while hopes are high for national accreditation,
officials are prepared for the team’s feedback, adding that
it’s common for the council to point out areas to improve.
“We know how the game is played,” Wilmore said.
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| Jeanne
Gerlach, Education dean, says she was hired
with a charge to build the college.
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