Education Department prepares for virtual accreditation visit

During the three-day virtual visit, the five-member CAEP team, led by Dr. Megan Parker Peters of Lipscomb University in Kentucky, will conduct video conference interviews with CSC students, faculty, and administrators in addition to regional teachers and school administrators.

The accreditation visit, performed on a seven-year cycle, provides quality assurance through peer review, according to CAEP’s website. CSC’s Education Program has been continuously accredited since 1913, according to Dr. Don King, a member of the CSC CAEP preparation team. Other members of the team are Dr. Margaret Crouse, team lead, Dr. James Powell, Dr. Patti Blundell, and LaWayne Zeller. Other program faculty and staff have contributed to the effort.

Throughout the accreditation process, each of the five CAEP accreditation review team members focus on one of the five CAEP standards: content and pedagogical knowledge; clinical partnerships and practice; candidate quality, recruitment, and selectivity; program impact; and provider quality, continuous improvement, and capacity.

In July 2019, the CSC team submitted an Institutional Report addressing CSC’s proficiencies and accomplishments in these five categories. King said quantitative and qualitative data were compiled and synthesized for the self-study from internal and state sources. Each of the CAEP team members had six to eight weeks to review the report and submit questions. In October, Parker Peters presented those questions to the CSC team, who then submitted their responses in January. A second follow-up video conference between CSC’s team and Parker-Peters and CAEP’s Accreditation Director Banhi Bhattacharya took place March 31.

Following the virtual visit, CAEP will issue a report about CSC’s accreditation reaffirmation within 30 to 60 days, according to King.