The University of Idaho College of Education has been awarded its best accreditation in 25 years by the Council for Accreditation of Educator Preparation.
Jessica Greene | Argonaut
The University of Idaho College of Education received its best accreditation in 25 years. The accreditation is awarded by the Council for Accreditation of Educator Preparation.
Corrine Mantle-Bromley, dean of the College of Education, said accreditation happens every seven years and the college has never had a lapse in approval.
“In the between times, we look at what we want to try and achieve … we’re constantly working towards being reaccredited,” Mantle-Bromley said.
CAEP changed its standards for accreditation in August. The organization now requires educator preparation providers to complete a self-study and host an on-site visit.
Dan Campbell, director of Assessment and Accreditation for the College of Education, is in charge of collecting, analyzing and reporting data for the college. The data Campbell collects is used as evidence in the accreditation process.
“Usually someone will say that a certain area needs improvement,” Mantle-Bromley said. “It’s not uncommon to have a couple problem areas to improve before next time … We were told that we have no new areas that needed improvement and that our old areas have definitely improved.”
Mantle-Bromley said there is one area under constant improvement — increasing diversity in terms of where students go for internships and practicums for teaching.
“They said we did a good job dealing with our diversity issues and seeing how to teach our students to educate people from different backgrounds — but it’s still a continuous process,” Mantle-Bromley said.
Campbell said the college works with many programs and faculty at UI to prepare future educators to teach in many different subjects.
“In agriculture, sciences, business, letter arts and social sciences … students who are in the College of Education are called teacher candidates,” Campbell said. “We want to show that our students are prepared to teach diverse learners.”
Mantle-Bromley said there are about 1,200 students currently enrolled in the College of Education. She said they have degrees in elementary education, secondary education, physical education, teacher education, and even more. Mantle-Bromley said the college just moved its exercise science and health degree from an undergraduate program to a master’s program.
“Most of the teacher preparation happens in the department of curriculum and instruction, then there’s the department of movement science which covers exercise, health and dance,” Mantle-Bromley said. “Or if a student is looking to become a principle or an administrator there is the leadership and counseling department.”
Mantle-Bromley said she makes sure every program is as strong as it can be. She is currently concerned with constant improvement and goals of the college.
“We are really increasing the amount of technology that our students will be receiving — in almost everything we do we’re integrating new technology,” Mantle-Bromley said.
Mantle-Bromley said the college is increasing student assessment of programs and is constantly looking to improve programs to better prepare students for their careers.
Mantle-Bromley said she is also looking to recruit new students into the College of Education.
“We have a shortage of special education, science, technology, engineering and math teaching disciplines,” Mantle-Bromley said. “We need to recruit more math and science students to go into teaching.”
Danielle Wiley can be reached at [email protected]