UAFS College of Education granted continued accreditation

The National Council for Accreditation of Teacher Education (NCATE) has officially granted continued accreditation of the College of Education at the University of Arkansas at Fort Smith, an accreditation that includes no citations for improvement.

The official notice came from the Unit Accreditation Board of NCATE in a letter from NCATE president Jim Cibulka, who said he was pleased to inform UAFS of the continued accreditation. He stated that the accreditation decision indicates that the unit and its programs meet rigorous standards set forth by the professional education community.

Cibulka further said that special congratulations were in order because the Board " … cited no areas for improvement relative to any of the standards."

Dr. John R. Jones, dean of the College of Education, said the report from NCATE is valuable to UAFS. He said institutions must provide evidence that teacher education candidates possess the requisite knowledge, skills and dispositions to effectively teach diverse learners and to have an impact on student learning.

"Teacher candidates must know and understand the subject matter they plan to teach and be able to teach effectively so that all students learn," said Jones. "We are proud of the graduates of our programs, and the schools who hire our teachers can also be proud of them."

The UAFS College of Education first received accreditation in 2005 and began preparing at that time for this year’s accreditation team visit in April. The NCATE Board met in late October.