1.3 Doctoral program issues: accreditation of programs  (Page 3/10)

Young and colleagues indicated that quality has been supported for more than 50 years as UCEA has worked to ensure that its membership criteria support quality leadership preparation. The 73 doctoral granting institutions that make up UCEA, have committed to the following standards:

•Program faculty identify, develop, and promote relevant knowledge for the leadership field.

•Programs involve a critical mass of full-time leadership faculty members, who exhibit excellence in scholarship, teaching, and service.

•Programs collaborate with practitioners, and other stakeholders in candidate selection,program planning, teaching, and field internships.

•Programs collaborate with scholars, practitioners, and other stakeholders to inform program content, promote diversity within their program and the field, and develop sites for clinical practice and applied research.

•Programs are conceptually coherent, aligned with quality leadership standards, informed by current scholarship, and incorporate best practices in leadership preparation.

•Programs engage in on-going programmatic evaluation and enhancement.

•Programs include concentrated periods of study and supervised clinical practice in settings that provide an opportunity to work with diverse groups of students and teachers.

•Programs are characterized by systematic recruitment and admission plans that use multiple sources of evidence and purposive recruitment of a high quality and diverse applicant pool.

•Programs maintain systematic efforts to assist students in placement and career advancement.

•Program faculty participate in professional development programs for educational leaders, in cooperation with professional associations and other stakeholders.

•Programs offer regular professional development for leadership faculty to enhance their skills in leadership preparation and research methods. (www.ucea.org)

Furthermore they averred“that the above programs standards, in conjunction with quality leadership standards (e.g., ISLLC), form the basis of effective leadership preparation and would recommend their widespread adoption”(p. 2).

One View of Accreditation Standards with NCATE and Commentaries on EdD’s and PhD’s

NCATE, a national accrediting body for 623 colleges of education

NCATE has indicated that if a program is approved by a state in which the state’s program review process has been approved by the relevant SPA, that program will be nationally recognized. In the case of the educational administration program, principal (building) and superintendent (district) certification, the approval is made by the ELCC.