How Does Location Impact Meaning and Opportunity? Rural Schools and the NCATE Diversity Standard

Abstract

Background/Context

While there is ample evidence that the K–12 student population is becoming increasingly diverse and the teacher workforce is not, very little literature addresses the specific problems rural teacher education programs may experience attempting to meet the National Council for the Accreditation of Teacher Education (NCATE) diversity standard. A 2005 NCATE-sponsored survey found that an unknown number of respondents indicated difficulty in meeting the requirements of the standard and that “geographically isolated” programs were especially affected. The existing research that targets rural programs tends to describe specific practices. As NCATE and TEAC, the two major teacher education accreditation programs, move toward consolidation, revisiting the expectations regarding diversity is critical.

Purpose/Objective/Research Question/Focus of Study

The purpose of this study was to explore rural SCDEs’ experiences with the diversity standard as well as the implications of these experiences, with the aim of reporting and suggesting possible strategies for enhancing the application of the standard at the institutional and agency levels. We hypothesized that rural schools experience difficulty with meeting aspects of the standard due to the potential limitations associated with the schools’ locations. Research questions focused on how rural programs define diversity, identification of obstacles, priorities for programs, and adaptations. One hundred and sixteen NCATE coordinators and/or deans participated in the study's online survey.

Research Design

This research was an exploratory study that used qualitative and quantitative methods. The instrument included survey questions and items for open-ended responses.

Conclusions/Recommendations

Rural teacher education programs do experience difficulties with meeting the requirements of the NCATE diversity standard. Respondents singled out recruitment and retention of diverse faculty and candidate's inability to provide high-quality diversity experiences, and location as the biggest issues. Respondents perceived that NCATE focuses on race and ethnicity to the exclusion of other categories. In particular, respondents reported strong beliefs that SES and exceptionalities are more universal and more locally relevant and deserve to be recognized as critical priorities for educating candidates who could build on this competence in working with other diversities—a kind of “transferable skills” perspective. Programs would like to see recognition for “good faith” efforts and would value the opportunity to demonstrate the strengths and generalizability of their diversity programs. As NCATE and the Teacher Education Accreditation Council (TEAC) move toward consolidation, new frameworks for assessing these frameworks should be considered.

Get full access to this article

View all access options for this article.

References

Allington

R. L.

(2005). Ignoring the policy makers to improve teacher preparation. Journal of Teacher Education, 56(3), 199–204.

Baltodano

M. P.

(2006). The accreditation of schools of education and the appropriation of diversity. Cultural Studies <=> Critical Methodologies, 6(1), 123–142.

Banks

J. A.

(1993a). Multicultural education: Development, dimensions, and challenges. Phi Delta Kappan, 75(1), 22–28.

Banks

J. A.

(1993b). Multicultural education: Historical development, dimensions, and practice. In Darling-Hammond

(Ed.), Review of Research in Education (pp. 3–49). Washington, DC: American Educational Research Association.

Blair

(2007, May 23). New accreditor gaining toehold in teacher ed. Education Week, 20(37), 12–15.

Bonilla-Silva

(2001). White supremacy and racism in the post-civil rights era. Boulder, CO: Rienner.

Boyd

B. A.

, & Correa

V. I.

(2005). Developing a framework for reducing the cultural clash between African American parents and the special education system. Multicultural Perspectives, 7(2), 3–11.

Bridgeland

, Dilulio

, & Morison

(2006). The silent epidemic: Perspectives of high school dropouts. Washington, DC: Civic Enterprises, Hart.

Bullough

R. V.

Jr. , Clark

D. C.

, & Patterson

R. S.

(2003). Getting in step: Accountability, accreditation, and the standardization of teacher education in the United State. Journal of Education for Teaching, 29(1), 35–51.

10.

Chamberlain

S. P.

(2005). Recognizing and responding to cultural differences in the education of culturally and linguistically diverse learners. Intervention in School and Clinic, 40, 195–211.

11.

Duncan

(2009). Teacher preparation: Reforming the uncertain profession—Remarks of Secretary Arne Duncan at Teachers College, Columbia University. Retrieved from http://www.ed.gov/news/speeches/2009/10/10222009.html

12.

Eduventures. (2008). Schools of Education Learning Collaborative, common indicators for schools of education, Part II: Characteristics and benchmarks for schools of education. Boston: Author.

13.

Ferguson

R. F.

(2005). Teacher's perceptions and expectations and the Black-White test score gap. In Fashola

(Ed.), Educating African American males: Voices from the field (pp. 79–128). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.

14.

Gay

(2000). Culturally responsive teaching: Theory, research, and practice. New York, NY: Teachers College Press.

15.

Hollins

, & Guzman

M. T.

(2005). Research on preparing teachers for diverse populations. In Cochran-Smith

& Zeichner

(Eds.), Studying teacher education (pp. 477–548). Washington, DC: American Educational Research Association.

16.

Honawar

(2007, March 7). Teacher-college group presses for single accrediting body. Education Week, 26(26), 7.

17.

Howard

(2006). We can't teach what we don't know (2nd ed.). New York, NY: Teachers College P Press.

18.

Johnson

D. D.

, Johnson

, Farenga

S. J.

, & Ness

(2005). Trivializing teacher education: The accreditation squeeze. Lanham, MD: Rowan & Littlefield.

19.

Landsman

, & Lewis

C. W.

(Eds.). (2006). White teachers, diverse classrooms. Sterling, VA: Stylus.

20.

Levine

(2006a). Educating school teachers. Washington, DC: Education Schools Project.

21.

Little

, & Garber

(2004). Interpersonal achievement orientations and specific stressors predict depressive and aggressive symptoms. Journal of Adolescent Research, 19, 64–73.

22.

Mitchell

, & Yamagishi

(2005). The results are in: What deans and NCATE coordinators think about the NCATE unit standards. Washington, DC: National Council for Accreditation of Teacher Education. Retrieved February 2, 2011, from http://www.ncate.org/public/teacherQuality.asp?ch=1

23.

Murray

F. B.

(2005). On building a unified system of accreditation in teacher education. Journal of Teacher Education, 56(4), 307–317.

24.

National Comprehensive Center for Teacher Quality. (n.d.). Teacher preparation state policy database—Full report. Retrieved from http://www2.tqsource.org/mb2dev/reports/reportTQ.aspx?id=946

25.

National Council for the Accreditation of Teacher Education. (1977). Standards for the accreditation of teacher education. Washington, DC: Author.

26.

National Council for Accreditation of Teacher Education. (2010). NCATE and TEAC form new accrediting body: The Council for the Accreditation of Educator Preparation (CAEP) [Press release]. Retrieved February 2, 2011, from http://www.caepsite.org/doc-uments/102210_newsrelease_caep.pdf

27.

Oates

(2003). Teacher-student racial congruence, teacher-perceptions, and test performance. Social Science Quarterly, 84, 508–525.

28.

Orfield

, & Lee

(2005). Why segregation matters: Poverty and educational inequality. Cambridge, MA: Civil Rights Project at Harvard University.

29.

Phillion

, Malewski

, & Richardson

(2006). Personalizing technology to interrupt the resistance of pre-service teachers to multicultural education. Electronic Magazine of Multicultural Education, 8(2), 1–14. Retrieved from http://www.eastern.edu/publications/emme/2006fall/phillion_et_al.pdf

30.

Ploghoft

, Ruhl

, Crossland

, & Wall

(2009). Taking a more subtle approach to diversity. Journal for the Liberal Arts and Sciences, 13(2), 70–77. Retrieved from http://www.oak.edu/academics/school-arts-sciences-jlas-archive.php

31.

Rumberger

R. W.

, & Palardy

G. J.

(2005). Does segregation still matter? The impact of student composition on academic achievement in high school. Teachers College Record, 107(9), 1999–2045.

32.

Tatum

(1999). When you're called a racist. Education Digest, 65(1), 29–32.

33.

Teacher Education Accreditation Council. (2010). Guide to accreditation. Retrieved September 22, 2010 from http://www.teac.org/wp-content/uploads/2009/03/teac-guide-to-accreditation.pdf

34.

U.S. Department of Education. (2007). The condition of education 2007 (NCES 2007-064). Washington, DC: U. S. Government Printing Office.

35.

U.S. Department of Education. (2010). Status and trends in the education of racial and ethnic minorities (NCES 2010-015). Washington, DC: U.S. Government Printing Office. Retrieved from http://nces.ed.gov/pubs2010/2010015/tables/table_7_2.asp

36.

Vergari

, & Hess

F. M.

(2002). The accreditation game. Education Next, 2(3), 48–57.

37.

Villegas

A. M.

, & Lucas

(2004). Diversifying the teacher workforce: A retrospective and prospective analysis. In Smylie

M. A.

& Miretzky

(Eds.), Developing the teacher workforce (pp. 70–104). Chicago, IL: National Society for the Study of Education.

38.

Wakefield

D. B.

, Talbert

B. A.

, & Pense

(2006). A descriptive study on the preparation of student teachers to work with diverse populations. Online Journal for Workforce Education and Development, 2(1). Retrieved from http:/wed.siu.Wallaceedu/Journal/

39.

Yeo

(1999). The barriers of diversity: Multicultural education and rural schools. Multicultural Education, 7(1), 1–7.

40.

Zirkel

(2008). The influence of multicultural educational practices on student outcomes and intergroup relations. Teachers College Record, 110(6), 1147–1181.

41.

Zumwalt

, & Craig

(2005). Teachers’ characteristics: Research on the demographic profile. In Cochran-Smith

& Zeichner

(Eds.), Studying teacher education (pp. 111–156). Washington, DC: American Educational Research Association.