Accreditors Shift Toward Performance

By Ann Bradley

Washington

The National Council for Accreditation of Teacher Education announced last week that it plans to shift toward a system that will place greater emphasis on the performance of teacher-candidates in evaluating education schools.

Arthur E. Wise, the president of NCATE, described the change as "a very large undertaking" that would bring teacher education in line with the broader movement to set higher academic standards for students and teachers.

The plan to create a performance-based system over the next three years, known as NCATE 2000, won the unanimous approval of the organization's...