NCATE Revising Standards on Child-Development Preparation

An expert panel is drafting recommendations for how teacher colleges can craft courses and curricula so that future educators have a stronger understanding of how children develop emotionally and psychologically, from the early grades through high school.

The group, which met for the first time last month, was convened by the National Council for Accreditation of Teacher Education , an organization that accredits schools of education. Its work is the outgrowth of a collaboration between NCATE and the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, or NICHD, part of the National Institutes of Health.

The panel is expected to produce recommendations on how colleges can better incorporate child-development training into their teacher education programs. It will also make suggestions on how NCATE can revise its standards for accrediting teacher colleges to meet that goal. NCATE, based in Washington, accredits about 650 teacher-training programs, which the organization estimates produce more than two-thirds of the nation’s...