Teach-Now, an online teacher-preparation program, has received full seven-year accreditation from the Council for Accreditation of Educator Preparation—making it the first online institution to meet the council’s new, more rigorous standards.
The program, founded in 2011 by C. Emily Feistritzer, takes candidates nine months to complete. The first class began in March 2013, and since then, the longtime promoter of alternative certification said, it has accepted and enrolled almost 1,500 people in 80 countries and 44 states.
CAEP unveiled its more ambitious standards for program accreditation in 2013. Teacher-prep programs are judged on five standards: equipping candidates with content knowledge and appropriate pedagogical tools; working in partnership with districts to provide strong student-teaching practice and feedback; recruiting a diverse and academically strong group of candidates; demonstrating that graduates are successfully boosting preK-12 students’ academic achievement; and maintaining a quality-assurance system.
