WHY AM I HERE? It's the third Friday, and time for the monthly report from the Teacher Certification committee I've been conscripted onto.

As some readers might have suspected, the teacher preparation program at Northern Illinois is confronting its review from the National Council for Accreditation of Teacher Education, which the cognoscenti refer to as EN-Kate. I can see that a regular serving of Professor Plum will help me get through this hitch. What distinguishes Northern Illinois from Professor Plum's university is that Northern Illinois involves several colleges in teacher certification. Therefore, although the College of Education will have to jump through the hoops Professor Plum mentions, others are also subject to being called into the center ring.

At least I now know what the point is. We received it, on a nice blue sheet of paper.

The Unit Assessment uses common measures across programs to determine candidate progress in three areas outlined in the NIU Conceptual Framework^(*) Within each broad area, several categories of performance are assessed.⁽⁺⁾ The measures for Knowledge seek to assess candidate performance related to: content standards, Illinois Professional Teaching Standards, technology and core language arts standards, and scholarship. The measures for Practice seek to assess candidate performance related to: P-12 student learning, collaboration, and preparedness for diverse settings. The measures for Reflection seek to assess candidate dispositions related to: caring, lifelong learning/scholarship, creative and critical thinking, collaboration, and diversity. In addition to these common measures of performance, the unit assessment system assures that all candidates have been tested for tuberculosis (TB test) and have passed a criminal background check.

That last sentence jars, but note it is the most substantive performance measure in the statement of philosophy.

We also have a statement of principles.

Statement of Principle – Contemporary Experiences

The professional education faculty preparing candidates for initial teacher certification support, as a matter of principle, that all members of the unit such faculty should undertake sustained contemporary professional experiences in school settings minimally once every three years.

For purposes of this statement of principle, a contemporary professional experience is defined as an activity at a PK-12 school site that relates directly to the area of pedagogical training (certification) delivered by the respective member of the teacher preparation unit. Such contemporary experiences are expected to promote the faculty member’s knowledge of and direct experiences with current practices involving curriculum and instruction, diverse student populations, changing school and community cultures, and other policies and issues affecting local education agencies. Such contemporary experience requires the respective faculty member to engage in interaction with school site personnel and students in manners such as direct teaching of students across time, teacher action research, and cooperative endeavors. Such contemporary experience does not include activities such as observation of student teachers, delivery of in-service presentations, or teaching graduate or undergraduate classes.

That took about a half hour of discussion, two amendments to strike each of the "Such contemporary experience" sentences, and the subset of all faculty treated as "professional education faculty" as well as suitable "experience" and sufficiently above minimal work remain to be spelled out.

^(*)The conceptual framework is the document I referred to here as having a logo that resembles a hazardous-material warning.

⁽⁺⁾Catch that Divine Passive? The assessment isn't going to do itself. Somebody -- a lot of somebodies -- are going to be busy filling in forms and otherwise providing information, all because "Data is the force behind needed change." I thought the struggles between the Light Side and the Dark Side of the Force were behind change, and Data was an android. Silly me.