By Margaret Wilson
Ontario can offer superior teaching
only if we can offer superior teacher education programs. The responsibility for assuring
the profession and the public that our faculties of education provide the best teacher
education possible lies with the College, which has a mandate to accredit pre-service and
in-service programs.
In 1997, we began to develop an
accreditation program for pre-service education at Ontario’s universities, with a
plan to extend it to in-service programs and program providers once an accreditation
regulation is in place. The three-year pilot accreditation project took each of 10
existing faculties of education – all of whom volunteered for the pilot –
through a rigorous review of their course design, quality of instruction, qualifications
of faculty members and resources available to the faculty.
FACULTY INVOLVEMENT
During the course of the project, the
College’s Accreditation Committee developed a handbook for faculties of education to
guide them through the review process. Faculties were kept abreast of the development of
the policy and they participated by providing input and feedback during the subsequent
phases of the project. Representatives of the faculties of education also served as
members of Accreditation Committee sub-committees. In line with our usual practice in
developing new processes and programs, we invited members of the public, College members
and other education stakeholders to comment on the programs that were the subject of the
pilot project.
The project was completed at the end of
June, by which time all of the pre-service programs had received their initial
accreditation review.
WIDESPREAD SUPPORT
In our consultations and information
sessions, teachers and school boards welcomed the benefits that a formal accreditation
program will offer. They told us that a process of accreditation for existing programs,
new courses and programs, and program providers will lead to more consistency in quality,
a wider range of courses to choose from, improved access to courses that will reduce
travel and away-from-home expenses, and courses that will have a practical application and
respond to local needs. Access to in-service programs is particularly important for
teachers in Northern and French-language school districts.
We have now come to something of a
crossroads. An important outcome of the pilot project was the College’s accreditation
regulation, which must be passed into law by the provincial government in order for the
College to proceed with the accreditation program. This is one of a series of College
initiatives awaiting action by the Ministry of Education.
There is widespread agreement on the
need for a regulation to ensure the quality of our pre-service and in-service teacher
education programs. Teachers, keenly aware that there is a direct correlation between
their own learning and what they can offer their students, are eager to see their options
for professional development expand. Employers welcome a process that will provide greater
consistency in the quality of in-service courses that teachers take.
AWAITING GOVERNMENT
ACTION
The accreditation regulation represents
a major step forward in developing quality control in the education of our teachers and,
by extension, in the education of our children.
A draft of the regulation was forwarded
to the Ministry of Education in January for their review and comments. The ministry
responded with a request for more information, which we were happy to provide.
On March 14, we forwarded a final
version of the regulation to Education Minister Janet Ecker. Accompanying the regulation
was a reminder that the College cannot proceed with this initiative until the
accreditation regulation is passed by Cabinet. When that step is taken and this regulation
is in place, we will have moved measurably forward in ensuring quality control of both
pre-service and in-service teacher education.
I know that we have strong support
throughout the education sector for the accreditation process and hope that the government
will move expeditiously to support our effort to improve both the quality of programs and
teacher access to them.
