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The Council on Academic Accreditation in Audiology and Speech-Language Pathology (CAA) of ASHA and the National Council for Accreditation of Teacher Education (NCATE) have had an accreditation agreement [PDF] in place since 1995. This agreement supports collaboration between accrediting agencies and recognizes that graduate education programs in audiology and speech-language pathology should not be subject to duplicate accreditation reviews. The agreement document was modified to clarify the responsibilities and procedures between ASHA, CAA, NCATE, the Council for Exceptional Children (CEC) and programs, and therefore, supercedes all former agreements between these agencies and is in effect as of the date of its signing, January 31, 2003.
CEC, the specialty professional organization that initiates guidelines and reviews special education programs within NCATE, reviewed the CAA's 1999 accreditation standards and determined that these standards match or exceed CEC guidelines for advanced programs and are an indicator that specific content/specialty areas meet national standards. Therefore, NCATE, through the CEC, accepts the accreditation decisions of the CAA, without conducting its own separate accreditation review. This means that any CAA-accredited programs in audiology or speech-language pathology that are housed within a college, school, or department of education and that also are due for NCATE accreditation of teacher education programs, will not have to undergo a complete accreditation review.
As you will note in Item 4 of the agreement, CAA-accredited programs are required to provide only minimal documentation as part of the NCATE review of the professional education unit. They will be asked to submit only a copy of the official letter of notification from the CAA that conveys the current accreditation status and cycle of accreditation, and evidence on candidate performance to support NCATE Unit Standard 1. NCATE's Unit Standard 6 requires that the professional education unit (e.g., the school, college, or department of education) "effectively manages or coordinates all programs" that prepare P-12 school personnel. Therefore, the education unit is required to maintain a formal relationship with CAA-accredited programs and to show how the program relates to the unit's (school, college, or department of education) conceptual framework. More information about NCATE's relationships with accrediting agencies like the CAA is available on NCATE's Web site
The CAA views this agreement as a positive response to increasing concerns over the duplication of efforts by accrediting bodies. We are pleased to have CEC recognize the quality of the CAA's accreditation standards and process. We encourage you to share this information with your deans or other university administration officials as appropriate and necessary. Feel free to contact the CAA (accreditation@asha.org) or NCATE offices (ncate@ncate.org) with any questions you may have regarding this agreement.
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