Program Receives 7-Year Accreditation from CAEP

By Doug Goodnough—Special to the Daily Telegram

Siena Heights University’s Education program recently passed a very important test when it received full seven-year accreditation from the Council for the Accreditation of Educator Preparation.

The Education program has been at the institution since its founding more than 100 years ago. However, the program must undergo a “continuous improvement cycle,” according to SHU Division of Education Chair and Associate Professor of Education Carrie Mitchell.

“We were thrilled with the outcome,” she said of the CAEP accreditation. “It is an honor to receive this status and meet such high level of standards. This was truly a team effort. The amount of work each Education faculty member and our part-time administrative assistant must do is on top of everything else we do. Accreditation creates a tremendous workload for all of us.”

In fact, the CAEP accreditation process consists of a series of reports, a self-study and a site visit from CAEP representatives.

“The purpose of the site visit is for CAEP to interview stakeholders to corroborate the evidence and data we submitted in the self-study and addendum,” Mitchell said. “Are we doing what we say we are doing? Stakeholders include current teacher candidates, student-teachers, alumni, local teachers, local school administrators, Division of Education faculty, university content faculty and university administrators.”

After the site visit, CAEP provides areas of improvement (AFI) to be addressed over time by the next site visit.

“We did wonderful, only one AFI, which we self-identified early on,” Mitchell said.

Once the final reports were submitted, CAEP informed the university that its program is now accredited through spring 2027. However, Mitchell said CAEP is just one of three accrediting bodies to which the program must report.

“We also answer to the Michigan Department of Education,” Mitchell said. “As part of this process, we are also required to have state approvals for all 21 of our certification programs. We are evaluated by the State of Michigan yearly, based on several data points, such as certification test scores, multiple stakeholder surveys, and even the teacher evaluation scores from their districts. Once a candidate graduates, they are linked to us and tracked by the state for three years.”

Mitchell said the program must also submit reports to the High Learning Commission, which is a university-wide regional accreditation body.

Despite having to meet all the accreditation standards, Mitchell said it is important that the program has its own identity.

“We weave the story of who we are, what we stand for and the quality of our teaching candidates,” Mitchell said. “For example, the Division of Education’s conceptual framework is rooted in our Dominican heritage, with the center of the symbol as the Torch of Truth. The conceptual framework is the heart of what our programs stand for: responsive instruction, essential knowledge, professional integrity and collaborative leadership. Although we must adhere to the rigorous standards of CAEP, we are also encouraged to embrace our own identity.”

That identity also includes excellence and innovation in the classroom. Mitchell said the CAEP report cited SHU’s teacher candidates as being well-versed in standards and skilled at helping P-12 students to deconstruct standards to help students get to the “why” of the content. CAEP also noted SHU’s use of technology in the program, particularly in music education and special education.

“Overall our state scores are at or above the state-average compared to universities across the state of Michigan,” Mitchell said. “These scores include areas such as certification tests, stakeholder surveys and practicing teacher work evaluations. For example, our cumulative passage rate on certification tests last year was at 94.7 percent, and our stakeholder surveys scores were at 99 percent efficacy.”

SHU currently has approximately 160 students in its Education program. Mitchell said the university attempts to recruit the best candidates into the program, and also works to address areas that currently have teacher shortages, especially in the math and sciences and special education.

“Having been P-12 practitioners and administrators prior to our careers in higher education, our Education faculty bring those teaching techniques to the classrooms,” Mitchell said. “Modeling, hands-on practice and feedback are essential for the teacher candidates. The skills are aligned to standards and scaffolded throughout their programs.”

She said the program is also proud of its Adrian Dominican heritage.

“Siena Heights University was founded as a teaching institute to meet the needs of the community just after the turn of the century,” said Mitchell, whose division is located on a floor of the former St. Joseph Academy, which has been renovated into a state-of-the-art instructional facility. “The Sisters saw there was a need at the time for teachers in the area. We continue to be responsive to those needs even now, 100 years later, during a time of teacher shortages across the state. We work very closely with our Office of Admissions to recruit high-quality, diverse candidates.”

With the coronavirus crisis impacting education at all levels, she said her program is already adapting.

“The impact of the coronavirus has made all in education, from the local schools to the university level, rethink practices,” Mitchell said. “Where we will have to rethink some of our practices will be in the clinical field experiences. Most courses in the Division of Education require clinical field work specific to those courses. This is where we will be creative with our preschool and K-12 partners to continue to collaborate so teacher candidates will still receive the high-quality experiences with our local school partners in both the actual schools and virtual classroom experiences.

“Fortunately, at the university level, the faculty in the Division of Education have been teaching a combination of online, blended and on-ground courses for many years,” she continued. “We are all practitioners by trade and bring those teaching skills to the university classroom regardless of what space we are teaching in, whether online or on-ground. Good teaching is good teaching. It does not matter the format of the class.”