Establishing Teaching as a Profession

The National Council for Accreditation of Teacher Education (NCATE) celebrated its 50th anniversary in 2004. In those 50 years, NCATE has become a learning community, growing and evolving as the knowledge base in teaching and learning has evolved. NCATE starts its second 50 years with a record 690 institutions in its system as accredited institutions, candidates, and precandidates. The central question at hand is a decision teacher educators must make. Will we move forward toward increased professionalization by working collectively to shape an increasing consensus on a common core of knowledge as it is explicated through professional standards? Or will we retreat to “private universes” in which we teach our own conceptions of knowledge about teaching and learning? In that case, the government will decide, in typically narrow fashion, what must be taught and, in some cases, how it must be taught. To avoid that future, we must work together as a profession to bring our differences to the table. NCATE is the teaching profession’s vehicle to do just that, and we look forward to working with institutions ready to make that commitment.