AAQEP — Association for Advancing Quality in Educator Preparation accreditation tips

Educator preparation programs prepare teachers to shape minds. But what makes a quality educator preparation program? And how will students know they can rely on your program to deliver the training they need? Accreditation helps to answer those questions. It is a trusted stamp of approval that your program has what it takes to prepare effective teachers.

The Association for Advancing Quality in Educator Preparation (AAQEP) is a leading accreditation body. It has nationwide Council for Higher Education Accreditation (CHEA) recognition and hundreds of members in dozens of states and territories. If your institution is seeking AAQEP accreditation, this guide will help you understand the process and improve your chances of success.

Why seek AAQEP accreditation?

The AAQEP accredits programs that prepare quality professionals and improve continuously. Gaining AAQEP accreditation is more than an outcome. It’s a process of conforming your program to rigorous quality standards. Both the accreditation status and the process of gaining it have significant benefits:

• Enhanced program quality: Aligning your program design with AAQEP standards involves setting up continuous improvement systems and developing a coherent, practical curriculum. This process ensures you have a high-quality program relevant to the current demands of professional education.
• Increased recognition: Attaining AAQEP accreditation improves your program’s reputation with prospective students, staff, schools, and the government.
• Expanded resources: AAQEP accreditation can help you access expanded resources. These could include funding opportunities for your department and students and collaborative opportunities with other education institutions.
• Improved student outcomes: The AAQEP accreditation process requires you to set up systems for tracking, analyzing, and improving student performance. This can contribute to better academic and professional results.
• Regulatory compliance: Many states require teachers to complete an accredited teacher preparation program before becoming licensed. AAQEP accreditation can help your graduates qualify for teaching licenses in these states.

What is the AAQEP process?

If you’re ready to pursue AAQEP accreditation, you can do so by:

1. Joining the AAQEP: To begin the accreditation process, your institution must become a regular AAQEP member and maintain its membership. Remember to include the annual membership fee in your budget.
2. Determining accreditation review scope: If you have more than one educator preparation program, decide which you want to include in this accreditation review.
3. Completing an Accreditation Proposal: This is an optional step, but a useful opportunity to get feedback and prepare for the Quality Assurance Report (QAR). Its main purpose is to propose how you’ll give evidence that your program meets AAQEP standards 1 and 2. These standards measure the competence and professional adaptability of program graduates.
4. Preparing and submitting the QAR: Conduct a thorough self-study to show that your program meets the outcomes for all four AAQEP standards. Present this evidence in a QAR, following the outline in the AAQEP’s latest accreditation guide. The QAR includes sections dedicated to showing that your program meets each standard.
5. Getting the Quality Review Team report: The AAQEP will assign a Quality Review Team (QRT) to review your QAR. The QRT will draft an Off-Site Review Report evaluating your QAR and arrange a meeting to discuss it with you.
6. Preparing for and hosting a site visit: You must schedule your site visit a year in advance, usually before sending your final QAR. When you meet with the QRT to discuss your QAR, you’ll confirm the site visit logistics. The site visit involves examining evidence related to your QAR and interviewing stakeholders. It usually lasts two to three days. You will be responsible for scheduling the QRT’s required interviews, which include meeting the chief administrator, dean, faculty, and others.
7. Waiting for an accreditation decision: After the site visit, the QRT will draft their final report and share it with the Accreditation Commission, along with your QAR, for an accreditation decision. The Commission may award accreditation with one or two conditions you must address within two years to maintain accreditation.
8. Maintaining accreditation: If you succeed in attaining accreditation, you’ll need to maintain it. This involves submitting Annual Reports, showing that your program still meets its standards and is continuously improving.

7 Tips to gain AAQEP accreditation

The accreditation process takes around three years of preparation, reporting, and review to conclude that your program meets the AAQEP’s standards. For the best chance at a successful outcome:

• Know the standards: Familiarize yourself with the AAQEP’s four standards for accreditation. These are Completer Performance, Completer Professional Competence and Growth, Quality Program Practices, and Program Engagement in System Improvement. Consult the AAQEP’s expectations framework for the six outcomes it uses to measure compliance with each standard.
• Engage stakeholders early: The AAQEP standards require evidence that you engage stakeholders like students, educators, schools, and local communities in program planning, data collection, and improvement. Start these conversations early, documenting stakeholder input and how your program incorporates it. For example, if your community expresses a need for more inclusive classrooms, you could incorporate more focus on inclusivity into your program.
• Collect strong evidence: The evidence you supply in your QAR and during the site visit is vital to your application. Give strong evidence for each standard, including course assignments, practical performance assessments, work samples, student interviews, and surveys of employers who have hired program completers.
• Focus on improvement: AAQEP standards emphasize improvement and innovation. To meet them, plan for ongoing program improvement based on stakeholder input, student progress data, and developments in education and society.
• Enhance curriculum coherence: Meeting AAQEP standards requires a coherent curriculum. Each syllabus component and assessment must align with state and/or national standards for educators.
• Draft a proposal: An Accreditation Proposal is a chance to get input from trained reviewers on the evidence you plan to include in your QAR. Most of the work it requires is work you’ll have to do for the QAR anyway, and this is an early opportunity to begin structuring and improving your QAR. The feedback you receive can help you get a positive review when it matters.
• Leverage software: Accreditation preparation software streamlines data collection and reporting. This makes it easy to provide the evidence you need for a successful application. It can also assist you with your Annual Reports to maintain accreditation.

Choose accreditation software from Watermark

Accreditation preparation software can help you complete a persuasive AAQEP application with less time and effort. The Watermark Educational Impact Suite (EIS) contains all the software tools you need to:

• Collect, organize, and centralize data.
• Engage your entire institution in continuous improvement.
• Show engagement and collaboration.
• Create reports quickly and easily.

Watermark’s accreditation solutions give you a central home for assessment, accreditation, program review, and engagement. Explore our accreditation software and request a demo to learn more.