The Overreliance of Accreditors on Consensus Standards

Abstract

The legitimacy of accreditation in teacher education is rooted in political consensus and power and, to a lesser extent, in scholarship. Both roots, however, are fragile and weak. Consequently, to take a negative example, there is no accepted concept of educational malpractice in the field. The standards we have are at best hypotheses awaiting confirmation or falsification. The legitimacy of accreditation should be rooted in the scholarly evidence that the program has fulfilled the claim that its graduates are competent, caring, and qualified.