> Toolkit Home > Baccalaureate Options > Community College BA > Key Issues

Accreditation and Standards
Over the past decade, university teacher training programs have come under fire. Concerns about poor K-12 student performance in the United States on international standardized tests along with other, less-than-stellar student performance indicators, have led to a burgeoning accountability movement.

One outcome of the increased attention on teacher training has been significant change in the accreditation processes by which colleges and universities are recognized as qualified trainers of classroom educators. A community college entering the teacher training business may face significant challenges as it attempts to meet the increased quality standards that have been established by regional accrediting agencies.

New community college teacher education programs must meet the accreditation standards of one or both of the two leading teacher education accreditation organizations, the National Council of Accreditation for Teacher Education (NCATE), which accredits 98% of traditional teacher education programs, and the Teacher Education Accreditation Council (TEAC).

NCATE and TEAC take two different approaches to the accreditation of teacher education programs. NCATE, which accredits the teacher education unit at the institution, is an external audit with examiners who visit the institution. TEAC, which accredits specific programs within the teacher education unit, is an internal audit conducted by education faculty based on TEAC principles.

Community colleges tend to face more problems than four-year universities in meeting the current standards of both accrediting groups. For instance, some colleges are forced to drop “community” from their names because accreditation groups consider an institution a four-year college once it begins to offer an upper-division program.

Partner or Competitor
One of the unintended consequences of community colleges offering baccalaureate degrees in teacher education may be a change in the relationship between the two- and four-year institutions. After years of state and local efforts aimed at improving alignment between sectors to ease student transitions, two- and four-year institutions may again perceive themselves as competitors rather than partners for students and funding. The competition for students and resources in teacher education may impact efforts in other academic disciplines still dependent upon cooperation and collaboration between lower-division and senior-level institutions.

Opponents of baccalaureate programs at community colleges argue that advocates are primarily seeking a means to increase enrollment and generate additional tuition and fee revenue. In Florida, legislation raised the cost of tuition and fees per credit hour for community college baccalaureate programs when compared to the tuition charged for associate degree programs, but it is still less than tuition charged at Florida state universities. A teacher education major earning a baccalaureate at a community college will pay more than their fellow student in an associate degree program, but less than an education major in one of the state’s traditional four-year colleges or university teacher education programs.

State higher education funding allocations are also impacted by community colleges becoming baccalaureate-offering institutions. Recognizing that it generally costs more to deliver upper-division courses, universities have traditionally received a higher rate of state reimbursement per full-time equivalent student. In addition, field-based coursework usually costs more to deliver than classroom-based lecture courses. How these increased costs are balanced and funded for emerging community college teacher education programs is a significant concern.

The Florida legislature funded a new baccalaureate-granting community college at the reimbursement rate used to support university lower-division courses, minus the funding that is usually included to support university research. As a result, new baccalaureate-granting community colleges will receive more state support for their teacher education students than they previously received when they offered associate degree programs only, but will receive less funding than state university teacher education programs.

Faculty Issues
Opponents of community college teacher education baccalaureate programs have raised concerns whether community colleges will be able to provide the level of quality instruction and content needed in upper-division education courses. They question whether community colleges have the breadth of upper-division arts and sciences courses needed by teacher candidates preparing to be middle school and high school teachers. This is less of an issue in the preparation of elementary teacher education majors because the subject matter required is typically found in lower division courses, commonly offered at community colleges.

Teaching loads and faculty expectations are significantly different at two- and four-year institutions. Teachers at community colleges typically teach 15 hours, while four-year college and university faculty typically carry a nine to twelve hour teaching load, because they are required to conduct research and other scholarly activities. New community college teacher education programs seeking accreditation are required to hire faculty with doctoral degrees and an interest in conducting research about teacher education. These differing terminal degree and faculty load requirements have the potential to create significant discord in the faculty ranks if the expectation is that faculty in community college baccalaureate programs will earn additional salary or carry reduced teaching loads resulting in a different pay scale from their community college faculty colleagues.