Teacher Education Programs

UNIT REVIEW | PROGRAM REVIEW | CONTACT

The Teacher Education Program assures that K-12 educators are well prepared and qualified to serve South Dakota schools. Rules adopted by the South Dakota Board of Education establish standards that educators must meet to be recommended for certification; the rules also provide the standards for postsecondary institutions' teacher preparation programs.

Any institution seeking to recommend candidates for certification must have its programs approved by the State Board of Education. The Department of Education reviews the courses and experiences an institution requires candidates to complete and recommends approval to the state board on a seven-year cycle. In addition, the institutions must also be accredited by a regional accrediting agency or by the National Council for Accreditation of Teacher Education (NCATE).

UNIT REVIEW

A unit review looks at the education program’s commitment to overall preparation of teacher candidates. This could include the unit’s teacher education program admission, mission, conceptual framework, assessment system, and field experience policies and procedures.

Institutions that seek NCATE accreditation have a review team selected by NCATE’s Board of Examiners, in addition to a State Board of Examiners team selected jointly by the institution and the Department of Education. At an onsite visit, the NCATE Board of Examiners uses NCATE and State standards to review the teacher education unit with the assistance of the State Board of Examiners.

Non-NCATE institutions are visited by a State Board of Examiners team only and are reviewed according solely to South Dakota Administrative Rule.

Members of the State team may include:

- practitioners and administrators from elementary and secondary schools,
- faculty from higher education and appropriate Department of Education representatives,
- observers from the South Dakota Education Association, Associated School Boards of South Dakota, School Administrators of South Dakota, the South Dakota Board of Education and the South Dakota Board of Regents.

Team members must validate the accuracy of the institutional self-study by examining documents and conducting interviews. This validation process helps determine if each standard is Met or Not Met.

PROGRAM REVIEW

The institution’s teacher preparation programs are reviewed prior to the onsite visit by a team of trained program reviewers. The reviewers may include:

- practitioners and administrators from elementary and secondary schools; and,
- faculty from higher education and appropriate Department of Education representatives

Although the program reviewers do not join the Board of Examiners team at the onsite visit, the reviewers may request the members of the State Board of Examiners team investigate any outstanding concerns that the reviewer may have noted from their initial program review.

Program Review Templates
7-12 Agriculture	K-12 Art (NAEA)
K-12 Art (NASAD)	Birth-Preschool
Early Child	7-12 Business
7-12 Marketing	7-12 Career and Technical
K-12 Curriculum Director	7-12 Drama/Theater
SPED	K-8 Elementary
SPED Blended	7-12 Family/ Consumer Sciences
K-12 World Language	K-12 Health
K-12 PE	K-12 South Dakota Indian Studies
7-12 Industrial Technology	7-12 English/Language Arts
7-12 Mass Comm/Journalism	7-12 Speech/Debate
7-12 Math	Com Math/Sciene
K-12 Music Education	PK-12, PK-8, or 7-12 Principals
K-12 Reading Specialists	PK-12 School Library Media
School Psychologists	Counselor
7-12 Science Education	7-12 Social Studies Education
PK-12 Career Superintendents	K-12 Computer Science