School of Education’s Dr. Paula Calderon to Visit Puerto Rico as Accreditation Associate

01/26/17

Dr. Paula Summers Calderon, associate director of the School of Education (SOE) in the College of Human Sciences & Education (CHSE), will visit Puerto Rico for four days in March 2017 as an accreditation associate for the Council for the Accreditation of Educator Preparation (CAEP).

On a team of five, Dr. Calderon will review documents and evidence and interview faculty, teacher education candidates and graduates, as well as school principals and classroom teachers who host student teachers. The team will prepare a report for the CAEP Accreditation Council, which ultimately determines whether the university’s education programs should be accredited.

Dr. Calderon is currently the only faculty or staff member at LSU who conducts national and international CAEP accreditation visits, and wants to inspire more teacher education faculty to consider becoming site visitors.

“The more opportunities I have to see how other universities prepare for their accreditation visits, the better chance we have at doing well on our own visit,” Dr. Calderon said of the professional benefit of being a site visitor.

In fall 2015, Dr. Calderon was invited by the CAEP to train to serve on accreditation teams for schools and colleges of education. Since, she typically participates in one accreditation site visit per semester.

LSU’s teacher education programs have been nationally accredited by the National Council for Accreditation of Teacher Education (NCATE) since 1954. Prior to her involvement with CAEP, Dr. Calderon served as a Board of Examiner for NCATE since 2008. In 2013, NCATE and the Teacher Education Accreditation Council (TEAC) merged to become CAEP.

SOE will have its first CAEP site visit during the 2019-2020 academic year, which will include all teacher education programs spread across five colleges on LSU’s campus.

About SOE
The LSU School of Education (SOE) offers graduate and undergraduate programs in Curriculum and Instruction, Educational Leadership and Research, and Counseling, including two completely online master’s programs. SOE offers a range of professional and academic degree programs that focus on preparing students for careers in education, research, policy formation and implementation, as well as program oversight. The School’s mission is to prepare P-12 educational professionals to be leaders, practitioners, and scholars knowledgeable in contemporary educational issues. SOE is part of the College of Human Sciences & Education.  

Visit the School of Education at lsu.edu/chse/education

About CHSE

The College of Human Sciences & Education (CHSE) is a nationally accredited division of Louisiana State University. The college is comprised of the School of Education, the School of Leadership & Human Resource Development, the School of Kinesiology, the School of Library & Information Science, the School of Social Work, and the University Laboratory School. These combined schools offer 8 undergraduate degree programs, 18 graduate programs, and 7 online graduate degree programs, enrolling more than 2,020 undergraduate and 879 graduate students. The College is committed to achieving the highest standards in teaching, research, and service and is committed to improving quality of life across the lifespan.

Visit the College of Human Sciences & Education at lsu.edu/chse