Coastal Carolina University’s Spadoni College of Education has received reaccreditation by the National Council for Accreditation of Teacher Education (NCATE), a professional organization that oversees teacher education.

NCATE currently accredits 656 institutions that produce two-thirds of the nation’s new teacher graduates each year. Ninety-nine institutions are candidates or precandidates for accreditation. In NCATE’s performance-based accreditation system, institutions must provide evidence of competent teacher candidate performance. NCATE-accredited colleges of education are expected to ensure that teacher candidates know their subject and how to teach it effectively.

"Studies show that teacher effectiveness is the most important factor in P-12 student achievement. Professional accreditation is one way to ensure that our teacher education and educational leadership programs are graduating well-qualified teachers and administrators ready for today's classrooms and leadership positions," said Edward Jadallah, dean of the Spadoni College. "NCATE-accredited schools must meet rigorous standards set by the profession. These standards are then implemented by our faculty so that teacher candidates have in-depth knowledge of the subject matter that they plan to teach as well as the skills necessary to convey it so that students learn. Our collaborative partnerships with P-12 schools have also been instrumental in enabling candidates to become highly effective teachers and leaders who can promote student learning. "

NCATE revises its standards every five years to incorporate best practices and research to ensure that the standards reflect a consensus about what is important in teacher preparation today. In the past decade, NCATE has moved from an accreditation system that focused on curriculum and what teacher candidates were offered, to a data-driven performance-based system dedicated to determining what candidates know and are able to do. The new system expects teacher preparation institutions to provide compelling evidence of candidate knowledge and skill in the classroom. Teacher candidate qualifications are assessed upon entry, and candidate competence is assessed throughout the program as well as prior to student teaching/internship work, and before completion of the program.

A team from NCATE visited the Coastal campus from Oct. 2 to 4, 2011. A "full visit" is scheduled every seven years, and the next visit is scheduled for 2018.

Approximately 1,109 undergraduate and graduate students are enrolled in the Spadoni College of Education, which has 31 full-time faculty members.