Table of Contents
Garbled Expectations
The announcement that NCATE has decided to remove a “disposition” for “social justice” as a condition for teacher accreditation comes as welcome news to anyone who understands the importance of protecting teachers from vaguely defined political litmus tests. Apparently, however, NCATE President Dr. Arthur Wise remains bereft of any such understanding.
After finally deciding to remove the “social justice” criterion from his organization’s accreditation guidelines, Dr. Wise remarked that he was nonetheless “hard-pressed to understand” how FIRE thought NCATE’s guidelines constituted a “code” in the first place. Moreover, Dr. Wise remarked, NCATE standards “do not expect or require institutions to attend to any particular political or social ideologies.”
Dr. Wise’s organization might retain more credibility, both with its members and with the public, if it refrained from propagating guidelines that are not only dangerously vague, but that the president does not expect to enforce.
Recent Articles
FIRE’s award-winning Newsdesk covers the free speech news you need to stay informed.
The Antisemitism Awareness Act
On May 1, the U.S. House of Representatives passed the Antisemitism Awareness Act by a vote of 320 to 91. Proponents of the law say it is necessary to address anti-Semitic discrimination on college campuses. Opponents argue it threatens free speech....