News from CEA, April 2005

This memo highlights items from the April 15-17, 2005, meeting of the Commission on English Language Program Accreditation and other information of interest.

Accreditation Decisions

The Commission is required by U.S. Department of Education regulations to make public all accreditation decisions. The Commission made the following grants of accreditation at the April meeting:

10-year accreditation December 2004 – 2014
Intensive English Language Institute, University of North Texas

5-year initial accreditation, April 2005 – April 2010
Language and Culture Center, University of Houston

1-year initial accreditation, April 2005 – April 2006
OISE Boston

Continued accreditation following a grant of 1-year, April 2004 – April 2009
Center for English as a Second Language at the University of Arizona

Denied accreditation
International Academy of English, San Diego

For a complete list of accredited programs and schools, please visit the CEA web site at www.cea-accredit.org. The list will be updated within a few weeks of this notice.

Revision to Student Achievement Standard 2

The Commission recommended the revision of the wording for Student Achievement Standard 2 at the December 2005 meeting. The proposed change was distributed to the field for feedback. Based on the responses, the Commission gave final approval to the new wording, which brings the standard in line with the USDE focus on student outcomes. The new wording follows: "Student Achievement Standard 2: The program or institution documents in writing whether students have attained the learning objectives for courses taken within the curriculum, using instruments or procedures that appropriately assess whether students are ready to progress to the next level or to exit the program of study."

Standards review project

The Commission thanks the over 75 people who responded to CEAπs recent on-line survey on the importance and clarity of all of the CEA standards. Members of the CEA Standards Review Committee, which is responsible for the on-going review of the standards, will report on the findings at the September Commission meeting.

New commissioners

The Commission welcomed four new commissioners, who will serve on the Commission 2005–2007: Frank Bacheller, Utah State University; Deanna Hochstein, University of Oregon; Jane Hughey, Texas A & Am University; and Joy Tesh, University of Houston (retired).

Nominations for 2006

CEA's 2005 Nominating Committee (NC) comprises outgoing commissioners Mary Reeves (Chair), Joe Davidson, Norma King, and Alexandra Rowe. The NC sent memos to Constituent Council representatives and to AAIEP, NAFSA, TESOL, and UCIEP, seeking nominations. If you are interested in serving as a commissioner, please contact the appropriate entity or CEA for information. For 2006, CEA seeks especially nominees from the proprietary school and the community college sectors to give balance to the Commission. Materials from nominees are due to the Committee by July 1, 2005.

US Department of Education Recognition

The CEA Staff Analyst at the U.S. Department of Education, Chuck Mula, attended the meeting. He congratulated CEA on its latest petition for recognition and has recommended that CEA be granted 5–year recognition, which is the most offered by the Secretary. The USDE's National Advisory Committee on Institutional Quality and Integrity will make the final recommendation to the Secretary when it convenes on June 13. Mr. Mula commented that CEA's federal link to the Department of Homeland Security regulations is very important and may become more important in the future. [USDE recognized accrediting agencies must have a federal link in order to be considered for recognition by the Secretary. For CEA this link is through the proprietary schools that can use CEA accreditation for SEVIS certification.]

ACTFL Task Force

Based on the growing numbers of proprietary language schools that contact CEA and that offer foreign language courses, the Commission established a Task Force on ACTFL Collaboration to work with the American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Languages to investigate the possibilities for ACTFL participation in the review of such schools. When CEA carries out an "institutional" review, it must review all programs that the school offers. Thus, CEA must have a means for reviewing foreign language courses if it accepts such schools as eligible to seek CEA accreditation. The Task Force will report to the Commission in September.

Constituent Council Meeting

The CEA Constituent Council will hold its 2005 meeting on Friday, June 3, in Seattle. The meeting will be at the Summerfield Suites Hotel, Ward Conference room, from 1-3:00pm. Commissioners will report on CEA activities for the past year, including reports on the activities of all Commission activities. The meeting is open to the public.