WASHINGTON – The Council for the Accreditation of Educator Preparation (CAEP) announced today that 26 providers from 17 states and the United Arab Emirates received recognition for their leadership and commitment to continuous improvement. The recipients of the 2021 Frank Murray Leadership Recognition for Continuous Improvement provided evidence and data trends to achieve accreditation with no stipulations or areas for improvement.

The Frank Murray Leadership Recognition for Continuous Improvement is named after the founding President of the Teacher Education Accreditation Council (TEAC). CAEP was created by the consolidation of the National Council for Accreditation of Teacher Education and TEAC. Murray was the founding President of TEAC, served as Chairman of the Board for TEAC and was also an initial member of the CAEP Board of Directors. He was a key advocate for a single set of teacher preparation standards to unify the profession and was instrumental in the merger that created CAEP. He also served as the Dean of the College of Education at the University of Delaware from 1979 to 1995.

 “Frank Murray was passionate about education preparation, a prominent leader in our profession, and an advocate for evidence to improve education. The providers that CAEP is recognizing are committed to continuous improvement and preparing their students to succeed in a diverse range of classrooms after they graduate,” said Karen Symms Gallagher Chair of the CAEP Board of Directors. “CAEP Accreditation is a sign of commitment to quality through purposeful use of evidence. The Murray Leadership Recognition recipients should be proud of their accomplishments.”

Recipients of the 2021 Frank Murray Leadership Recognition for Continuous Improvement are selected from the educator preparation providers (EPPs) that were granted accreditation by CAEP at the initial level from the previous year, who provided a full complement of evidence with demonstrated data trends and no plans. Recipients had no stipulations or areas for improvement. Providers selected for recognition advance equity and excellence in educator preparation through purposeful use of self-study procedures and evidence-based reporting that assure quality and support continuous improvement to strengthen P-12 learning. These EPPs have a mission driving their continuous improvement inquiry, use assessments that are relevant to the topic being informed and consequential, show the reliability and validity of the evidence provided for accreditation, have quality assurance capacities that inform their knowledge and address questions about relationships in the data.

“This third class to receive the Murray Recognition represents the diversity and innovation that comes with CAEP accreditation. Small, large, public, private, faith-based, and historically minority serving,” said CAEP President Chris Koch. “These recipients reflect the creativity that CAEP affords in achieving excellence, by meeting the standards in a variety of ways, for the diverse populations they serve.”

CAEP accreditation serves the dual purposes of accountability and continuous improvement.  423 educator preparation providers in 45 states, the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico, have been accredited under the CAEP Standards. The CAEP accreditation process evaluates the performance of providers and focuses particularly on whether candidates will be prepared, by completion, for the challenging responsibilities that educators face in America’s classrooms. Approximately, 700 educator preparation providers participate in the CAEP Accreditation system, including many previously accredited through former standards. CAEP is the only educator preparation provider recognized by the Council for Higher Education Accreditation.

Frank Murray Recognition for Continuous Improvement

Arkansas Tech University

Bridgewater College—Virginia

Caldwell University—New Jersey

Claflin University—South Carolina

Clarion University of Pennsylvania

Clark Atlanta University—Georgia

The College of Charleston—South Carolina

Drury University—Missouri

Eastern Mennonite University--Virginia

Goshen College—Indiana

Indiana University Northwest

Lipscomb University—Tennessee

Oakland University—Michigan

Oklahoma Christian University

Southwestern Oklahoma State University

The University of South Alabama

The University of Tampa—Florida

University of Central Arkansas

University of the Cumberlands—Kentucky

University of Missouri-Columbia

University of North Carolina at Charlotte

University of Portland—Oregon

University of Tennessee

William Paterson University—New Jersey

Wilmington University—Delaware

Zayed University—UAE