The Colorado State Board of Education recently reauthorized all University of Northern Colorado’s educator preparation programs, with conditions for reading instruction that UNC is already addressing.

A reauthorization team from the Colorado Department of Education and Colorado Department of Higher Education visited campus last November to review UNC programs and make a recommendation to the State Board.  Among the observations, the review noted UNC’s legacy and commitment to teacher education and its responsiveness to the needs of the state in its commitment to address hard-to-fill positions and programs.

The board approved the recommendation to fully reauthorize all 34 of UNC’s education endorsement areas at a State Board meeting in February. The reauthorization is contingent upon UNC addressing the following areas of improvement that were identified by the review team:

• Submit updated endorsement matrices aligned with research-based reading instruction in Elementary, Special Education and Early Childhood endorsements;
• Submit related course sequence and syllabi on approved institutional syllabi templates;
• Participate in a state review team visit in February 2020 to ensure implementation of identified areas of improvement around teaching reading content and instruction;
• Ensure interviews with appropriate stakeholders (faculty, current candidates, school of education leadership team) in the three identified endorsement areas take place during state review team visit in February 2020.

“Reviews like these are a critical piece in helping us continuously improve,” said Eugene Sheehan, dean of the College of Education and Behavioral Sciences. “The feedback they provide helps us contribute to student success, and I thank the review team for the dedication and expertise to help us achieve those outcomes. We are constantly working to improve our programs, using external review data along with our internal analyses, and are committed to always meeting state standards.”

READ THE State REPORT
(PDF)