A national accrediting association recently placed BYU education programs on a two-year probation for failure to comply with certain standards, based on a review of the program in October.
While such a situation may seem to put education majors and BYU as a whole in bad light, readers should understand the facts behind the situation before passing judgment.
The probation, which has captured headlines in Utah newspapers, stemmed not from major faults or program deficiencies, but from minor indiscrepancies on the part of the university and miscommunication.
The situation was also complicated by a sprawling education program at BYU and changes in accreditation requirements.
The National Council for the Accreditation of Teacher Education developed new accreditation requirements in 2001, which, among other things, required schools to equip their graduates to teach students from diverse backgrounds and to effectively show their graduates could help children learn.
BYU was one of the first schools to be judged based on the new criteria and has struggled to some extent to deal with obstacles in trying to meet them, especially considering the predominantly Caucasian population surrounding the school and the broad scope of majors that make up the education school - everything from elementary education to math education and biology teaching.
Yet university officials felt they had made progress in the new areas and were ready for the accreditation committee when they came, which is why the accreditation report is a surprise and disappointment to them.
As Robert Patterson, dean of education, told the Salt Lake Tribune, 'We were singled out with two failed standards out of six, both of which we had evidence to the contrary. It is not that our program or candidates were substandard, it was in the miscommunication, not making a case to the satisfaction of the external reviewers.'
Essentially, despite what the accreditation ruling may be, the basic structure and quality of the various education degrees remains unchanged, if not improving. The class load, curriculum, faculty and other things accreditors look at have all been accepted.
So education students and others at BYU should feel no shame for the education programs currently on probation. Despite the probation, the programs will remain accredited, as they should, until another review in 2004, when the sanctions will likely be rescinded.