Concordia Nebraska's Advanced Education Programs Earn CAEP Accreditation

Historically, Concordia University, Nebraska has highly valued national accreditation for its education programs, which first earned accreditation from the National Council for Accreditation of Teacher Education (NCATE) in 1961. As NCATE phased out, Concordia’s initial education programs – those that provide the first teaching certificate – earned national accreditation from the Council for Accreditation of Educator Preparation (CAEP) in 2019.  

“I am thankful for the dedicated education graduate program directors at Concordia whose focus for the past three years has been on earning CAEP accreditation. We worked as a team to accomplish this milestone. I am also thankful for the leaders at Concordia who value high-quality preparation of and professional development for educators and school leaders,” said Dr. Lorinda Sankey, Dean for the College of Education, Health, and Human Sciences. 

More recently, Concordia’s advanced education programs – those that provide graduate level endorsements for educators who hold a teaching certificate – applied for full accreditation. These advanced programs include Curriculum and Instruction with Instructional Technology Leadership endorsement, Early Childhood Education, Early Childhood Special Education, Educational Administration with Principal endorsement, Literacy with Reading Specialist endorsement, School Counseling, Special Education, and Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages (TESOL) with English Second Language (ESL) endorsement.  

Concordia Nebraska’s graduate program directors prepared for the visit by the CAEP accreditation team in April 2022. After the accreditation team visit in October 2022, the CAEP full council reviewed the accreditation team’s report and the results of the visit. Later, in November 2022, Sankey was notified that Concordia Nebraska’s advanced programs had earned full accreditation with no areas for improvement noted. The education programs celebrated CAEP accreditation with a campus-wide reception last December.    

“CAEP accreditation is a strong indicator that Concordia, Nebraska prioritizes the quality of her education programs and the role of education in the church and society,” said Sankey. “The added value in our programs is that we prepare and support educators as instruments of God in their vocations, deepening each undergraduate and graduate student's sense of purpose for serving students, families, the church and world. Concordia University, Nebraska is committed to every educator fulfilling his or her God-given vocation.”   

Accreditation is an ongoing process. Concordia Nebraska’s education programs analyze assessment data from their candidates to make decisions for program improvement, then work tirelessly to implement those improvements. The university’s next CAEP visit for both initial and advanced education programs is in 2026. Preparation for this visit began as the previous visit concluded. In the next three years, all of the undergraduate and graduate faculty and program directors will work to report data, results of data analysis, processes for using data to make program improvements, and the results of those improvements. Concordia Nebraska’s programs invite expert practitioners who are current teachers and administrators to serve on eight advisory committees whose members join in the ongoing process of program improvement.  

Interested in graduate programs at Concordia? Learn more here.