The Unit is implementing the Education Accountability System (EAS, Click to View) to ensure continual improvement of candidate performance, program quality, and Unit operations. The EAS was developed and implemented based upon a multi-year assessment plan; and is continuously evolving based upon feedback and collaboration among the Unit, members of the institution, and its P-12 Professional Development Schools (PDSs) since initial implementation in late Fall 2001.

The assessment plan and the EAS are based upon national (NCATE, INTASC principles), state (Maryland Redesign of Teacher Education, Maryland Teacher Technology Standards [MTTS]), and specialized professional associations (SPA), i.e., ACEI, NAEYC, NCSS, NCTE, NCTM, NSTA, and T ESOL, standards. The goals are reflective of our mission of developing teachers with strong academic background (Conceptual Framework Tenet 1) in an authentic professional development continuum (Conceptual Framework Tenet 2) with extensive field and clinical experiences in the context of PDSs.

The EAS consists of three integrated components:

• Accountability Center (AC);
• Performance Assessment System (PA); and
• Electronic Portfolio (EP).

The three production components of the EAS enable the Unit to generate and evaluate both qualitative and quantitative performance data from multiple sources, multiple assessments with multiple indicators at each of the five benchmarks (Click to View):

1. Program Entrance Assessment;
2. Course and Field Experience Assessment;
3. Clinical Practice Assessment;
4. Program Exit Assessment; and,
5. Post Graduation Assessment.

With the innovative adaptation of advanced technologies and the strong support from the UMBC education community, we expect to fully implement all three production systems by academic year of 2004-2005.