In the fall of 2011, the French, German, and Spanish teacher education programs earned national recognition from the National Council for the Accreditation of Teacher Education (NCATE) and American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Languages (ACTFL).
All teacher education programs at Illinois State University seek accreditation from NCATE, which involves a “voluntary peer review process that involves a comprehensive evaluation” of programs that preparation of teachers and other professional school personnel. The review is based on the performance-based NCATE/ACTFL Program Standards, a set of research-based national standards developed by the world language teaching profession, and teacher candidate assessment tools in line with those standards. This assessment process included a review of seven key assessments, which include assessments from world language specific pedagogy courses, the Oral Proficiency Interview, the State of Illinois Content Test, and a student teaching assessment, among other tools.