Teaching Australia is working towards a national system for the accreditation of pre-service teacher education programs to strengthen the quality of teacher training on an Australia-wide basis. Accreditation also supports the internal quality assurance and improvement processes of the participating institutions.
In August 2006, Teaching Australia commissioned a report from the Australian Council for Educational Research (ACER), Teacher Education Accreditation: A review of national and international trends and practices, which examines the current state of teacher accreditation processes, in Australia and overseas.
ACER found that unlike many other countries, Australia has no national requirement for accreditation of teacher education programs. The report describes a complex and inconsistent set of processes and concludes that programs vary considerably in quality. It notes that governments, the profession and universities all have a shared interest in, and mutual responsibility for, the quality of teacher preparation.
In October 2006, Teaching Australia released a consultation paper, Australia-wide accreditation of programs for the professional preparation of teachers. Teaching Australia consulted nationally about these proposals between October 2006 and March 2007.
In June 2007 Teaching Australia developed and released a proposal for a national system for the accreditation of teacher preparation programs, setting out the main elements of the system and mechanisms for accreditation - principles, standards, processes, relationships and governance. The proposal paper reflected the comments and outcomes of consultations conducted since mid-2006.
In consultation with major stakeholders, Teaching Australia is continuing to develop national accreditation standards and the details of a national accreditation system, with a view to conducting trials in 2008.