The overreliance of accreditors on consensus standards

The legitimacy of accreditation in teacher education is rooted in political consensus and power and, to a lesser extent, in scholarship. Both roots, h owever, are fragile and weak. Consequently, to take a negative example, the re is no accepted concept of educational malpractice in the field. The stan dards we have are at best hypotheses awaiting confirmation or falsification . The legitimacy of accreditation should be rooted in the scholarly evidenc e that the program has fulfilled the claim that its graduates are competent , caring, and qualified.