Recently the New York Times published an article examining the great strides Mississippi has made over the past decade on national tests (Mervosh, Sarah. “How Mississippi Transformed Its Schools From Worst to Best, New York Times, January 11, 2026). They examined several strategies the state has employed over the past decade to improve student proficiency, raising academic standards, investing in pre-K, school accountability policies, and providing literacy and math coaches to low performing schools.
I am excited about the progress that is being made in Mississippi; however, one point the article did not touch upon was educator preparation. The University of Mississippi is one of fourteen educator preparation providers in the state which have the responsibility for preparing tomorrow’s classroom teachers. All of the state’s educator preparation providers work together through the Mississippi chapter of the American Association of Colleges for Teacher Education, sharing information, data, and best practices on how to better prepare our future teachers.
During the growth in the performance of Mississippi’s K-12 students the state of Mississippi has required the providers in the state to be accredited by the Council for the Accreditation of Educator Preparation (CAEP). The CAEP Standards are the Gold Standard for educator preparation, rigorous benchmarks that we must meet in order to be able to train and prepare our next generation of teachers. CAEP Accreditation provides us with the opportunity to reflect on our practices and improve upon them. I truly believe that this requirement for all educator preparation providers to be CAEP accredited has contributed to the success we are now seeing at the K-12 level. Our Mississippi providers are successful, with nearly half being singled out for national recognition earning the prestigious Murray Award, including Alcorn State University, Belhaven University, Delta State University, Mississippi State University, and The University of Mississippi.
As education preparation providers, we are committed to ensuring that prospective teaching candidates possess the skills to assess and plan instruction using a range of strategies to effectively teach and support all students. We guide new educators in recognizing areas for growth and implementing improvements, thereby preparing them to successfully manage their own classrooms.
CAEP Accreditation requires continuous improvement. We use data to understand the effectiveness of the graduates of our programs in student learning. We work with local districts surveying school administrators in their satisfaction with our graduates and collect data to understand their effectiveness in teaching K-12 students. We use that data to make improvements to our programs, so we continue to produce high quality educators.
An important piece of CAEP Accreditation is clinical experience or student teaching. This is essential in the preparation of tomorrow’s teachers. They learn valuable skills by working with seasoned educators. We work with local schools to ensure they have a variety of differing teaching experiences. Student teaching allows our candidates the ability to experience problems and to address them under supervision of an experienced teacher. It also prepares them to manage their own classroom in the future and to work with unique student populations. The clinical experience and partnerships with local districts are an important part of preparing future teachers and also retaining them in the classroom after they have graduated.
The work we do at the state’s colleges and schools of education is both challenging and rewarding. As Dean of the School of Education at the University of Mississippi I believe the CAEP standards and the CAEP accreditation process are an important part of the success we have seen in our state’s K-12 system over the past 10 years. My colleagues at the Mississippi chapter of the American Association of Colleges for Teacher Education and I are committed to developing the best teachers for our Mississippi K-12 students.
Dr. David Rock
Dean, School of Education
The University of Mississippi