Guidelines for the accreditation of initial teacher education programs in Australia

From 2019 to 2020, the Accreditation Guidelines were revised in response to a series of recommendations endorsed by Education Council in June 2018. These recommendations included:

• all jurisdictions to contribute to and participate in a standard-setting process, led by AITSL, to establish sound national agreement on what it means to meet the accreditation standards
• all jurisdictions to collaborate with AITSL in ongoing national quality assurance activities to strengthen consistency and rigour of the national accreditation system and identify priorities for enhancing judgements.

The role of AITSL under this approach was to work with jurisdictions to facilitate national consistency in the accreditation of ITE.

Please note that it is the responsibility of the teacher regulatory authorities in each state and territory to implement the Accreditation Guidelines and accredit ITE programs. For questions about ITE accreditation in your jurisdiction please contact your relevant teacher regulatory authority.

AITSL developed a methodology to undertake a standard-setting process, which was agreed to by AITSL’s Standard Setting Advisory Group (SSAG).

The aim of this methodology was to achieve national consistency of judgements across accreditation panels on what it means to meet the Accreditation Standards. To implement the methodology, AITSL held a series of four standard-setting workshops from June to December 2019, with trained accreditation panellists, including ITE providers, teachers, employers and representatives of the jurisdictional teacher regulatory authorities. At each of the workshops, data was gathered on the consistency of the judgements being made against each of the elements requiring verification and professional judgement in the Accreditation Guidelines.   

To ensure the methodology was implemented as agreed, AITSL engaged the Australian Council for Educational Research (ACER) to undertake an independent quality assurance function at each of the standard-setting workshops.

The data collected from these workshops, along with close collaboration between AITSL and the jurisdictional teacher regulatory authorities, informed the revision of the Accreditation Guidelines.

The 2020 Accreditation Guidelines have undergone a considered and substantial revision process. Please note that the Program Standards themselves have not changed.

General revisions have been made in the following areas:

• The Guidelines for the Accreditation of initial teacher education programs in Australia: Stage two (Stage two Accreditation Guidelines) were incorporated into the Accreditation Guidelines. In Program Standard 6.3, changes to the elements requiring verification and professional judgement have been revised and a new Stage two report (Template 5) has been developed to promote national consistency in the stage two accreditation process.

• The Introduction section was updated and now includes reference to the Assessment criteria for Graduate Teacher Standards 1.4 & 2.4.

• The National accreditation procedures and National accreditation process sections were updated and reflect the 2018 and 2019 updates to the Standards and Procedures.

• The wording for many of the elements requiring verification and elements requiring professional judgement was revised to align more closely with the intent of the Program Standards.

• The Additional information section for each of the Program Standards was reviewed and updated and Related glossary terms added to this section.

• The Glossary was expanded to include additional terms to support the consistency in the interpretation of the terminology used throughout the document and support consistency in judgements.
  
  

In addition to the changes made to the Accreditation Guidelines, supplementary guidelines which support the implementation of the Standards and Procedures have also been updated for currency. These include:

• Action Now: Selection of entrants into initial teacher education
• Primary specialisation (Program Standard 4.4): Guidelines
• Developing formal partnerships (Program Standard 5.1): Guidelines
• Assessment criteria for Graduate Teacher Standards 1.4 & 2.4

A combined version of these supplementary guidelines is also available.  

There are also two factsheets which support the implementation of the Standards and Procedures: 

• Plan for demonstrating impact: Fact sheet
• Action Now: Selection of entrants into initial teacher education - Guidelines - Factsheet

More detailed information about the revision process and the changes to the Accreditation Guidelines can be found in the Guidelines for the accreditation of initial teacher education programs in Australia – Overview of changes document.

Implementation of the Accreditation Guidelines will begin in 2021 as ITE providers begin to prepare applications for accreditation using the 2020 Accreditation Guidelines, as directed by their teacher regulatory authority. It is expected that the 2020 Accreditation Guidelines will be in full use nationally from 1 January 2022.

Please contact your relevant teacher regulatory authority for further information about the use of the 2020 Accreditation Guidelines in your jurisdiction.

There are several stages towards national implementation of the 2020 Accreditation Guidelines.

1 January 2021 - 30 April 2021

This will be an acclimatisation period for teacher regulatory authorities, ITE providers and accreditation panellists. 

• ITE providers preparing accreditation applications will continue to use the 2016 Accreditation Guidelines, unless informed otherwise by their teacher regulatory authority.
• Accreditation panels held during this time will assess accreditation applications using the 2016 Accreditation Guidelines, unless otherwise instructed by their teacher regulatory authority. 
• Training for new accreditation panellists will refer to the 2016 Accreditation Guidelines.

1 May 2021 - 31 December 2021

The accreditation process will actively begin to move towards using and applying the 2020 Accreditation Guidelines.

• ITE providers preparing accreditation applications will be required to use the 2020 Accreditation Guidelines.
• Accreditation panels will continue to use the 2016 Accreditation Guidelines for those accreditation applications commenced prior to 30 April 2020. Teacher regulatory authorities will provide panels with further advice on the use of the 2020 Accreditation Guidelines at this time.
• Training for new accreditation panellists from this period on will refer to the 2020 Accreditation Guidelines. AITSL will provide refresher panel training on the 2020 Accreditation Guidelines for existing accreditation panellists.

1 January 2022 - onwards

It is expected that the revised 2020 Accreditation Guidelines will be in full use nationally from 1 January 2022. 

• All ITE accreditation applications submitted will have been prepared using the 2020 Accreditation Guidelines.
• All accreditation panels will use the 2020 Accreditation Guidelines to assess accreditation applications.

Alongside the revision of the Accreditation Guidelines, AITSL worked with trained accreditation panellists, including ITE providers, teachers, employers and representatives of the teacher regulatory authorities, to undertake a review of the Guidelines for the accreditation of initial teacher education programs in Australia: Stage two (Stage two Accreditation Guidelines) and the stage two accreditation process.

There were substantial revisions to the Stage two Accreditation Guidelines. In Program Standard 6.3, the elements requiring verification and professional judgement were revised and a new Stage Two report (Template 5) was developed to promote national consistency, clarity and understanding of the stage two accreditation process.

The Stage two Accreditation Guidelines have now been incorporated into the 2020 Accreditation Guidelines to form one document.