Prior to SPB Meeting:

• NCATE staff reviews partnership agreements and when applicable sends the state program standards to specialized professional associations for review and the state program review process is sent to the Process and Evaluation Committee.

• Specialized professional associations review the state program standards and return comments to NCATE.

• The P&E committee reviews the state program review processes and returns the comments to NCATE for states that elect this partnership option.

• NCATE sends the specialized professional associations’ state program standards reviews and the P&E committee’s review to the state to "rejoin."

• The state returns rejoinders to NCATE.

• NCATE sends the state rejoinder to the specialized professional associations and the P&E committee to revise or confirm its original comments.

• The specialized professional associations and P&E committee send final reviews of state program standards and state program review process to NCATE.

• NCATE SPB conflict of interest declaration; audit team and chair assigned to conduct partnership agreement review.

• SPB meeting notebook mailed to Board members for review of some NCATE state partnership agreement materials prior to October meeting.

SPB Meeting:

• The audit team chair convenes the team to organize the audit team’s work schedule and establish work expectations.

• Audit team conducts review of state partnership agreements. (Representatives from state departments of education seeking an NCATE partnership are available by phone if the audit team requires additional clarification/information.)

• Audit team reports its findings and recommendation to the full SPB for action.

• The full SPB will, through parliamentary procedure, move to take action on each of the state partnership agreements.

• The SPB may move to:

  1. accept the partnership;

  2. accept the partnership with conditions; or

  3. deny the partnership.

• If the SPB does not concur with the audit team’s recommendation, the case is remanded to another audit team.

After SPB Meeting:

Within one week, NCATE will notify each state of the SPB’s decision by phone. Within one month, official notification of the SPB’s decision will be sent to the state’s chief executive officer with authority for program approval. If the partnership is conditional, the notification will specify the condition(s) the state must meet before it is granted full partnership status. Under a conditional partnership, NCATE will begin to conduct joint reviews with the state. If the state has not met the conditions set by NCATE, the partnership will be rescinded.