Photo provided: Oklahoma Baptist University has received the 2024 Frank Murray Leadership Recognition for Continuous Improvement. Show, from left, are Christopher Koch, CAEP President; Dr. Kellie D. Young, Associate Professor of Early Childhood Education; Dr. Elizabeth Justice, OBU Chair of the School of Education; Dr. Rebecca Farley, Associate Professor of Education; Dr. Jeanne Akin, Professor of Education; Annie Keehn, Assistant Professor of Education and Yuhang Rong, Chair of the CAEP Board of Directors.
The Council for the Accreditation of Educator Preparation (CAEP) has announced that Oklahoma Baptist University’s McCabe Family School of Education has received the 2024 Frank Murray Leadership Recognition for Continuous Improvement. OBU is one of only nine teacher education providers in the nation to receive this recognition.
“The Frank Murray Leadership Recognition is a seal of approval that confirms quality teacher preparation is happening at OBU,” said Dr. Elizabeth Justice, director and chair of the OBU McCabe Family School of Education. “The accreditation process ensures that educator preparation programs prepare new teachers to know their subjects, their students, and have the clinical training that allows them to enter the classroom ready to teach effectively.”
In the fall of 2023, the School of Education successfully completed a CAEP (Council for the Accreditation of Educator Preparation) accreditation review. The external peer review team concluded that OBU’s School of Education met all accreditation standards with no areas for improvement and no stipulations. This achievement underscores OBU’s ongoing commitment to excellence in educator preparation.
“Accreditation provides a framework that pushes educator preparation programs to continually self-assess and conduct evidence-based analysis of their programs and their efficacy,” Justice said. “Receiving the Frank Murray Leadership Recognition for Continuous Improvement says that the McCabe Family School of Education is fully committed to doing this with excellence.”
The Frank Murray Leadership Recognition for Continuous Improvement is named after the founding President of the Teacher Education Accreditation Council. CAEP was created by the consolidation of the National Council for Accreditation of Teacher Education and TEAC. Murray was the founding President of TEAC, served as Chairman of the Board for TEAC and was also an initial member of the CAEP Board of Directors. He was a key advocate for a single set of educator preparation standards to unify the profession and was instrumental in the merger that created CAEP. He also served as the Dean of the College of Education at the University of Delaware from 1979 to 1995.
“These providers are committed to preparing their candidates to make a positive difference in the lives of all K-12 students as soon as they enter the classroom. The CAEP Standards are the gold standard for teacher preparation and the schools that receive CAEP Accreditation are demonstrating to their local communities that they will go the extra mile to better serve all P-12 learners through more rigorous preparation of educators,” said Yuhang Rong, Chair of the CAEP Board of Directors. “The Murray Leadership Recognition highlights the commitment to continuous improvement these providers have made. CAEP Accreditation is a sign of commitment to quality through purposeful use of evidence.”
Recipients of the 2024 Frank Murray Leadership Recognition for Continuous Improvement are selected from the educator preparation providers that were granted accreditation by CAEP at the initial level from the previous year, who provided a full complement of evidence with demonstrated data trends and no stipulations or areas for improvement. Providers selected for recognition advance equity and excellence in educator preparation through purposeful use of self-study procedures and evidence-based reporting that assure quality and support continuous improvement to strengthen P-12 learning. These EPPs use inquiry and assessments to establish quality assurance systems to drive improvement.
“The key to the success of the McCabe Family School of Education is that each moment we strive to be grounded in Christ,” Justice said. “Each meeting, each programmatic decision, and each strategic goal that is set, each one has been bathed in prayer. We constantly seek the Lord’s guidance and direction as we do His work.”
Justice said OBU’s School of Education seeks to live out Colossians 3:23-24, “Whatever you do, work heartily, as for the Lord and not for men, knowing that from the Lord you will receive the inheritance as your reward. You are serving the Lord Christ.”
“He is the one and only reason that our team was able to achieve this highest level of recognition,” Justice said.
CAEP accreditation serves the dual purposes of accountability and continuous improvement. 559 educator preparation providers in forty-four states, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, Bahrain, Jordan and the United Arab Emirates have been accredited under the CAEP Standards. The CAEP accreditation process evaluates the performance of providers and focuses particularly on whether candidates will be prepared, by completion, for the challenging responsibilities that educators face in America’s classrooms.
Approximately 600 educator preparation providers participate in the CAEP Accreditation system, including many previously accredited through former standards.
“Exciting things are on the horizon for OBU’s School of Education,” Justice said. “This award confirms our strong partnerships, stakeholders, and quality assurance system, which sets us up for success as we move forward. Additionally, it won’t be long until we are back in Shawnee Hall. Within the next year, we will be in newly renovated classrooms and offices. We will also be debuting an immersive classroom. This classroom will have walls that are large projected screens, enabling students to be fully immersed in the lesson. The McCabe Family School of Education is innovative, visionary, committed to Christ, and ready to prepare the next generation of P12 educators.”
2024 Frank Murray Recognition for Continuous Improvement
Oklahoma Baptist University – Oklahoma
Belhaven University — Mississippi
Boise State University — Idaho
Kansas State University
Limestone University — South Carolina
Otterbein University — Ohio
Seton Hall University — New Jersey
The University of Alabama
