Indiana State Board of Education extends accreditation for Trine’s education school

INDIANAPOLIS — The Indiana State Board of Education voted unanimously to extend continuing state accreditation for Trine University’s Franks School of Education (FSOE) during its Jan. 9 business meeting at the Indiana State Library.

The decision followed the continued national accreditation granted to FSOE by the Accreditation Council of the Council for the Accreditation of Education Preparation (CAEP) in October.

In introducing Tony Kline, Ph.D., dean of the Franks School of Education, to the meeting, Scott J. Bogan, director of higher education and educational preparation programs, told board members Trine has had an approximately 80 percent increase in the number of freshman enrolled since Kline began as dean.

Board member David Freitas, Ed.D., commented that he was particularly impressed that FSOE has increased its entrance requirements, and asked Kline how the school also measures the dispositional attributes of its teacher candidates.

In response, Kline highlighted FSOE’s strong retention rates, low student-to-teacher ratio, and regular benchmark interviews to assess student knowledge, skills and dispositions.

Freitas described Trine’s education program as “exemplary” and told Kline, “You’re already making dramatic kinds of differences.”

Board member Steve Yager, Ph.D., former superintendent at Northwest Allen County Schools and Southwest Allen County Schools, suggested the board might want to consider meeting at Trine in the future.

“A lot of us in various parts of the state don’t know much about Trine University, and it’s really kind of a gold star up there in that corner of the state,” he commented. “If we are going to continue to move meetings around, this would be a campus that people would say, ‘My goodness, there is a remarkable effort going on in Angola!’ ”

The meeting was streamed live, with video available on YouTube.

The Trine University portion of the meeting begins at 1:18:15.

The next accreditation visit for the Franks School of Education is planned for spring 2024.

One of the fastest-growing teacher education programs in Indiana, Trine’s Franks School of Education is guided by highly respected educators who have extensive experience as classroom teacher leaders. The school has a 100 percent employment rate for its graduates over the past six years, with recent licensed graduates achieving a 100 percent pass rate on the Core Academic Skills Assessment, Content Area Assessment and Developmental Assessment tests.