ABSTRACT
This chapter describes ways that teacher leaders serve "beyond the school" by participating in the accreditation process of educator preparation programs. The Council for the Accreditation of Educator Preparation's goal is to accredit only the programs that show unequivocally that the graduates are competent teachers, that the program contributed to the competence, and that the program has a system for further improving the graduates' competence. The chapter focuses the role of the cooperating teacher and explains teachers' responsibilities on site visit teams and decision panels. It deals with some ways that teacher leaders can use their expertise to make assessments about the quality of teaching at the K–12 levels. The cooperating teachers who reported that they were better trained and had a better understanding of the program were the most satisfied with the student teachers' knowledge and skills. In short, classroom teacher leaders played an important role in the site visit teams and decision panels.
