ABSTRACT
This chapter describes the potential of accreditation and accrediting agencies in promoting diversity, focusing primarily on the standard and elements for diversity in the National Council for the Accreditation of Teacher Education (NCATE) with regard to their responsiveness to the trends in demographics of the student population and the teaching force. Accreditation has considerable capacity to regulate higher education for quality assurances if it lives up to its potential. Teacher preparation institutions may continue to use the NCATE standards until 2016, after which they must all migrate to the new CAEP standards established in August 2013. According to Valentin, teacher education programs have a moral responsibility to prepare preservice teachers to become competent in facing the challenges of today's diverse classroom settings. Wiggins, Follo, and Eberly suggested programs can meet this obligation by the integration of diversity into their curriculum and field experiences. Educational institutions are a microcosm of society.
