| accreditation | Certification of an education program or a school that has met professional standards of an outside agency.
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| adult education | Courses and programs offered to high school graduates by colleges, business, industry, and governmental and private organizations that lead to academic degrees, occupational preparation, and the like.
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| day care centers | Facilities charged with caring for children. The quality of care varies dramatically and may range from well-planned educational programs to little more than custodial supervision.
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| e-portfolio | A digital version of the teacher's professional portfolio.
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| endorsement | Having a license extended through additional work to include a second teaching field.
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| minimum competency tests | Exit-level tests designed to ascertain whether students have achieved basic levels of performance in such areas as reading, writing, and computation. Some states require that a secondary student pass a minimum competency test in order to receive a high school diploma.
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| National Association of State Directors of Teacher Education and Certification (NASDTEC) | An organization, comprising participating state departments of education, that evaluates teacher education programs in higher education.
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| National Council for the Accreditation of Teacher Education (NCATE) | An organization that evaluates teacher education programs in many colleges and universities. Graduates of programs approved by the NCATE receive licenses in over half the states, pending the successful completion of required state exams.
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| portfolio | Compilations of work (such as papers, projects, videotapes) assembled to demonstrate growth, creativity, and competence. Often advocated as a more comprehensive assessment than test scores.
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| privatization | The movement toward increased private sector, for-profit involvement in the management of public agencies, including schools.
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| probationary teaching period | A specified period of time in which a newly hired teacher must demonstrate teaching competence. This period is usually three years for public school teachers and six years for college professors. Generally, on satisfactory completion of the probationary period, a teacher is granted tenure.
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| résumé | A summary of a person's education and experiences, often used for application to school or employment.
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| special license | A nonteaching license that is designed for specialized educational careers, such as counseling, library science, and administration.
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| Teach for America | A program that places unlicensed college graduates in districts with critical teacher shortages as they work toward attaining a teacher license.
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| tenure | A system of employment in which teachers, having served a probationary period, acquire an expectancy of continued employment. The majority of states have tenure laws.
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