Franklin College’s Elementary Ed Accreditation Revoked

(photo courtesy of Franklin College)

Franklin College has announced that the Council for the Accreditation of Educator Preparation has revoked the college’s accreditation in elementary education. The college says the decision comes after its failure to follow the agency’s reporting process.

Franklin says its former accreditation coordinator and former administrative leadership failed to draft the report according to the required guidelines in 2019.

“Franklin College adamantly disagrees with the CAEP decision as an unfair penalty for process failures,” said President Kerry Prather. “The ruling was not based on the quality of Franklin College’s program but solely on the failure to comply with the reporting process.”

The college says the Indiana Department of Education has assured that students currently accepted to Franklin’s elementary education program will retain a path to teacher licensure.

“The former employee charged with producing the 2019 report and the former employees charged with administrative oversight of the process all failed Franklin and our students. None of those individuals remain employed at Franklin College,” Prather said. “Despite around-the-clock effort by my administration since we inherited this situation, we could not persuade CAEP to change its decision through a series of appeals that were exhausted last week.”

As recently as 2018, evaluation by the Association for Childhood Education International validated the quality of the Franklin College elementary education program through its review process.

Franklin College says it will work with the Indiana Department of Education and the State Board of Education moving forward to pursue reaccreditation.