Message from Connie Lee, 2021 Commission Chair

Greetings from CEA. It’s my honor to serve as CEA’s chair as we continue to work to overcome the many challenges present in the field today with resilience and creativity. This issue of News from CEA reports on several projects that have been undertaken and accomplished during 2021. As CEA’s chair, I’ve continued to work with my Commission colleagues and CEA staff to navigate the virtual environment we’ve all become accustomed to. This year, all Commission meetings have been held virtually, and the Commission has accomplished all of its regular tasks in addition to some exciting work for CEA’s future. In addition to holding regular annual orientation of new commissioners and the full Commission, the Commission has continued to make accreditation decisions, and review compliance reports as well as holding professional development sessions and committee meetings according to schedule. Though we hope to convene in person later this year for our December meeting, we continue to closely monitor the ongoing situation to see whether that will be possible.

CEA’s dedicated reviewer pool has continued to conduct site visits according to the Section 23 Temporary Policy Adaptations enacted by the Commission last year in June 2020. Though there are some in-person visits scheduled in the remainder of 2021, the Hybrid Site Visit policy, which allows for a virtual review, will stay in place until rescinded or revoked by the Commission. These policies have allowed the Commission to support accredited sites by allowing extensions of eligibility during prolonged periods of non-operation as well as extensions of time to complete the reaccreditation self-study and site visit process if needed.

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2020 End of Year Message from CEA Chair, Susan Carkin

CEA’s engagement with the historical and singular events that characterize 2020 challenged the agency, staff, and board on numerous fronts. We witnessed closures, transformations, innovations, and regrouping among jobs, program modalities, positions, curriculum, teaching, and testing. Overshadowing every aspect of the changed educational environment were health concerns and safe practices. We experienced a wide range of these events within our own CEA microcosm, affecting staff, commissioners, our programs/institutions, and our professional lives and futures. Overall, the Commission got its work done, met the challenges with effective responses, from personnel to policy, and took on some progressive and future-oriented work on behalf of English language programs around the world. We want to acknowledge, with understanding and compassion, that while this year was extraordinarily difficult overall, it was especially challenging for English language programs and professionals across our global educational setting.

All CEA meetings were held on Zoom in 2020: our three annual meetings, several follow-up meetings, all the standing committees, the Executive Committee, a task force, various professional development activities, and weekly meetings between the executive director and chair. It was quite a transition year for CEA’s new executive director, Dr. Heidi Vellenga, who assumed her role on February 1, 2020. One of her first official acts as executive director involved the release of the CEA Statement on COVID-19. Taking into account guidance from the USDE and SEVP, CEA addressed the next immediate need brought on by the effects of the COVID-19  pandemic: development of protocols and guidance documents to programs and institutions to support them as many sites transitioned to online and hybrid formats. Heidi also successfully oversaw the office transition to work from home, and quickly reorganized the April Commission meeting format with its professional development activities revised for online engagement using Zoom. New protocols were developed to accommodate the virtual environment and the work took off. As one of the commissioners noted with appreciation for Heidi’s leadership in 2020: No balls were dropped. What follows is a brief summary of the Commission’s work under Heidi’s first year of leadership.

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