Message from the 2011 Commission Chair

Rebecca Smith-Murdock

We knew it was coming. We began preparations. And it has come. In December 2010, the U.S. President signed into law the Accreditation of English Language Training Programs Act, Public Law. 111-306. As a consequence, all English language training schools currently SEVP certified, are required to attain accreditation in order to continue to issue I-20s.  The application deadline was December 14, 2011.  On December 14, 2011, CEA had more than 160 English language programs and institutions at various stages in the application and self-study process.  This is in contrast to the 40 that have typically been in the application and self-study process at any point of time in the past.      

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CEA Receives Grant from the TOEFL Grants and Awards Committee

CEA thanks the TOEFL Grants and Awards Committee for granting CEA an award of $14,230 for developing training materials and a reviewer corps to implement CEA’s revised standards and on-line self-study report. The 6-month project will provide funding for CEA to redesign the reviewer workshop, develop new on-line training materials, develop a cadre of trained reviewers who can train others, and conduct a pilot workshop. As a result of the project, CEA will increase its capacity to meet the needs of the ever-increasing numbers of applicants for accreditation and continue to represent good practice.

CEA has received prior grants from the TOEFL Grants and Awards Committee: one to carry out a review of the CEA Standards; another related to reviewer training; and one to create a standards document for international reviews. CEA thanks TOEFL and the Committee for the on-going support of CEA and its activities.

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