ALA partnered with the National Council for Accreditation of Teacher Education (NCATE) in 1988, delegating the membership responsibilities for this partnership to the AASL. NCATE is an agency authorized by the federal government to accredit units within colleges and universities that prepare classroom teachers and other pre K-12 school personnel. NCATE accreditation signals that an institution has met or exceeded professional standards of quality, created by the teaching profession and for the benefit of the nation's schoolchildren. NCATE's mission is to provide leadership in developing a system of quality assurance for the teaching profession.
In July of 2013, NCATE and the Teacher Education Accreditation Council (TEAC) consolidated to form the Council for the Accreditation of Educator Preparation (CAEP). Under this consolidation, NCATE became a subsidiary of CAEP maintaining its recognition by the U.S. Department of Education and the Council for Higher Education Accreditation for the purpose of maintaining the accreditation of educator preparation providers until such time as said providers come up for accreditation under CAEP.