DICKINSON — Dickinson State University’s teacher education program was recently awarded the Frank Murray Leadership Recognition for Continuous Improvement by the Council for the Accreditation of Educator Preparation.
DSU was one of 22 programs across the country to receive the award in 2025 — the only teacher education program in North Dakota to do so.
“This recognition affirms the outstanding work that teacher education faculty, in collaboration with their P-12 partners, perform daily,” Joan Aus, dean of the School of Education, said in a university press release. “We are committed to being student-centered and assessment-driven.”
Aus, along with Amy Grinsteinner, assistant professor of education and assistant dean of the School of Education, accepted the award at CAEP’s fall 2025 conference in Washington, D.C.
“We were in Washington, D.C., being recognized with educators from all over the country,” Aus said in an interview with The Dickinson Press. “To have Dickinson, North Dakota, you know, being named as one of the EPPs receiving this award I think the national attention it brings is really important.”
Dickinson State’s Educator Preparation Program is accredited through the Council for the Accreditation of Educator Preparation.
To receive accreditation, programs must provide data demonstrating they meet or exceed academic and performance-based standards set by CAEP.
Once accredited, institutions must submit a yearly report to maintain their status and undergo an accreditation renewal process every seven years. CAEP currently accredits 549 teacher education programs, six of which are in North Dakota.
DSU most recently underwent an accreditation renewal visit in November 2024, and its renewal was approved in April 2025. Prior to this, Dickinson State’s EPP was re-accredited in 2018.
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Started in 2019, the Frank Murray Leadership Recognition for Continuous Improvement requires that no serious deficiencies or areas for improvement be found during the re-accreditation process.
In 2018, several areas for improvement were identified within DSU’s teacher education program. In 2025, none were, qualifying the program for recognition for continuous improvement. Dickinson State is the second teacher education program in North Dakota to receive the award, after
Preparing teachers for excellence
Aus and Grinsteinner both touted the program’s ability to adapt to changes within the field of education in service of its mission to prepare excellent future educators as a primary reason for its recognition.
“I have about 28 years of experience in teacher education in higher ed and as a K-12 teacher,” Aus said. “And teacher education has changed tremendously within the span of my career.”
Aus highlighted her faculty’s prior experience in K-12 education as a prime example, saying criticisms have often been leveled at teacher education programs for having out-of-touch faculty not equipped to prepare teachers for modern-day learning environments.
“Every one of my teacher ed faculty, including myself, have prior K-12 experience. And most of them acted in their capacity as an instructional coach. So not only are they really good teachers, but they were recognized among their peers as leaders in their field.”
Grinsteinner concurred, saying that in her decade-plus of experience in higher education, she too has seen large changes, one of the biggest being the rise of artificial intelligence.
“It is changing the face of education,” she said. “So you have to know how to use it ethically, and you have to know how to use it well.”
Grinsteinner also noted the program’s strong community partnerships as a key factor in measuring its strength and success.
Dickinson State currently partners with several area school districts, including Dickinson, New England, Belfield and South Heart public schools.
She explained these partnerships are crucial for student teachers to gain experience before graduation and for DSU faculty to observe modern classroom environments and incorporate those experiences into their teaching.
Contributed / Dickinson State University
Aus highlighted classroom management as a key focus area that has emerged from DSU’s local partnerships. She said many local schools have noted that young teachers often struggle with classroom management.
“We listened,” she said, “and we now implemented even more classroom management. It has its own class already, but we’ve implemented it within our lesson plan templates so that it’s a cross-cutting theme in every class.”
While both Aus and Grinsteinner stressed the importance of continuous improvement in teacher education programs to help prepare future teachers, they said the most important part of teacher education is helping instill a love and passion for teaching in their students.
“For us it’s really important to show that Dickinson State is an option you need to be considering if you want to teach,” Grinsteinner said. “Because we’re gonna prepare you for the joys of teaching, but also there’s a lot of difficulty with teaching and we’re gonna prepare you for all of that to give you a career that you can sustain. You’re not gonna burn out in three years because we’re not just trying to quickly get you in the classroom.”
More information on the Frank Murray Leadership Recognition for Continuous Improvement, CAEP or Dickinson State’s teacher preparation program can be found on each organization’s website.