Assuring teacher education program quality is high on agenda across the country because
teacher education program plays a critical role building foundations for lifelong professional
development by equipping candidates with knowledge, skills, and dispositions. Although
there has been government-initiated teacher education institution evaluation since 1998, the
evaluation has focused on explicit input and outcome indices of teacher education in
general, rather than scrutinizing details of individual teacher education programs. The
purpose of this paper was to examine physical education teacher education (PETE) program
assessment in relation to the teacher education accreditation system in USA. First, we will
provide an overview of the teacher education accreditation system and Initial Physical
Education Teacher Education Professional Standards in USA. Then, specific application of
teacher professional standards to the teacher education program assessment will be
described. Four contradicting issues of standard-based assesment are discussed in terms of:
(a) double-sided nature and meaning of 'standards', (b) issue of autonomy vs. accountability,
and (c) promoting professionalism vs. de-professionalism. Three implications are provided for
designing future Korean PETE program assessment system.