The State Board of Education and the Commission on Higher Education shall appoint a collegial panel of middle grade classroom teachers and teacher preparation faculty to review the National Council for Accreditation of Teacher Education (NCATE) accreditation requirements and recommend any additional training standards and needs for middle grade teacher preparation and professional development courses. The panel shall be a continuing body, shall include representatives of professional organizations, and shall:

(1) review the state’s academic standards in the four core academic areas and current teaching courses;

(2) determine the knowledge and skills needed by teachers at the middle grades level to teach these standards and assess student progress in learning the standards;

(3) establish syllabi to guide the development of high quality teacher preparation courses; and

(4) develop assessments to determine the strengths and weaknesses of the curriculum.