The Council for Exceptional Children (CEC) is a society that evaluates special education programs in the National Council for the Accreditation of Teacher Education (NCATE) process. This study surveyed the 179 colleges and universities approved for accreditation by the CEC and sampled procedures the CEC-approved special education programs were using to appraise the end-of-major competencies of preservice teachers. In addition, an interest in portfolio assessment at the college level prompted related questions about whether special education programs were incorporating portfolios into the assessment process. Approximately 80 percent of the surveys were returned for analysis. According to the findings, it was apparent that a variety of assessment methods were considered to be acceptable by the CEC; that approximately one-third of the CEC-approved special education programs indicated an involvement in, or a movement toward, portfolios as an end-of-major assessment component; and that the most common assessment practice was some form of testing at the close of special education coursework. A discussion of the trends in end-of-major assessment as evidenced by the results of the survey, a copy of the survey questionnaire, and graphic displays of responses to survey questions complete the document. (LL)