District Receives a Thumbs up in Review – Major Step Towards Becoming an Accredited District
Dr. Cynthia Anderson of AdvancED speaks during the exit interview.
Early last week, Manchester Community Schools (MCS) had an on-site accreditation review. Each of the three schools have long standing accreditations (which were not being reviewed at this time), but for the first time, the district as a whole is seeking accreditation. A team from AdvancED, the premier accreditation organization in the world, arrived Monday morning and stayed through noon on Wednesday. The Team was led by Dr. Cynthia Anderson and was made up of teachers and administrators from other school districts in Michigan as well as Mesa, AZ and Atlanta, GA. One principal came from a school district of 67,000 students with 82 schools. While they were here they conducted 95 interviews which included 2 school board members, the superintendent, principals, staff, students, parents, and community stake holders. They took 41 “snap shots” (observations) of students in their learning environments.
What is accreditation? According to AdvancEd website, accreditation is a voluntary method of quality assurance designed to distinguish schools adhering to a set of educational standards. Accreditation examines the whole institution, the programs, the cultural context, and the community of stakeholders, to determine how well the parts work together to meet the needs of students. The accreditation process asks schools and districts to critically evaluate their vision, strategies, priorities, leadership, programs and resources. The process of earning and maintaining accreditation provides them with clear and compelling direction for making changes to move toward excellence.
Why does accreditation matter? Accreditation matters because students deserve the highest level of educational excellence possible. Accreditation is designed to boost ongoing performance efforts for the benefit of students. By being accredited, MCS is holding themselves to a higher standard of education and there is an outside, impartial entity that is holding MCS accountable to maintain that standard of excellence. MCS will receive external and objective validation of the areas in which they’re doing well, and the areas for continuous improvement.
Although many individual schools in Michigan are accredited at the school level, if Manchester were to be given accreditation they would be only the 4th school district in Washtenaw County that is accredited by AdvancED. AdvancEd has only accredited 2 school districts in Lenawee County and no school districts in Jackson County.
After sifting through all the data and interviews, the Review team recommended MCS for district accreditation. At the end of the review process, a special school board meeting was held for the review team to disseminate their findings. They shared some things they thought MCS was doing well and some areas that need attention. They divided these into 3 categories, “Powerful Practices” (things MCS has worked hard to perfect), “Opportunities for Improvement” (things MCS should continue to focus on), and “Required Action” (things MCS must do to maintain accreditation after they receive it):
Powerful Practices
1) Shared Leadership
In Manchester the vision, strategies, priorities, leadership, programs, and resources are constantly being monitored and evaluated by School Improvement Teams at each building and they, along with teacher facilitators, make up the District School Improvement Team (DSIT). The School Improvement teams include representatives of teachers, support staff, administrators, students and parents that meet on a monthly basis. Although a large part of their time is spent evaluating and preparing the School Improvement Plan they also spend time sharing ideas about how the plan is being used and implemented and how that might be done better. One of the most important components of the School Improvement Team is the input from the students and parents. They ask the questions from a non-educator stand point. By asking the obvious questions it can get the teachers and administrators to think of things they might not think about or see some of the “routine” stuff in a new light.
The review team noted how the district has empowered both students and staff to be an integral part of the decision making process. Dr Anderson specifically mentioned the fact that students are part of the DSIT and how important it is for students to have a voice.
Opportunities for Improvement
1) Challenging and equitable learning opportunities
The review team felt MCS could be doing a better job to ensure that students do not “fall through the cracks”. MCS needs to make sure that “every child receives the necessary services that they should”. She pointed out that this is true for low performers and high achievers alike. Dr. Anderson said, “When high achieving students are allowed to coast they begin to drop. If you truly want to prepare your students to be college and career ready you need to bump up the ante for everyone.”
2) Technology Integration
The review team pointed out that simply having technology in your hand is not necessarily using it as a teaching tool. “You have teachers at both ends of the extreme. You have teachers that can go out and do major things in terms of training others, but you have some folks that are still at this level of ‘I have this cute little thing and what am I going to do with it’” said Dr. Anderson. The District needs to ask itself what are our expectations for technology use and where are we going from here.
3) Advocacy
This is a new indicator in the review process. What AdvancEd would like to see is that every child has an adult advocate. MCS needs to make sure that every child in each building has “someone to go to”.
Required Action
1) Involve external stake holders
External stake holders are community members and parents and they can be valuable resources for input. The review team found that many people were unaware or misinformed about major initiatives going on in the district. Although the district has a communication plan that they are going to implement next year, the review team felt MCS needs to do a better job at engaging, informing, and communicating with its external stake holders. Dr. Anderson said to “just go back and revisit (your procedures) to make sure you are truly reaching out to stakeholders and involving them so they can be credible forces in school improvement”.
2) Fidelity of continuous improvement process
This is an area the district is aware they need to work on. “Accreditation is not an event, accreditation is an ongoing process,” said Dr. Anderson. The review team said MCS needs to do a better job setting goals and expectations and constantly monitoring them. By continuously monitoring the goals, MCS will be able to identify how well they are doing in the improvement process. Dr. Anderson suggested that they continually ask themselves, “Why are we here, and what are the underlying causes for being here?”
3) District leadership
The review team felt that if teaching and learning are going to improve in the district, the leadership needs to do a better job providing clarity, have a streamlined process, and that teachers and staff know who the “go to” person is at the district level. The district needs to establish “non-negotiables” (expectations) and guidelines of what is going to happen in the classrooms across the district. Whatever the district decides to implement, the teachers need to understand what the rigors and expectations are. “This is a district process so we have to look to the district for leadership and support,” said Dr. Anderson, although others can still be empowered to be part of the work.
While the review team does not have the authority to give the accreditation, the team submits a recommendation, along with a report, to be reviewed by the AdvancED Accreditation Commission. The Commission will make the decision whether or not to grant accreditation. MCS should have an official response from AdvancED by May 1.
The school board meeting with the review team was sparsely attended. Although this was open to the public, the attendees were mainly administrators and DSIT members. The school board, itself, was only represented by the president.
Dr. Anderson wrapped up the exit interview with the following comments: “If you are going to be District Accredited, the district has to step up to the plate to lead the efforts and provide support to the schools. That’s what District Accreditation is all about.” She also said, “There are lots of good things going on in the district,” but, “now is the time to have the courageous conversation about where is the district leadership in this process.”
2013/14 School Improvement Plans
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