SAIS Accreditation
Training for Teams
Led by Visiting Chairs
The mission of SAIS is to strengthen member
schools by providing high quality accreditation
processes, comprehensive professional growth
opportunities, and visionary leadership
development programs.
DEFEND·CONNECT·INFORM
The only thing an independent school is
compared to is its mission. Never should an
accreditation visit evaluate a school in
comparison to another school. How well a
school meets standards and adheres to best
practice as it pursues its mission is the focus of
an independent school accreditation.
CONCLUSION
The visiting team finds:
1.
That the school is in compliance with all standards
of the SAIS accreditation process.
2.
That the self-study conducted by the school
meets the standard of quality and thoroughness
required by the SAIS accreditation process and
answers the four critical questions as outlined in
the Guidebook.
3.
That the school is unanimously recommended for
SAIS accreditation.
school
is for students
::
accreditation
is for a school
Key Ideas
• Authenticity and Engagement:
▫ A school MUST be authentically engaged in the
accreditation process.
• Journeys and Destinations
▫ Accreditation is a process for demonstrating the shared
educational journey which a school is on. In our
schools, we believe that education is not about the
destination, but about the journey and the path we put
our students on in life.
Three Legs of Accreditation
THREE LEGS OF SAIS ACCREDITATION
 Adhere to community and research based
standards
 Conduct a thorough self-study that leads
to institutional goals for strengthening
mission fulfillment
 Host an external review from peer
educational leaders
The Accreditation Process
Standards and Indicators
Five Standards (2013 and beyond)
1.
Mission
The school commits to a mission that leads to continuous improvements
for teaching and learning.
2.
Governance and Leadership
The school provides a governance, leadership, and organizational structure
that promotes its mission.
3.
Teaching and Learning
The school provides a curriculum and instructional methods that facilitate
achievement of all students in support of its mission.
4.
Stakeholder Communications and Relationships
The school develops and maintains effective communication and
relationships to further its mission.
5.
Resource and Support Systems
The school has the resources, services, and policies necessary to support its
mission.
How to Respond to Indicators
1. Affirmative response
2. Description of how the school believes it is in
compliance
3. Evidence:
• traditionally accepted measures or criteria (e.g.
degrees of teachers, data management process,
bylaws and policies)
• documents or certificates - audit, safety
inspection certificates, policy manuals.
• minutes of official meetings where decisions
were made or policies addressed.
Sample Response to Indicators (2013)
2.8 Assures that the governance structure provides for stability in transitions of
leadership.
The governance structure provides for stability in transitions of leadership. Please
see the minutes from the 2010 Board of Trustees Meeting and the committee
report presented and accepted at that meeting. The school has considered multiple
scenarios for the transitions of Board and Head succession planning and addresses
this topic annually.
See File: Board of Trustees Meeting minutes, April 2010.
Standards / Indicators
• School must be in compliance with all indicators
• Presented as a self-contained document and sent to
chair about two weeks before pre-visit and to Team
about four weeks prior to visit.
• Chair reviews school’s responses at pre-visit
• Team helps see responses in action, but compliance
has pretty much already been demonstrated.
• DON’T GET BOGGED DOWN BY STANDARDS!!!
The Accreditation Process
Self Study and School Report
Self-Study: why, what, how, when
• WHY DO WE STUDY OURSELVES?
▫ The individual brain learns in fits and starts
▫ The organizational brain learns in fits and starts
• WHAT IS A SELF STUDY?
▫ Mission driven: self reflective examination
▫ Comprehensive
▫ Inclusive and engaging stakeholders
• HOW DO WE DO IT?
Choosing its own best
▫ Your school’s strategic planning process
method of self-study may
▫ Recognized self study or strategic thinking modelbe one more example of
an expression of a
▫ OTHER (be creative! but please talk to us)
school's independence.
• WHEN SHOULD WE START?
▫ Cyclical
• RESULTS OF SELF STUDY
▫ Several specific and meaningful areas of school improvement
Very Generic Method
• Surveys and benchmarks
▫ high level analysis of what perceptions are at the school; what does the
school value and perception of how well is the school performing at
delivering on those important characteristics
• Focus groups
▫ on the key elements of the surveys and benchmarks
▫ to establish 2-4 clear areas of improvement for the school,
• Study and work groups formed around the 2-4 clear areas
▫ Where is the school currently with regard to the study area (Profile);
▫ Where does the school want to get to (Vision);
▫ What are strategies, tactics, and best practices that may be adopted by
the school (Plan);
▫ How will the school continue to monitor progress and demonstrate
growth (Results).
School Report:
Addresses 4 Critical Questions
1.
2.
3.
4.
Where is the school right now? (Profile)
Where does the school want to go? (Vision)
How will the school get there? (Plan)
How will the school track its progress? (Results)
“The key to success will be creating
measurable milestones for the journey”
School Report Sample: Five Parts
1. Introduction of the school
2. Profile of where the school currently is with respect
to school-wide strategic goals
3. Vision for where the school wants to be with
respect to school-wide strategic goals
4. Plan for achieving the vision
5. Results measures of progress towards visions
School Report submitted to the Visiting Team at
least four weeks prior to the visit (via Portal).
The Accreditation Process
The Team and the Visit
Visiting Team To-do-list
•
•
•
•
•
Be professional
Respect the school’s culture
Be as unobtrusive as possible
Confirm compliance with standards
Conduct interviews, observe school activities and
culture, examine artifacts
• Help write visit report
Visiting Team Not-to-do-list
•
•
•
•
Do not continually reference your own school
Do not impose your cultural or educational biases
Do not appear overly judgmental
Do not interrupt the school day any more than is
absolutely necessary
Team Visit
• Data Collection
• Interviews: not inquisitions.
• Interview small groups (or break large into small tables) to
hear as many representative voices as possible.
• “MEK” Frequency of Response method for stakeholder
interviews:
• Ask the same questions of each stakeholder group
• Questions can be what do you consider the school’s strengths,
weaknesses, opportunities for growth, impediments to growth:
SWOT (strength, weakness, opportunity, threat
• Analyze which responses occur with highest frequency and you
should have good recommendations and commendations. Which are
general in nature
Team Visit
• Classroom Observation:
• ethos, not teaching: you are looking to see the mission lived out in the
classroom. It is not necessary to visit every classroom (check with your
team chair to make sure this matches the school’s expectation). You
should stay no more than 3-5 minutes.
• Artifacts: examine documents in support of
the school’s accreditation efforts
• Confirmation of school’s efforts
• Visit Report
• Post Visit Survey
Writing the Visit Report
•
•
•
•
Written as a single, unified voice
Substantiate findings
Use clear language and appropriate grammar
Incorporate data collected from interviews, observations, and
artifacts
• Relate findings to student learning and organizational
effectiveness
• Do not name individuals, prescribe a monetary solution,
endorse specific products or programs
• Avoid personal biases not specific to compliance with
standards or best practices
Writing conventions and formats
•
•
•
•
•
•
Use active voice
Should read as one voice
Complete sentences
Use consistent font
Proofread the report
Make sure all sections are complete
Commendations
•
•
•
•
Noteworthy, events, actions, practices, factors
Actions not typically observed or expected
Practices that yield meaningful results
Procedures that can be leveraged to strengthen
other areas.
Commendation examples
• The academic departments have implemented comprehensive
Professional Learning Communities which have resulted in
documented student achievement.
• The maintenance programs are committed to using resources
wisely to maintain the 100-year-old facility utilizing new
technologies and green products in concert with the school’s
initiatives.
•
Communication with stakeholders throughout the
accreditation process has been excellent, with an increased
use of the school’s web page to disseminate and collect
information.
Recommendations
 Address areas preventing school from effectively
meeting their potential
 Actions having the greatest impact
 Recommend expanding positive practices
 Recommend improving areas where compliance with
standards or best practices are marginal
 Substantive and supporting the evidence
 Visionary, strategic, process oriented
 Your recommendations should be at 20,000 feet and allow
the school help the school continue to meet its mission.
Recommendation examples
• Consider formulating a clear process to track graduates and collect
information about their future schooling, their professional choices,
interests, families.
• Continue efforts to communicate the mission to the larger
community (alumni, town, local university)
• Review facilities and long range planning in order to address future
growth, classroom size, and number of students in each classroom.
An enrollment plan and management system should be designed, so
that an orderly growth of the student population will occur. The
plan should ensure that students are representative of the school’s
Mission Statement.
Special Recommendations Note
 You are NOT required or expected to give an
explanation or rationale about your
recommendations and how they will effect the school
 This is contrary to the SACS only accreditation process
regarding commendations and required actions.
IS THERE ANYTHING WRONG?
• The school should consider the addition of new building space, dedicated
to the use of the middle school students.
▫
This is far too specific, calls on the school to spend money, and targets only a section of
stakeholders. To be appropriate, perhaps it should address long range campus master planning.
• The school should consider adopting a policy for undergoing regularly
scheduled financial audits
▫
The school is required to have a full audit to be in compliance with Indicator 5.11.
• Ensure that dedicated time is set-aside during pre-planning for the math
department to focus on curriculum mapping to target students' strengths
and weaknesses, without interruption of other pre-planning activities.
▫
Curriculum mapping or instructional methods mapping are good things a school should probably be
engaged in for all departments, not only the math department. It should be left to the school to
determine how and when to engage the faculty in this activity: it may not work for them to do it
during pre-planning.
IS THERE ANYTHING WRONG?
• To improve teacher observations/evaluations process, consider the
following:
▫ A component where teachers observe other teachers. These
observations can be either formal or informal. Seeing other teachers in
action will not only provide an opportunity to see what others are
doing in their classroom but also allow teachers to learn from each
other and help each teacher maximize their teaching potential.
▫ Reviewing the formal observation process to lessen the Principal’s
responsibility and share this obligation with other administrators such
as the Vice Principal, Curriculum Coordinator, and Department Head.
▫
There are multiple transgressions in the writing of this recommendation. The basic idea is excellent
– how would you write it to allow the school the flexibility to implement in their own unique way?
portal.sais.org
The online tool for managing accreditation
for SAIS member schools and visiting teams.
SAIS Accreditation Portal™
SAIS Accreditation Portal
SAIS Accreditation Portal
OR
SAIS Accreditation Portal
SAIS Accreditation Portal
SAIS Accreditation Portal
http://portal.sais.org
• Help files are in the Portal
• The school has already written an overview of its own
history that is automatically part of the final report (so no
need to repeat)
• One writer at a time can actively edit a section
(Introduction, Commendations, Recommendations,
Summary and Conclusion).
• Follow the guidelines in the Portal!!
Stephen Robinson,
Ph.D.
President
[email protected]
404-227-2770
Lori Spear, CAE
Executive Vice President
[email protected]
404-561-5841
Damian Kavanagh
VP, Accreditation & Membership
[email protected]
404-918-8850
LeeAnne Minnick
Director of Member Services & Technology
[email protected]
404-633-6146
Joanne Andruscavage
Director of Accreditation
[email protected]
678-231-2908
Julia Grantham
Director of Administration
[email protected]
404-561-1069
Sarah Stewart
Content & Member Engagement Manager
[email protected]
404-482-2711
Anna Taylor
Special Events Assistant
[email protected]
404-491-4698
Danielle Swart
Assistant to the President
[email protected]
404-633-2203
DEFEND | CONNECT | INFORM
The mission of SAIS is to strengthen member schools by providing high
quality accreditation processes, comprehensive professional growth
opportunities, and visionary leadership development programs.
WWW.SAIS.ORG
5901 PEACHTREE-DUNWOODY RD NE SUITE B-200 | ATLANTA, GA 30328