In an effort to provide the best possible educational experience, Montrose Christian School has chosen the Accreditation for Growth protocol to prove to ourselves, our parents and the educational community that we are everything we profess to be.  This accreditation protocol involves the entire MCS community: faculty, staff, administration, parents, students, and alumni.

Why is accreditation important?

What is Accreditation for Growth?

Accreditation for Growth Parameters

Parents Survey

 

Why is accreditation important?

The activity now known as accreditation is traceable to the guild orientation of the medieval academic communities. The word “accreditation” is derived from middle French, old Italian usage. The first meaning of its root term is “trustworthiness.” Since the early 1900s, accreditation has had a major impact on the field of American education. Accreditation responds to the public's demands for improved quality and greater accountability for institutions serving society's needs. Accreditation agencies enjoy a unique “public trust” role in the United States.

Accredited schools can be trusted by the public to be what they claim they are and to do what they claim to do. Whatever an accredited school says about itself has both the sanction and the confidence of the profession.

  Accreditation encourages and facilitates school improvement…..

  • Involvement in an ongoing accreditation protocol fosters excellence and ongoing improvement in a school. The question is not if we want a better school, but how we will assure continuous school improvement. Accreditation provides a systematic process that requires a school to ask why it exists, to establish a vision of its future, and to determine specific objectives for reaching that vision.
  • The information gathered through the accreditation protocol serves as a sound basis for school improvement, strategic planning, restructuring, and staff development.   
  • The accreditation process examines the entire school—its philosophy and goals, its community, its programs and services, the facilities and financial stability.
  • Accreditation provides a way to manage change through regular assessment, planning, implementation, and reassessment. 
  • Accreditation helps schools establish priorities for improvement by using thorough needs assessments, rather than faddish approaches to improvement.
  • Accreditation requires a school to establish and implement a 5-7 year improvement plan based upon its vision of the future. Desired school-wide results are a part of the perpetual accreditation cycle that includes:
  • School self-assessment that identifies areas of strength and areas for improvement in the current educational program for students.
  • Insight and perspective from the evaluation team.
  • Regular assessment of progress during the intervening years between full self-studies.
  • The accreditation process helps to ensure greater continuity of student experiences through continuous clarification of the school's direction.
  • Participation in accreditation provides an excellent growth experience for staff who participate on visiting teams to evaluate other schools.
  • Because accreditation is a regional activity that encourages broader involvement with educators from other states and independent, public, and church-related constituencies, participants learn from the differences and benefit from the resulting professional networks.
  • The support of MSA staff and encouragement of the Committee on Institution-Wide Accreditation motivates schools to maintain their focus on continuous school improvement.

  Accreditation provides a means for public accountability…..

  • The accreditation process validates to the public the integrity of a school's program and student transcripts.
  • The accreditation process assures a school community that the school's purposes are appropriate and are being accomplished through a viable educational program.
  • The accreditation process justifies the faith and resources others place in the school.

Accreditation fosters stakeholder involvement and commitment…..

  • Accreditation provides opportunities for grass roots, broad-based involvement of stakeholders in charting the direction of the school.
  • The accreditation process offers a mechanism for constituent groups to play a major role in determining the school's future, helping a school to be all it can be.
  • Accreditation involves key people in creating a vision of the future, rather than letting the future happen to the school.

  Accreditation builds positive public relations…..

  • Accreditation provides opportunities to emphasize the positive and show how strong and effective the school is.
  • Willingly submitting a school to public scrutiny and evaluation builds commitment and a deeper understanding of the school's efforts. It helps staff to broaden its view of community expectations and fosters closer school and community collaboration.
  • The accreditation process provides articulation and communication opportunities between school levels and among stakeholder groups.

What is Accreditation for Growth?

The Accreditation for Growth protocol differs from other accreditation formats historically used by accrediting agencies because AFG brings a new focus to the most important work of schools and school communities---increasing the performance of their students. Quite simply, the AFG protocol seeks to change the traditional school culture of primarily focusing on the inputs of school improvement (facilities, programs, services, etc.) to focusing on the outputs desired in student performance.

Using strategic planning as a vehicle for school improvement and growth in student performance, the Accreditation for Growth process provides linkages among various planning and school improvement efforts. In AFG, the primary determinants of progress are not the resources a community provides for the schools (the inputs), but instead the actual results of the school's work-- the students' performance. AFG requires the school to establish objectives for improving student performance based on a vision of a preferred future for the school.  Therefore, AFG is a future oriented and visionary process. In addition, the AFG protocol provides for a continuous review of programs and services and of the results of student performance. Finally, it allows diverse constituent groups to participate in charting the future of the school.

In this era of accountability, student performance is and should be the essential focus of educators. Using AFG, school leaders must keep the attention of the entire school community on the five questions below:  

Question #1

What should students know, and how should they be able to use what they know? What content, process skills, and work habits should be the priorities?

Question #2

How well should students perform and what does excellent performance look like?

Question #3

How will we assess and evaluate student performance?

Question #4

How well do students currently perform? What is the actual quality of their work?

Question #5

What will we do to improve student performance?

In setting a course for continuous improvement in student performance, the school must study not only what the existing data tells about students' present performance, but the school must also set clear targets for what the school wants student performance to be. Maintaining a focus on the above five questions is essential to a successful continuous planning process and is a “habit of mind” that must be cultivated and nurtured by the Planning Team. Too often schools find themselves working on curriculum and instructional materials and engaging in staff development before they have clearly decided what students should know, how they should use their content knowledge, process skills, and work habits, and what the quality of their performance should be.

The Accreditation for Growth protocol was written to be compatible with school improvement requirements of the various states and governing agencies. There is a great amount of flexibility inherent in AFG and thus, the protocol is compatible with any school improvement requirement that focuses primarily on increasing the level and quality of student performance. By using the AFG protocol, most schools will be able to fulfill school improvement planning requirements of their various governing agencies and to obtain accreditation through the same planning process.

Accreditation for Growth Parameters

While AFG is flexible in its approaches, the following five areas are the non-negotiable elements of the Accreditation for Growth process. Evidence of these parameters must be in place in order for the school to be accredited using the AFG protocol.

A Focus on Student Performance and Growth

  • End results in student performance are key
  • School improvement efforts aimed at student learning, student performance, student results

A Culture of Accountability in Student Performance

  • Measurable objectives
  • Viable internal monitoring process; development and implementation of an accountability system for monitoring the accomplishment of the action plans

A Planning Ethic

  • Continuous clarification of the school's unique mission, beliefs, and expected student performance areas (objectives)
  • Processes that are vision-driven
  • Action-oriented: development of long-term strategic action plans that integrate program, services, facilities, and support to address growth needs

Commitment to Continuous Improvement

  • Continuous evaluation
  • An annual review process
  • A dynamic process; flexibility to modify plans
  • Commitment to peer review

Involvement of Representative Constituents

  • Inclusiveness
  • Involvement and collaboration of stakeholders in the planning process
  • School and community-wide ownership of planning process and content