Jeneane Stevens, MEd, serves in northern California as both a K–8 administrator and an executive director of an early education program. Jeneane is also the West Coast representative on the ACSI National Early Education Accreditation Commission.
The secretary has just run into your office to inform you that the bathroom is flooding; at the same time an irate parent is on the phone wondering why her child’s birthday wasn’t sufficiently recognized; today your goal was to finish the budget and to interview a prospective teacher. As if you weren’t busy enough, the board chairperson just called to tell you that the board has voted that you are going to take the school through the accreditation process this year! In the back of your mind, you think, “Calgon, take me away!”
The thought of going through the accreditation process can be overwhelming. Those of us who have gone through it have struggled with issues such as anxiety over how to get started, time management, fear of what will be uncovered, and possibly the fear of having others evaluate our work. I hope that this article will help you not only eliminate any anxiety over how to start but also deal with time management—in other words, help you eat the giant elephant of accreditation.
At the school in which I serve, the most valuable lesson we learned through this experience was that it was not so much the product (plaque on our wall) as the process that caused us to learn and grow as a team. We found that the accreditation process improved our school in the following ways:
- It brought the staff together because they had a common goal.
- It validated each member’s ideas and contributions.
- It enabled us to meet, laugh, and learn from one another.
- It strengthened areas that were weak.
More important, in doing so, it pushed us toward excellence as a school!
There will be areas of your early education program that even the most thorough administrator would not have addressed.
So how do you, the director, get the greatest benefit from the tools that ACSI provides? Two excellent tools, the observation guide and the self-study guide, provide the road map you are looking for. Set aside time to thoroughly read all the materials that ACSI has sent before starting the process. Here is the way you can eat the elephant:
- Identify within your staff some leaders that you can work with and assign them as committee chairpersons for each of the sections. Note that you or the board or both will probably do the first two sections.
- Schedule deadlines for reporting progress.
- Ask each committee to conduct a selfstudy for its section.
- Ask each committee to take on the responsibility of writing responses for the self-study questions and to gather any needed data.
- Schedule times for the chairpersons to meet with you so that they can report progress.
- When a group has completed its study, have the group report to the whole staff.
There will be areas of your early education program that even the most thorough administrator would not have addressed. Be prepared for this truth! Choose to see those areas as the ones that give you the opportunity to grow the most.
At the end of the process, there will be time to reflect as a team on your accomplishments. All the teachers, aides, secretaries, and others who participated can take pride in the fact that they have played an important role in this beneficial process.
Eating the Elephant of Accreditation 8.4