Robert H. Tennies, Ed.D., has a BS from Wheaton College in Illinois and a doctorate in educational administration and supervision from Florida Atlantic University. Bob has served as headmaster of Boca Raton Christian School in Florida since 1984, and he is currently chairman of the Florida Regional Accreditation Commission.
It was said of Jesus that He did all things well (Mark 7:37). That is, whatever Jesus did, He did with quality. To say of anything that it has quality assumes that it meets certain standards. To attain and maintain quality in our Christian schools, we must set standards, and we must assess our schools by them. The diagram below illustrates the cycle for renewal, highlighting the interdependence of the three steps. The following paragraphs describe two assessment tools that can help our schools maintain a degree of excellence pleasing and honoring to the Master Teacher.
I remember one accreditation visit I made. The school had allowed its accreditation to slide and was still accredited only because of a one-year extension granted by the regional commission. The possibility of losing its accreditation became a volatile school issue. When a member of our visiting team asked a student whether she would return the next year, her reply was, "It depends on what you guys decide." The school had slipped out of the proper assessment process and put itself in a compromising position. Confidence in that school hung by a thread.
Happily, the school received its accreditation and has gone on to flourish significantly with increased enrollment and the funding of several capital improvements. It should always be remembered that when confidence is built, funding will follow. A schoolwide assessment program is a prerequisite for instilling confidence.
ACSI accreditation provides strong standards and a schoolwide assessment procedure in the context of a biblical worldview. A school accomplishes the assessment by completing a self-study and then inviting a visiting accreditation committee to verify the self-study independently. A school that is concerned with standards, assessment, and a subsequent action plan is able to earn the confidence of its constituents. Only when it has quality can a school also have that precious commodity—confidence.
A school begins ACSI accreditation by making application with the ACSI regional director. Before the school sends in the application, its board needs to approve the undertaking. Then it is granted a three-year candidacy to prepare for the outside accreditation committee’s visit. An ACSI consultant is assigned to help guide the school through the process. During the candidacy period, the school will want to make sure that its curriculum manuals, board policy manual, and certification are up to speed, that all teachers have bachelor’s degrees, and that other standards are met. During the final year of its candidacy, the school completes the self-study, which engages the board, faculty, support staff, parents, and students in a comprehensive assessment of the school’s program. Then the visiting committee measures the school against the self-study in light of ACSI standards and writes a final report. Finally, usually in July, the regional commission meets to go over the report and determine whether to grant the school accreditation. The school also receives the report, which becomes a document of encouragement (commendations) and a blueprint for improvement (recommendations). Recognition comes at the ACSI convention, when, in front of its peers, the school receives a plaque.
Accreditation involves standards, assessment, accountability, improvement, monitoring, recognition—all good things for a school. Only about ten percent of our schools are accredited by ACSI. Accreditation is a banner that needs to be waved more enthusiastically in the coming millennium.
The importance of confidence in a school should never be underestimated. Our school went through a traumatic period fifteen years ago when we had to close the high school program. It was a huge blow to Christian education in our community. Confidence in the school plunged to rock bottom, and our enrollment dropped from 473 students (K–12) to 235 students (K–8) overnight. One painful lesson was that more than a hundred of the students we lost were in the elementary program, not the high school. Parents took their children out not because we didn’t have a program but because their confidence in our school was shaken to the very core. The year after the high school closed, the enrollment was 194 (K–8), and it remained around the 200 mark for five years. We had a strong program, but we did not grow to our former level.
It was at that time that I began looking for ways to rebuild confidence in our program. How could we get the word out about the good things happening at BRCS? In 1987 I heard about the U.S. Department of Education Blue Ribbon Program and requested an application. Then and now the application asked probing questions about:
A. Student focus and support
B. School organization and culture
C. Challenging standards and curriculum
D. Active teaching and learning
E. Professional community
F. Leadership and educational vitality
G. School family and community partnerships
H. Indicators of success such as achievement scores and awards.
We applied, and in January 1988 our school was selected for a site visit. Two site visitors came for two days and measured what they saw against our application. The outcome was that we failed to be selected as a Blue Ribbon School in 1988. We were disappointed, but in hindsight we got something important, the site visitors’ feedback on why we didn’t get the award. This proved invaluable as we tried again two years later.
We looked at the areas in which the school was graded down and made them high priority for action plans and improvement. For example, the visitors commented that we had a lot for the academically talented student but wondered what we were doing for the struggling student. We did not have a strong answer. That shortcoming became a stimulus for us to implement weekly remedial help sessions in the computer center, and we also began a Saturday morning remedial program. We learned much from our first failure. Indeed, the process was not a failure, for it helped us zero in on areas we needed to address.
We tried for the Blue Ribbon School award again in the 1989–90 school year and received it in May 1990. Enrollment doubled in the next five years, and an enormous amount of positive press focused on the school. Later, in 1997, our school was one of 262 public and private schools recognized as Blue Ribbon Schools. We were one of fifteen schools that year to receive the award a second time. We have a high calling as we go about the business of seeking to shape a Christ-centered worldview in the minds of the next generation, and we want to be as effective as possible.
A school begins the Blue Ribbon process by obtaining an application from the Council of American Private Education (CAPE 18016 Mateny Road, #140, Germantown, MD 20874; 301-916-8460; cape@connectinc.com). Participating schools should receive the application in the summer so that they have enough time to reflect on the scope of the work to be completed. The application needs to be submitted to CAPE in October. If CAPE deems the application a strong entry, they send it on to the U.S. Department of Education, and it is reviewed by a National Review Panel in January. The panel determines which schools merit a site visit, and schools are notified in February that they will receive one. For private schools, two site visitors come to the school for two days to measure the application against what they see, similar to an accreditation visit. For Christian schools, they make sure that one of the site visitors is from a Christian school and thus can evaluate the school in light of its philosophy. The site visitors complete a site report, which is sent to the Department of Education. There it is reviewed in early May by the National Review Panel, which makes its final recommendation to the Secretary of Education. Schools are informed of the results in late May.
A school that chooses to participate in the Blue Ribbon Program should make a strong effort to complete the application well. The application goes through two review evaluations before anyone ever sees the school. Writing a quality application is key to success in the Blue Ribbon Schools program. Here are some suggestions that should prove helpful:
- Follow very carefully the strict guidelines required for the application format. The ejection button is pushed if you mess up here, even if you have a fabulous school.
- The questions are multi-faceted, so be sure to answer each aspect of a question thoroughly.
- Proofread the application repeatedly and with different sets of eyes.
- Have a professional educator outside your school context read over the application to make sure that you have addressed all the subtleties in the question. An objective third party can be invaluable.
- Cross-reference your answers. If you answer question 5 and your answer to question 6 also helps you complete your answer to question 5, you should note that in your answer to question 5. To answer all the questions completely in the limited space you are given makes cross-referencing very important.
- Get a lot of input from faculty, staff, students, parents, community, but have one primary editor who is good at word processing. You will find that you have much more material than space allows.
- Give examples to make your points.
- Report standard achievement scores in normal curve equivalents (NCE) to show "sustained high achievement." The committee will look for scores at least one-third deviation above the mean (an NCE of 57 or higher) or for significant improvement over the past five years: that is, a one-third standard deviation increase in achievement (an increase of at least 7 NCEs).
Also, among its other benefits, the process of assessment allows a wonderful sharing of ideas. As a case in point, one time I made a Blue Ribbon site visit to an elementary school in Pennsylvania. The school had on its staff a person with the title Science Advocate who ordered science materials and cheer led science in the school. I remember seizing on the idea and establishing our own science advocate program that would help teachers make hands-on science really happen. The program has revolutionized our elementary science. In February 1997 the program was written up in Science and Children magazine.
Every school has a great idea just waiting to be shared. One of the best professional development in-service opportunities you can give your faculty members is to ask them to serve on an ACSI accreditation visiting team.
One way for your school to experience the kind of renewal that results in a quality program is always to be engaged in schoolwide assessment. Programs like the Blue Ribbon School Program and ACSI accreditation trigger action plans that bring improvement. My recommendation is that you pursue ACSI accreditation first. Only after receiving that should you go after the Blue Ribbon School or any other recognition program. In fact, one question you will be asked in the Blue Ribbon application is, "What kind of school improvement process is in operation at your school?"
Schools should never take the position that meeting standards is too costly. The truth is that when a school steps out in faith to define standards, to use them in assessing itself, and to follow up with action plans, it builds confidence and gains supports for its quality program.
The Role of Assessment in Renewal 2.5