VISITING COMMITTEE TRAINING SESSION
Part I
The Larger Purpose of Accreditation
Part II
The New Accreditation Model
(including the new Dashboard)
Part III
Visiting Committee Report
Part IV
On-Site Visit
Part V
Questions and Discussion
I. The Larger Purpose of Accreditation
•
•
•
•
“Creditum” = something entrusted to another
Accreditation = trustworthiness
History: until 1960s UC and colleges accredited schools
Accreditation assumes value in
– Self-reflection
– Observations, judgments of professional peers
– Ethic of continuous improvement
• Tensions
– Filling out a tax return vs. opportunity for growth
– Unique mission vs. general standards
– Spending minimal time vs. cultivating depth of thought
• Benefits
–
–
–
–
Viewpoint shift: from silos to broad (complicated) view
Generation/analysis of information and moments of truth
Looking with new eyes: professional feedback
Catalyst for needed change/improvement
I. The Larger Purpose of Accreditation
•
•
•
•
“Creditum” = something entrusted to another
Accreditation = trustworthiness
History: until 1960s UC and colleges accredited schools
Accreditation assumes value in
– Self-reflection
– Observations, judgments of professional peers
– Ethic of continuous improvement
• Tensions
– Filling out a tax return vs. opportunity for growth
– Unique mission vs. general standards
– Spending minimal time vs. cultivating depth of thought
• Benefits
–
–
–
–
Viewpoint shift: from silos to broad (complicated) view
Generation/analysis of information and moments of truth
Looking with new eyes: professional feedback
Catalyst for needed change/improvement
I. The Larger Purpose of Accreditation
•
•
•
•
“Creditum” = something entrusted to another
Accreditation = trustworthiness
History: until 1960s UC and colleges accredited schools
Accreditation assumes value in
– Self-reflection
– Observations, judgments of professional peers
– Ethic of continuous improvement
• Tensions
– Filling out a tax return vs. opportunity for growth
– Unique mission vs. general standards
– Spending minimal time vs. cultivating depth of thought
• Benefits
–
–
–
–
Viewpoint shift: from silos to broad (complicated) view
Generation/analysis of information and moments of truth
Looking with new eyes: professional feedback
Catalyst for needed change/improvement
I. The Larger Purpose of Accreditation
•
•
•
•
“Creditum” = something entrusted to another
Accreditation = trustworthiness
History: until 1960s UC and colleges accredited schools
Accreditation assumes value in
– Self-reflection
– Observations, judgments of professional peers
– Ethic of continuous improvement
• Tensions
– Filling out a tax return vs. opportunity for growth
– Unique mission vs. general standards
– Spending minimal time vs. cultivating depth of thought
• Benefits
–
–
–
–
Viewpoint shift: from silos to broad (complicated) view
Generation/analysis of information and moments of truth
Looking with new eyes: professional feedback
Catalyst for needed change/improvement
I. The Larger Purpose of Accreditation
•
•
•
•
“Creditum” = something entrusted to another
Accreditation = trustworthiness
History: until 1960s UC and colleges accredited schools
Accreditation assumes value in
– Self-reflection
– Observations, judgments of professional peers
– Ethic of continuous improvement
• Tensions
– Filling out a tax return vs. opportunity for growth
– Unique mission vs. general standards
– Spending minimal time vs. cultivating depth of thought
• Benefits
–
–
–
–
Viewpoint shift: from silos to broad (complicated) view
Generation/analysis of information and moments of truth
Looking with new eyes: professional feedback
Catalyst for needed change/improvement
I. The Larger Purpose of Accreditation
•
•
•
•
“Creditum” = something entrusted to another
Accreditation = trustworthiness
History: until 1960s UC and colleges accredited schools
Accreditation assumes value in
– Self-reflection
– Observations, judgments of professional peers
– Ethic of continuous improvement
• Tensions
– Filling out a tax return vs. opportunity for growth
– Unique mission vs. general standards
– Spending minimal time vs. cultivating depth of thought
• Benefits
–
–
–
–
Viewpoint shift: from silos to broad (complicated) view
Generation/analysis of information and moments of truth
Looking with new eyes: professional feedback
Catalyst for needed change/improvement
II. New Accreditation Model
• Accreditation process should reflect
independent school realities and priorities:
– Obligation to be mission driven
– Centrality of teaching and learning
– Impact of school climate and culture
– Nature of leadership and change
• Self-study report has been streamlined by
– reducing #, improving quality, of questions
(201 vs. 134)
– Integrating appendices/statistical supplement
• Intent is to promote reflection & analysis
New Self-Study Process includes:
• Reconceived school description (to
contextualize report)
• Increased freedom of individual schools to
determine organization of self-study process
• Deferred submission of action plan
– Provide ample time to create it, taking into account
committee feedback
– Provide option to conform to school strategic
planning
– visiting team report to respond to reflective selfstudy and to help schools build on strengths
New Self-Study Process includes:
• A commitment to assist schools in
strengthening their strengths as well as
addressing their shortcomings and growth
needs
Current Accreditation Organization
The School’s Philosophy
and Purpose
II. The Governing Body
III. Finances
IV. Development/Fundraising
V.
Administration, Faculty,
and Staff
VI. Students
I.
The Community of the
School
VIII. The Program
IX. Residential Life
X. The Library, Electronic
and Print Resources
XI. The School Plant
XII. Health and Safety
XIII. Action Plan: Summary of
Self-Study Findings
VII.
New Accreditation Organization
Institutional Core Values,
Purpose, and Aspirations
1. Mission
Teaching and Learning
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
Educational Program
Student Learning Experience
Faculty and Pedagogy
Climate and Community
Residential Life (if
applicable)
Preschool (if applicable)
Financial Sustainability
8. Admissions and Enrollment
9. Finance
10. Advancement
Operations
11. Human Resources
12. Facilities: Buildings and Grounds
13. Health, Safety, and Wellness
Institutional Stewardship and
Leadership
14. Governance
15. Administration
Institutional Improvement and
Sustainability
16. Self-Assessment and DecisionMaking
Self-Study Chapter Format
Each self-study chapter has following
format:
– Context statement
– Standard (against which schools will be
measured)
– Indicators (what a school would exhibit if it
were meeting the standard at high level)
– Baseline requirements (requiring yes/no
answers; “no” responses require explanations)
– Questions (responses needed: self-reflection
and depth of thought are primary objectives)
Standards
• Each chapter has ONE standard
• Each standard is followed by several
“indicators,” which are intended to
answer the question:
What would a school look like that
was meeting this standard in an
exemplary fashion?
• Visiting Team determines how
effectively the school is meeting the
standard
Standard 2: Educational Program
• Guided by the mission, the school
clearly defines its curricular and cocurricular programs and provides
coherent documentation of them. The
programs are regularly evaluated,
updated, and strengthened in order to
stay current with relevant educational
research, to assure the intended
outcomes in student learning, and to
prepare students for the next stage of
their academic careers.
Indicators (Educational Program)
• The faculty and administration actively engage in an
ongoing process of curricular and co-curricular
reflection, review, and evaluation across grade levels
and subject areas to improve student learning.
• There is clear evidence of ongoing instructional
planning.
• The curriculum has a coherent and discernable structure
that guides faculty decision-making.
• Instructional resources are appropriate to the needs of
the educational program.
• Faculty and academic administrators regularly
undertake professional development activities to keep
them current in educational research and best practices
bearing on academic program content and design.
Indicators (Educational Program)
• The curricular and co-curricular programs address the
cognitive, social, physical and creative needs of the
students, in accordance with the school’s mission.
• The curriculum is designed to engage, challenge, and
support all learners enrolled at the school.
• The design and evaluation of the curricular program
take into account that the school’s graduates will grow
up and live in world that requires understanding and
leadership to successfully address complex multicultural, global, environmental, and technological
realities.
Sample Baseline Requirements
Educational Program
The school has a written, published
comprehensive curriculum guide.
yes ___
no ___
Faculty and Pedagogy
A process of faculty evaluation is
regularly undertaken and documented.
yes ___
no ___
Sample Questions
Admissions and Enrollment
Describe the policies and process by which all
admissions decisions are made. Who
participates and at what level? Evaluate the
effectiveness of this process.
Finance
Analyze and interpret the school’s dashboard
data that pertains to finance. What are the
main findings and chief implications for the
school that emerge from examining the data?
Sample Questions
Climate and Community
Every school is a self-renewing community, into
which new members – students and adults alike –
are continuously invited. Reflect on the
effectiveness with which newer generations enter
into, come to embody, and in turn change, the
culture of the school.
Reflect on a time in the last six years when the
climate of the school became significantly
challenging. Describe the process used to identify
and address the problems that arose.
Sample Questions
Climate and Community
Take ten pictures or five 30-second videos that
richly convey the climate of the school. Please
submit them with an explanation of how these
particular samples were created and why they
were chosen.
The New Dashboard
The Independent School Dashboard
Self-Study process requires schools to
analyze and interpret dashboard data
pertaining to various standards.
Some schools will lack data from prior years
and will not be penalized for this.
Objective of Dashboard:
–to facilitate schools’ probing use of data during
and beyond accreditation process
–to enable teams to gain perspective, beyond the
self-study’s narrative responses, by examining the
school’s use of evidence
Independent School Dashboard
• Independent School Dashboard is:
• one Excel workbook, consisting of
- worksheets for each of 10 data categories
- space for data entry
- charts that will populate based on data
entered
• adapted from NAIS Trustee Dashboard
• workbook will be available to download
from CAIS website
Example: Fundraising
Admissions Data
For September of
2008
2009
2010
2011
2012
2013
Applications
200
150
145
200
250
275
Acceptances
100
110
110
100
90
90
New students
70
60
65
70
70
70
Website: visits to
the admissions
page
2009-2010
2010-11
2011-2012
2012-2013
2013-2014
2012-2013
Unique visitors
500
500
600
600
700
700
Total visits
700
750
800
800
850
850
2008
2009
2010
2011
2012
2013
Apps/new
35%
40%
45%
35%
28%
25%
Accept rate
50%
73%
76%
50%
36%
33%
Yield
70%
55%
59%
70%
78%
78%
Admissions Graphs
Admissions Graphs
In addition
• Worksheets on:
– Annual budget
– Enrollment by grade
– Endowment–debt ratio
– Student attrition
– Tuition
– Financial aid
– Faculty compensation
– Staffing
Interpreting Data: Reference Points
• For context in interpreting dashboard data, visit
NAIS website to obtain CAIS statistical summary
• NAIS.org > Analyze > Facts at a Glance >
California Association of independent Schools >
then choose most recent year
• http://www.nais.org/Articles/Documents/CAISCA
FactsAtAGlance201213.pdf
• Averages and medians available for enrollment,
diversity, fundraising, class size,
income/expense, salaries and more
III. The Visiting Committee Report
Visiting Committee Report (VCR)
includes these components:
– Introduction
• School’s profile, exactly as written by school in its
self-study
• Visiting Committee’s commentary regarding
school and its written profile
– Assessment of progress report
– Comments on self-study process
– Assessment of school’s performance with
regard to 16 accreditation standards

Format for Assessment of Standards
Section Reports
Each of 6 sections include:
• Context statement (which can include significant
opportunities and challenges, along with guiding
questions to promote further self-reflection)
• Notable strengths
• Recommendations
• Ratings for all chapter standards (highly effective,
effective, somewhat effective, or ineffective) included
in each section
The Visiting Committee Report
• Summary Listings
– Major Recommendations
• Number the recommendations
• Include citations
– 16 chapter ratings
• Documentation and Justification Statement
– Recommendation to Board of Standards
regarding Status of Accreditation
– Thorough statement of rationale
Visiting Committee Report
• Recommendation to CAIS Board of
Standards and WASC Commission
– Formerly: Terms of 6, 6R, 3, 2, 1
– Currently:
• 7-year cycle
• Accreditation “Status”
– 7 years, with
» mid-term progress report
» mid-term progress report and visit
» mid-term progress report, visit, and additional
requirements
– Probationary Status
» 2-year: urgent change needed
» 1-year: immediate change needed
IV. The On-Site Visit
• Activating the committee
– Chair initiates personal contact with team members
– Members identify areas of interest and expertise
– Chair organizes committee’s work after consulting with
Head of School
– Well ahead of the visit, team members must:
• Review accreditation manual
• Read self-study
• Draft initial responses
– Chair maintains contact and sends reminders
– Be prudent stewards with regard to expenses
• Team identity
– Most appropriate role: tactful and truthful observers and
reporters
– Be mindful of how team is perceived by the school
The On-Site Visit
• Interviews and Observations
– Organization of interviews depends on school’s self-study
committee structure
– Goal is to generate insightful, constructive conversation
– Attention should be paid to consistency between stated
mission and lived realities
– Team members should compare notes on their
initial/evolving impressions
– Classroom visits are encouraged but not required
• Challenges
–
–
–
–
Over- or under-involved head
Requests for individual “hearings”
Avoiding rushed writing
“What status are we getting?”
• no time for promises
• Role of CAIS Boards of Standards and Board of
Directors
Revised CAIS Policies
Code of Ethics
Statement of Fundamental
Membership Requirements
V. Questions and Discussion
Sample: Strengths
The school’s mission, which is especially clear and inspiring
in conveying the institution’s core values, is a central and
powerful strength of the school. In an era when many
independent schools have felt compelled to construct and
fund-raise for impressive facilities that rival those of small
colleges, Ridgecrest’s mission speaks eloquently to the
values of “simplicity” and “love for the outdoors,” which
set it apart from peer institutions in a distinctive way. It is
striking that the on-campus community overtly cherishes
human relationships and downplays materialistic concerns,
and this creates a “purity” of atmosphere, in which
learning has a deep and lasting impact.
Sample: Strengths
Shoreline Country Day School benefits from an extremely
talented and focused Board, whose collective deliberations
and actions constantly yield high value outcomes for the
school. Board processes and procedures ensure that it
maintains an especially effective mix of needed expertise,
and programs for orientation and ongoing trustee
education position the members to maximize their positive
impact in Board work. They characteristically bring high
energy and acknowledged wisdom to seemingly every
endeavor, as evidenced by their innovative master siteplanning efforts, a very successful and harmonious head
search, and a recently revised policy that has expanded
financial aid.
Sample: Challenges
South Bay Jewish Day School, has, since its inception in
1977, been deeply committed to providing a Jewish day
school education to every qualified student whose family
desired it, regardless of a family’s ability to pay. The
lasting effects of the recession, however, have placed
unprecedented strains on both the parents’ and the
school’s financial resources, and the segment of the
student body receiving financial aid has now risen to 55%.
Financial reserves that have been used to balance the
budget since 2008-09 will be exhausted in two years, and
the school must quickly work to resolve the conflict
between its enduring commitment to funding a Jewish
education for all families who desire it for their children
and the obvious imperative to remain financially solvent.
Guiding Questions
What strategies for resolving this conflict have been
developed in Jewish day schools in other parts of California
or the nation, where similar financial forces have been
experienced?
If the school were to alter its historic commitment to
providing financial aid to all families that demonstrated both
financial need and a desire to have their children attend the
school, how would it best prepare the community for such a
potential policy change?
Sample: Challenges
Einstein Preparatory School has expended significant
energy in the last three years in mapping its curriculum,
quite an achievement in a school where the courses
offered (and their content) have intentionally reflected the
personal academic interests of a highly talented and
exceptionally engaging faculty. With this accomplishment
in place, the challenge and opportunity in the near term is
to further develop the curriculum so that it systematically
reflects the values articulated in the school’s new mission
statement — most notably creative problem-solving,
global connection, and ethical decision-making.
Guiding Questions
Are there any exemplary programs in schools around
the country that emphasize the values of the new
mission statement? If so, could virtual or physical field
trips be arranged that would allow faculty teams to
discuss these programs with their creators and
determine their potential usefulness to EPS? Could a
budget be allocated for this work?
How can the school structure its conversations in a way
that doesn’t automatically equate more practice in
ethical decision-making with less time for calculus?
Sample: Recommendations
That the Board of Trustees, Head of School, and
Business Manager immediately collaborate to
develop and adopt a credible balanced budget
for the coming year, without drawing upon
reserves, that serves as many financial aid
candidates as possible, while restoring the
school’s near- and long-term financial viability.
(Standards 8 and 9; self-study pp. 75-77, 8384; interviews with Finance Committee and
administrative team)
Sample: Recommendations
That the faculty and administration create and implement
a process and timeline for curriculum revision that enables
the school to integrate such emphases as creative
problem-solving, global connection, and ethical decisionmaking into the educational program, drawing, as
appropriate, upon the experience and perspectives of
other schools, as well as upon the input of the students at
EPS. (Standards 2, 3, and 4; self-study pp. 3, 36, 41-45;
student and parent satisfaction surveys from 2012;
multiple interviews with faculty across departments and
with academic administrators)
V. Questions and Discussion