SCHOOL ACCREDITATION
NCA CASI recently unified with the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools Council on Accreditation and School Improvement (SACS CASI). Known as AdvancED, the unified organization serves 23,000 schools in 65 countries.
Through AdvancED, NCA CASI and SACS CASI have defined shared, research-based accreditation standards that cross state, regional, and national boundaries. Accompanying these standards is a unified, clear and powerful accreditation process designed to help schools continuously improve. The unified standards and accreditation process went into effect in 2007-08. Indiana schools will continue to earn the NCA CASI accreditation seal
In surveys conducted by both NCA CASI and SACS CASI, schools report that the greatest benefits of accreditation are the external mark of quality, high standards, and school improvement process and support.
Through AdvancED, accredited schools and districts enjoy a range of benefits including:
- A distinctive mark of quality, recognized internationally, that affords external recognition of the school's or district's commitment to quality.
- Standards based on research on factors that impact student learning.
- Proven, clear, and intuitive processes for school improvement that are grounded in best practices from the education and business fields.
- A framework and support system to help meet local, state, national, and appropriate international requirements.
- Professional development opportunities such as annual conferences and state workshops on all aspects of school improvement.
- An opportunity to gain valuable input, validation, and support from peers.
- Connection to peer-recommended practices, best practices, and resources and tools across 23,000 public and private schools
- Customized and technical assistance to maximize improvement efforts.
- Access to guides, handbooks, primers, resources, tools and Web sites aimed at enhancing improvement efforts.
- Transferability of credits to students from school to school.
- Greater accessibility for students to federal loans, scholarships, post secondary education, and military programs that require regional accreditation.
Perhaps more importantly, students benefit from accreditation because, through the process, their school or district has committed to raising student performance and will be held accountable for improving student learning on a continual basis.
To access information about School Accreditation, go to www.advanc-ed.org and check out the following links at the bottom of the home page:
- AdvancED Standards for Quality Schools
- AdvancED Accreditation process for Schools
- School Accreditation: A Handbook for Schools
The application may be downloaded from the School Accreditation tab on the left side of the www.advanc-ed.org homepage.
If you have any questions about accreditation, please call the State Office at 800-468-7405.
“NCA provides a framework for the faculty of any school – public or private, urban or rural, large or small – to work collaboratively to examine their data and identify where they need to focus their energies.” – State Department of Education Consultant