Examining Yourself

This week, my school finished our accreditation process.  While the visit from the team lasted only 3 and half days, the process was almost three years long.  And that's what I want to focus on because, while the visit from outside observers is what most people see, it's the lead-up that makes it an important process because it makes us examine ourselves.

The process starts with dividing up into committees and rating ourselves on a number of standards.  From how the school mission and vision statements guide decision-making to instructional practice to assessment to social-emotional development to spiritual formation, all areas of the school are analyzed and rated on a scale of 1 to 4.  Often the difference between a 3 and a 4 is the word "always" or "formal."  We spend a lot of time saying, "Yes, we do this, but do we have a 'formal' process for it?" while deciding on our rating.  

Then, the fun starts.  We can't just rate ourselves without providing evidence for that rating, so we brainstorm ways we might show what we do.  The committees each have a few teachers from various levels, at least one student and at least one parent.  The benefit of that variety is that we get an examination from all sides.  As teachers who love our school, it would be easy for us to romanticize things.  Having a parent in the room to say, "I'm not sure" is helpful in giving ourselves an honest evaluation.  Having a student may give us ideas for evidence we wouldn't have thought of.  Having teachers from a variety of levels gives us a complete view of the child's experience.  Evidence includes everything from pictures of labs and projects to copies of forms to meeting minutes.  The self-examination process is always revealing, and it is mostly encouraging.  I leave those meetings thinking, "Yes, we really are pretty great."  Of course, there are areas we could work on.  As Isaac Asimov said, "Education isn't something you can finish," but going through this process helps us to look at ourselves at a level above the day-to-day and see who we are and what we do.

After all of that is put together, each committee writes their portion of the report, summarizing the ratings and evidence in narrative form and pointing to the evidence folders.  The steering committee pulls them together and polishes them into a cohesive piece, and the report is submitted to the accreditation team.  They read it thoroughly and examine the evidence.  We also provide them access to our curriculum tracking software, our LMS (so they can check lesson plans and get a sense of the student experience), and any other resources they might wish to see.  By the time of the visit, they have a very good idea of what our school is all about.

The self-examination isn't over when the report is written.  When the visiting team arrives, they tour our building, where we have attempted to show our best.  They observe our classes.  They come to a faculty meeting and ask probing questions.  They meet with small groups of students, parents, and administrative staff.  They meet with our board and our administration.  At night, they return to the hotel to write their own report based on everything they have seen in ours and from their observations.  

They don't just accredit or not.  They make recommendations and commendations so that we can continue doing what we do well and work on those things we and they have identified as opportunities for growth.  We were excited to see this time that there were only two major recommendations (one about our facility and one about staff development on addressing social/cultural issues from a Biblical worldview).  There are smaller recommendations as well, but the fact that there were only two majors made us feel pretty confident about what we do and who we are as a school.  

Self-examination like this is at a very high level, but it should be happening at all levels all year.  At GRACE, that looks like an annual professional growth plan meeting with the principal, frequent conversations with department chairs, peer observations to get new ideas, and encouragement to engage in frequent self-reflection.  We want to look at what we do well and where we can improve, not just once every five years when there is a team coming, but always.