NCA CASI e-NEWS August 2005

Welcome to the 2005-06 school year!

We at NCA CASI are eager to assist you as you embark on another school year. Click here to access our 2005-06 Accredited Schools' Guide to Benefits and Services to view the many resources available to you as an accredited school/district.

Learning Matters
The focus of this year's communications and the theme of our 2006 Annual Meeting is "Learning Matters." Our e-News, newsletters, and success stories will address the range of subjects that this theme encompasses - from helping students learn to matters that impact the learning process. This issue of the e-News highlights research-based factors that impact student learning.

School and District Factors Impacting Student Learning
By: The National Study of School Evaluation (NSSE)

The National Study of School Evaluation (NSSE), the research and development arm for the regional accrediting associations, recently completed a research review of the factors that impact student learning. The NSSE research indicates that a school or district seeking to improve student learning needs to focus on three core tasks:

There are certain effective practices associated with each of the three tasks that, collectively, make them powerful systemic levers for impacting student learning through the process of continuous improvement. Click here to view a chart that highlights these effective practices. You can use the chart to assess the practices that are evident and those that are missing in your educational setting. You can view a technical summary of NSSE's research findings at http://www.nsse.org/resources_tools/Tech_Guide.pdf.

Boosting Schools Up the Standards Ladder
By: M. James Kedro and Gary C. Forde, St. Louis Public Schools
Senior evaluators in St. Louis Public Schools led a research team to identify similar attributes among individual schools that may contribute to consistent improvement in meeting state and federal standards. They examined the common characteristics of schools that had improved student performance on state assessments and compared them to schools that had not demonstrated improvements. Through their research, they identified several factors that enhance a school's learning culture and may affect academic improvement. Their findings support and help put into practice the findings from the NSSE research highlighted in the previous article.

Click here for the full article. You will find more information about each of these factors, as well as practical examples of how the improved schools implemented these factors. The article also includes a review of impediments to improvement in the unimproved schools.

Resources -- Hot off the Presses!
Breakthrough School Improvement™ - An Action Guide to Greater and Faster Results.
After compiling the research on the factors that impact student learning (highlighted earlier), NSSE began the process of developing tools that would help educators achieve breakthrough student performance. They have recently released Breakthrough School Improvement™: An Action Guide for Greater and Faster Results. The guide is an excellent resource for accredited schools. For schools new to the improvement process, the guide provides clear steps and tools. For schools already using an improvement process, the guide provides numerous resources to enhance and accelerate your efforts. Click here http://www.nsse.org/catalog.pdf for more information on this powerful new resource.

Communication: Reading for Secondary Level Assessment Guide. On the heels of last year's successful release of Reading for Elementary Level Assessment Guide, we have recently released the secondary level version of this guide. The comprehensive guide provides an overview of assessment; criteria and checklists to help you identify, select, and use quality assessments; a sample improvement plan for a reading goal; sample formative assessments; a useful matrix that lists close to 90 commercially available reading assessments; an annotated directory of the assessments listed in the matrix; and a directory of assessment publishers. The guide is a useful resource for any secondary school (grade 6-12) working to improve reading performance. The guide costs $30 plus shipping and can be purchased at http://www.ncacasi.org/catalog/category?category=Publications.

Sharing from the NCA Network:
Professional Learning Communities at Chardon High School, Ohio
Our April 2005 e-News http://www.ncacasi.org/enews/enewsapr05 focused on the link between professional learning communities (PLC) and NCA. We highlighted several schools using PLC to reinforce their improvement efforts, and we encouraged schools to write us to share additional ways they were using professional learning communities to enhance their work.

Click here to learn about the innovative ways Chardon High School in Chardon, Ohio, is using professional learning communities to help teachers and students improve performance.

NCA CASI, SACS CASI, and NSSE Partnership. In the Spring 2005 issue of the NCA CASI newsletter, we announced our strategic partnership with our sister accrediting association in the South, the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools (SACS CASI), and the regional accrediting associations' research arm, the National Study of School Evaluation (NSSE). Several cross-organizational task forces have been formed to:

We look forward to sharing with you the progress of these task forces over the course of this year. We are excited about the added resources the partnership will provide to NCA CASI schools and districts.

Reducing Duplication of Effort. Those of you who use your own improvement process have told us that preparing documentation for your NCA review team visits can be a duplication of effort. To address this concern, we have developed a Validation and Feedback Visit format that allows schools to provide review teams with existing documentation. The review team uses this information along with data gathered from on-site focus groups and classroom visits to provide external validation of the school's improvement efforts and offer substantive feedback on the school's strengths, opportunities for improvement, and next steps. If your school is interested in using this visit format, please contact your NCA CASI state office at 800-525-9517 or visit http://www.ncacasi.org/pa/vfv.

NCA School Improvement Rubrics and Visiting Team Report Are Now Available in Easy-to-Use Microsoft®Word® and Adobe Acrobat®Templates. Many of you who use NCA CASI's eight-phase school improvement process have asked us for alternatives to the software. To respond to your requests, we have made the visiting team report templates and school improvement rubrics available in easy-to-use Microsoft® Word® or Adobe Acrobat® formats at http://www.ncacasi.org/pa/ttc-forms.

Register On-Site for NCA CASI's 111th Annual Meeting: Learning Matters
April 2-5, 2006- Chicago Downtown Marriott, Chicago, IL
Keynote Speakers:
Dr. Rick DuFour
Educator, Consultant
"How to Build Professional Learning Communities"

Dr. Ruby Payne
Founder and CEO, Aha! Process, Inc.
"A Framework for Understanding Poverty"

Join us for NCA CASI's 111th Annual Meeting "Learning Matters." Participate in the over 100 practitioner-led concurrent sessions. Sign up for one of several pre-conference sessions focused on topics related to improving student performance. In addition, each keynote speaker will be offering special in-depth sessions for interested conferees.

For schools wanting support and training in the NCA CASI school improvement process, we are offering a conference strand on the eight phases process. We are also offering for the first time a special strand designed specifically for private schools.

NCA CASI offers national and state conferences and workshops on all aspects of school improvement. Click here to view a catalog of the over 325 offerings available across the region.

NCA CASI/UNL School Improvement Specialist Program
NCA CASI has teamed with the University of Nebraska-Lincoln to offer a series of graduate-level web-based courses focusing on the school improvement process. Don't miss out on this great opportunity to learn more about the school improvement process, develop student and school portfolios, create a model school improvement plan, receive feedback from UNL faculty and your colleagues all while earning 12 graduate credits. This interactive web-based program allows you to seek continuing education while accommodating demanding work and personal schedules. Join fellow NCA CASI teachers and administrators beginning their school improvement journey August 29, 2005. Register today by going to http://extended.unl.edu/ncaimprove or by calling UNL at 402-472-4340.

e-News is a bi-monthly newsletter of the North Central Association Commission on Accreditation and School Improvement (NCA CASI). The mission of e-News is to provide you with up-to-date information to aid you in your ongoing efforts to continually improve student achievement. To subscribe or unsubscribe, go to Your Profile at the NCA CASI website.

We are committed to providing you with the information you need to continually improve student learning. Please share with us your suggestions, advice, and ideas on how to make e-News and our other products and services best meet your needs. Send us feedback at enews@ncacasi.org.

North Central Association
Commission on Accreditation and School Improvement
P.O. Box 871008
Tempe, AZ 85287-1008
800-525-9517
http://www.ncacasi.org