About e-News 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, click here.

NCA CASI: Working to Help You Leave No Child Behind

A Message from Don Kirkegaard, Superintendent of Britton-Hecla School District and Chair of NCA CASI

Faced with the demand for increased accountability and the new requirements of the federal No Child Left Behind (NCLB) legislation, we’re all looking for ways to work smarter, reduce duplication, and do more with less.

Fortunately, we do not have to look very far. We can use NCA CASI Performance Accreditation to help us meet the new law’s requirements, consolidate our school improvement efforts in a cost-effective manner, and ultimately raise student achievement.

As Superintendent of Schools for Britton-Hecla School District (BHSD), I am using NCA CASI Performance Accreditation to bring our schools together under one common school improvement process and language. Performance Accreditation helps me consolidate and focus multiple improvement efforts at the district level and thus reduce the duplication of effort that comes from adding one program on another. Through Performance Accreditation, I am able to meet state and federal requirements, earn NCA CASI recognition, and focus our entire district on improving student performance.

At the school level, I am using NCA CASI Performance Accreditation to help BHSD schools: monitor student performance; disaggregate student performance data; develop school improvement plans; monitor performance against the plan; host peer review teams; demonstrate growth; and engage the community. All of these tasks are required by NCLB. NCA CASI provides the software, materials, and training to help accomplish these tasks.

I encourage you to take advantage of what NCA CASI has to offer. The following link provides simple ways that you can use NCA Performance Accreditation to help you meet the requirements of NCLB. The link also contains a list of resources that are available to you as members of NCA CASI.

Feel free to contact me should you wish to learn more about how we are using NCA CASI to help us raise student performance. I can be reached at don.kirkegaard@k12.sd.us.

Jenison Public Schools Using NCA CASI to <Meet State and Federal Requirements

Click here to read a recent article in The Grand Rapids Press about how Jenison Public Schools in Michigan plans to use NCA CASI Performance Accreditation to meet state and federal requirements without doing double the work.

Tips and Resources

Click here for simple tips on how you can use NCA CASI Performance Accreditation to help your school meet the requirements of the No Child Left Behind legislation. The link also lists NCA CASI resources available to support you in your efforts to leave no child behind.

Success Stories

Writing Improvement For All Success at Nogales High School

For several years, Nogales High Schoolstudents in Nogales, Arizona have beaten the odds by demonstrating that students in high poverty, limited English speaking environments can outperform the state average on state writing assessments. What has made their performance possible has been a dedicated, multi-year focus on the part of the entire faculty to improve students’ writing ability. All teachers, not just those in the English Department, are trained in the writing process and in using the six writing traits that are assessed by the state. New teachers are mandated to take the training early in the school year and are assigned mentors who help them develop lessons.

To get the emphasis on writing organized, English teachers established portfolios for all students and developed a scope-and-sequence curriculum that mandated numerous writings per student each year. All other teachers are required to have at least one writing per semester that follows the writing process and is assessed using the six traits. Currently, that translates into having every student, even those not in honors classes, write a minimum of 10 papers a year that are officially assessed and recorded to a common standard.

The focus on writing has yielded impressive results. To view the results and learn more about the strategies employed, click here. This link takes you to a detailed article on Nogales High School in NCA CASI’s Spring Journal of School Improvement.

Commission Corner

New Vision, Mission, Values and Strategic Goals

Following the same improvement process that NCA CASI asks of its schools, the Commission recently gathered and analyzed data from customers and industry leaders to help us identify how we can best focus our efforts to help schools increase student learning. Based on that data, the Commission adopted new Vision, Mission, and Values statements. Click here to view the statements.

The new vision, mission, and values became the driving force for the Commission’s five-year strategic plan. The plan centers on the following four strategic goals:

1. Provide high quality accreditation
2. Lead the profession
3. Serve education entities worldwide
4. Protect the public trust

Early Childhood Standards

The Board of Trustees of the Commission has approved early childhood standard and criteria for stand-alone facilities. Materials, tools, and application information for interested facilities will be available this winter.

Early childhood standards for integrated facilities (centers within an existing school/district) have been proposed. These will be reviewed and voted on by the Board of Trustees and membership over the course of this school year. To review the latest draft of the proposed standards, click here.

Annual Meeting Notes

Conference Preview: Focusing on How

In this time of heightened accountability for results, we know what is wanted increased student achievement. What’s less clear is how we get there. NCA CASI has designed its 108^th Annual Meeting to focus on the how.

We invite you to join us for three days of discussion, exploration, and sharing of practices and processes that result in improved student learning. Click here for more information.

Call for Presenters

NCA CASI seeks presenters who can address the meeting theme, "Raising Student Achievement: Practices That Work." Presentations should provide meeting participants with proven strategies and interventions for increasing student achievement. The presentations should emphasize hands-on, practical information that can be easily applied to classroom or building settings. In addition, the presentations should include descriptions of the results attained by using the shared strategies and interventions. Click here for more information on presenting at the Annual Meeting.

Upcoming Professional Development

NCA CASI offers professional development opportunities throughout the year and region aimed at helping you improve student performance. Following are dates and locations of upcoming workshops:

Click here for more information and to register on-line.

How to Reach Us

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. Click here enews@ncacasi.org to send us your feedback.

North Central Association
Commission on Accreditation and School Improvement
P.O. Box 873011
Tempe, AZ 85287
800-525-9517
www.ncacasi.org

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