Commission on Accreditation and School Improvement
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NCA CASI Performance Accreditation Transitions: A New Kind of Expectation Our schools bear a heavy burden. From a broad political perspective, our country needs an informed citizenry to implement our democratic form of government. From an economic perspective, the United States needs citizens who can compete in local, national and the global community. From a social perspective, parents want children who are successful and happy. From a personal perspective, young people who attend our schools want to gain the knowledge and skills that will prepare them to be successful in a career of their choosing. Even though none of this is new to American education, we can, of course, identify students in almost every school who could be better prepared to be successful. School personnel would be hard pressed to provide documentation that shows that an individual student is or is not ready to be successful in the next school or in his/her career. Transitions is a specific school improvement process that requires schools to be accountable for every student. It is only by being accountable to every individual student that schools can be accountable to the public trust, to our business community, to our parents, to our citizens, and for the tax dollars that are spent on education. Transitions is the only standard that truly protects the rights of individual young people to the property right called an education, and it is a major step toward meeting the goal of mandatory education. What is Transitions? Performance Accreditation is a school improvement framework focused upon improving student performance in areas meaningful to all students. It delineates four stages of results, design, and capacity from Stage 1 through Stage 4. Transitions (Stage 4) requires that schools demonstrate an exemplary attainment of results: excellence in the design of the school improvement plan and exemplary capacity to implement the plan. In short, it can be described by the following:
Why should we pursue Transitions recognition? Transitions upholds all of the high standards that the North Central Association Commission on Accreditation and School Improvement has expected of schools in the past and it goes several steps further. It requires schools
What do we have to do? Each school must produce a Transitions Profile, which contains: (1) follow-up data on promoted or graduated students that is used for setting "needed scores" for credentialing; (2) possible reasons why students are not performing well enough to be credentialed; (3) interventions suggested by the data; (4) additional data that are needed for student performance baselines; and ( 5) suggested student performance goals. Each school must produce a Transitions School Improvement Plan which contains two or three student performance goals, a list of assessments aligned with the goals, a list of interventions, a logistical map, and an appendix containing individual student intervention plans for non-credentialed students. What do these concepts and components mean? Credentialing: Transitions schools must make a decision about every student in every credentialing area at one or more designated grade levels. This means that a school must decide whether each student is performing well enough in each of the following credentialing areas to be successful at the next school level or the next life transition: Elementary Schools
Middle and High Schools
Individual Student Intervention Plans: An individual student intervention plan is developed for each student who is not credentialed in any credentialing area, based on the diagnosed reasons why the student has not succeeded at being credentialed. The interventions may be the same or different from other students and for more than one credentialing area. Students who are credentialed in every credentialing area will not need an individual intervention plan. Intervention plan records for elementary and middle school students are shared with the receiving school. Records for high school students are given to them as they graduate and may be provided to schools or employers at the request of the student. Articulation between Sending and Receiving Schools or Other Entities: The purposes of articulation are to prevent individual students from “falling through the cracks” as they make the transition to the next school or life step by increasing collaboration between the schools. Articulation needs to include credentialing information and individual intervention records. An Advising, Guiding and Counseling Program: Transitions schools have a formal advising, guiding, and counseling program that helps students learn about themselves and about career possibilities. Aligning and Restructuring the System to Support Transitions: The ability of a staff to implement the components of Transitions greatly depends upon the support the system provides. The system components (curriculum, instruction, resources allocation, assessment, technology, student support systems, staff support systems, student information system, articulation, etc.) must be modified so they align to support the implementation of Transitions. Aligning and Selecting Processes to Support Transitions: The process must be appropriate to the task for the staff to implement successfully. The Student Information System: A primary capacity that transitions schools must have is a Student Information System that allows schools to record, organize, and retrieve student performance data for each student. What are the tasks and when do we do them?Transitions is intended help schools redefine and restructure themselves around the concept that every student must be successful and that the school must know how each student is progressing in key areas. The phases of the Transitions process are as follows:
Visits by Peer Review Team Chair and/or by the Peer Review Team At key points during the five-year cycle, the school must host visits by the team or team chair. The following schedule is required:
Acquiring Transitions Recognition Transitions Recognition occurs after successfully completing the fifth year. There are specific procedures to follow for acquiring Transitions recognition. Those procedures will be included in the Handbook. What can we do to get started?Schools interested in pursuing Transitions recognition in the future can begin preparing by implementing any of the following:
It is important that professionals continually develop themselves and the quality of their professional service. A systematic, deliberate transition to Transitions may be the most prudent way to proceed for some schools. However, there is no best place to start for all schools. The readiness level and the capacity of your school will determine the best place(s) to start. NCA HOME : TRANSITIONS : WHY TRANSITIONS |