Cranston West works toward accreditation

By Jen Cowart
Posted 11/1/17

By JEN COWART On October 21, 2018, a visiting team of 16 people will arrive at Cranston High School West for a NEASC (New England Association of Schools and Colleges) peer review visit. It will be the culmination of years of preparation by the school

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Cranston West works toward accreditation

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On October 21, 2018, a visiting team of 16 people will arrive at Cranston High School West for a NEASC (New England Association of Schools and Colleges) peer review visit. It will be the culmination of years of preparation by the school community at West leading up to that three-day visit, and will conclude a large part of their current NEASC accreditation process.

Each NEASC accredited school is re-assessed for renewed accreditation every ten years. The process is voluntary, but accreditation from NEASC is held in high regard and means that accredited schools are aligned to the seven standards which have been established by NEASC, have adhered to policies and procedures deemed important, and have both reflected on the commendations and recommendations made by the visiting team from the previous visit and put into place any recommendations made at that time. Those seven standards are: Mission and Expectations, Curriculum, Instruction, Assessment, Leadership and Organization, School Resources for Learning, and Community Resources for Learning. The schools are accredited on a ten year cycle which occurs in stages: pre-self-study, self-study, evaluation visit, follow-up two year progress report, and five year progress report.

Although October 2018 seems a long way away, the faculty, staff, students and families at Cranston High School West have been working collaboratively since the fall of 2015 towards being fully prepared for that visit. Prior to that time, Principal Thomas Barbieri arrived at West in 2012 and began his preparations even earlier by working to make sure that all of the recommendations from the previous visit had been taken care of.

“We began well before our scheduled visit, and the process will continue well after the visit,” Barbieri said. “Although NEASC doesn’t drive why we do things, the things we do and the decisions we make are NEASC related. It’s an extremely reflective process and I won’t lie and say it doesn’t create a little bit of anxiety.”

West’s NEASC steering committee chairperson is Christine Baum, and she not only oversees the seven standards committees, providing documents to and answering questions from the committees, but also updates the school and central administration on the progression of the self-study process which generally takes place 12-18 months ahead of the visit.

The self-study process includes the administration of an Endicott College Opinion Survey to all professional staff, students and parents, as well as the analysis of data collected from that survey. It also includes collecting and analyzing student work samples, collecting and analyzing data to measure the school’s alignment with the seven standards, drawing conclusions and identifying the school’s strengths and weaknesses. Reports are written and submitted.

“There are going to be commendations that come out of the visit, things that we do well,” said Baum. “There are also going to be recommendations that come out of the visit, things that we need to fix. We want to find those things ourselves first and have a plan in place going forward.”

Currently the committees are in the stage of collecting evidence and data.

“Anything we state in our report has to be backed up with evidence,” Baum said. “I was here the last time a visit took place and we were given a steno pad, a manila folder with some information in it, and a floppy disk. Technology is very different now than in past years. We can pull data, work collaboratively, share documents and give feedback. Everything is very user-friendly.”

Baum has prepared and given each committee a format to follow, as well as binders to work out of and Google drive documents, so that as a committee they can work together to collect and report on the data for their standard. The staff has received professional development and the school community has been involved in the process at every level, including the students and families. The staff members were also given the opportunity to choose the standards committee they wished to be on. The committees are made up of a mix of staff members and support staff from various departments at the school, and two co-chairs head each committee.

“We are very cognizant of the different facets that make up an educational community,” said Barbieri. “We have had full transparency in all of this at every level. Transparency is very important to me.”

Although a certain percentage of the staff is required to be involved in the process, at West, everyone is involved in the process. The staff members have been given time to work on the accreditation self-study during administrative common planning time and administrative lead faculty meeting time. Students have been given time during the school day to complete their surveys. Families received the information about the family surveys digitally and through regular postal mail, and it was translated into multiple languages in an effort to reach and involve every family. Night-time computer sessions were available at the school for families to come in and complete the survey if computer access impeded their ability to participate in the survey. Additionally, the parent executive board at West has been involved in the process, as has a student leadership board comprised of students from all areas of the student population.

“This is not just about teachers and administrators,” said Barbieri. “Parents see things through a different lens, and they are valued members of the educational process. Students are a valuable part of the process as well. Everybody has a place.”

Barbieri sees the goal of the NEASC accreditation process as a reflective process and as one which captures the essence of what West is doing well every day.

“As an educational community, we are always looking for ways for things to be better, but I hope that the visiting team will see the true meaning behind the story of Cranston High School West,” said Barbieri. “We welcome the third-party ideas and suggestions for things that can become better, but hopefully this will also capture who we really are. We aren’t about putting on a show here, but we are about showing what this school is. There should be no surprises.”

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