Carroll School Board recently received a detailed report, spelling out why Carroll Jr.-Sr. High School’s accreditation is on a probationary status.

Carroll has long been an accredited school, meeting accepted standards. Board president Sam Zook said the review process is now based on stricter standards, since the North Central Association (which does the reviewing) now is affiliated with a parent organization called AdvancEd. The evaluation process now sets standards that are not only national, but global. A review team visits a school once every five years for the purpose of accreditation, but as part of the process, in-house evaluation and improvement are supposed to be ongoing.

According to the AdvancED website, http://www.advanc-ed.org/, students who attend a school accredited by the North Central Association Commission on Accreditation and School Improvement have easier transferability of credits from school to school and greater access to federal loans, scholarships, post secondary education, and military programs that require accreditation.

A Quality Assurance Review team handed down a report that gives Carroll commendations, recommendations, and “next steps” for becoming fully accredited.

The seven standards that must be met for accreditation are in the following areas: • Vision and Purpose • Governance and Leadership • Teaching and Learning • Documenting and Using Results • Resource and Support Systems • Stakeholder Communications and Relationships • Commitment to Continuous Improvement

Commendations

According to the report, Carroll met the standards for Teaching and Learning and Resource and Support Systems. Commendations were given to the school for its “excellent teaching staff,” high level of student engagement in learning, achievement level of students (higher than the state average and several area schools), use of technology, and for its tutoring program. Compliments also were given for the school’s support system, fiscal responsibility in supporting learning, good class size, professional development opportunities, and well-maintained building.

In three other standards, Vision and Purpose, Governance and Leadership, and Stakeholder Communications and Relationships, the report indicated that the school did not meet these standards, but gave it an assessment level (rating) of “emerging.” In other words, the school shows emerging efforts in the right direction.

Reason for probation

The probationary status was given for failing to meet the last two standards, Documenting and Using Results, and Commitment to Continuous Improvement.

In order to meet these standards, a school demonstrates that it “enacts a comprehensive assessment system that monitors and documents performance and uses these results to improve student performance and school effectiveness” and that the school “establishes, implements, and monitors a continuous process of improvement that focuses on student performance.”

The review team concluded that Carroll’s commitment to these two standards was “not evident.”

Quoting from the report, in reference to Carroll: “Data has been gathered, but not analyzed, and the use of data has not impacted instruction or learning. Many teachers indicated an eager willingness to study the data to make changes, but few teachers felt they had the knowledge, skills, or expertise to lead this process. Interviews, written documents, and assessment data failed to provide evidence that Carroll Jr.-Sr. High School is engaged in a continuous school improvement process. There was much evidence that the stakeholders are very committed to providing a sound education for students, but they do not yet understand the impact that a systematic, systemic, and consistent school improvement process has on student achievement and learning.”

Recommendations

One of the recommendations from the review team was that the school “create a systematic process for training and monitoring all staff in the school’s chosen interventions and instructional strategies.” Another recommendation was to “develop a systematic approach to maintain continuous school improvement efforts and to monitor effectiveness.”

The report did recognize two examples of efforts to improve student academic performance. They were steps taken to improve scores on the Graduation Qualifying Exam and the total school effort to improve “writing across the curriculum.”

According to the report, the commendations and recommendations given were designed to focus the school on areas that will have the greatest impact on student performance and school effectiveness. The following concluding statements were made in the report:

“The strength of this report lies in the school’s commitment to using the findings to continuously improve…The school is encouraged to use the report as a call to action…”

NCA and AdvancEd has offered many resources to help Carroll in the accreditation process. By May 1, 2010, Carroll is to submit an Accreditation Progress Report.

Carroll takes action

At the last Carroll School Board meeting, school representatives told about some of the steps that have been taken so far.

Teams have been formed and are working in the following areas: Data Analysis, Professional Development, Communication, Goals/Interventions, and Assessment Systems. Respective team leaders are: Stacey Brazel, Fred Schnarr, Susan Abbott, Kristen Seward, and Scot Collins. The teams are made up primarily of teachers, but a few parents, students, and one business person are represented.

Principal Charles Huckstep said school representatives have met with an NCA liaison three times and will meet with him again in February.

Brazel, who leads the Data Analysis team, said surveys on concerns about ISTEP results have been given to teachers and parents to determine which concerns to address this year. At the time of the meeting, she said students also would be surveyed.

Diane Goubeaux, who serves on the Communication team, said surveys would also be given on the corporation web site, and more school news is being put on the website in the form of a column called “Cougar Tracks.”

As a result of the NCA evaluation, the school has come up with a new Vision Statement, which is posted on the website: “At Carroll Jr.- Sr. High School, students will be engaged in a challenging curriculum that meets state and national standards and prepares them for future endeavors.”

Seward, who leads the Goals/Interventions team, said all the teams are working together.

“Carroll students are stronger in math than English, but weakest in writing,” she said. “Our overall school goal is ‘Writing Across the Curriculum.’ We’d like all our teachers to think of themselves as writing teachers. One possible intervention would be to have students write in complete sentences all the time – all tests, quizzes, and papers. ” She said writing assessments may come more often, and the evaluation process may be simplified. Seward added that they also plan to look at other schools with the same goal.

She said one thing the teams have learned is “Every time you get new data, evaluate it. Overall the staff is buying in to this process. We’re working together to impact students.”

“Great strides have been made since that (NCA) report,” she said. “We’re accredited, but on probation. We want to be accredited fully.”

A copy of the report may be viewed at http://www.carroll.k12.in.us/chs/20091117132712437.pdf.