CHS will be having an important on-site Decennial Accreditation visit on March 1 through March 4, 2020, by the New England Association of Schools and Colleges or NEASC. This visit is when CHS will be evaluated by a group from NEASC of teachers, administrators, and one associate director of NEASC to determine if CHS can keep its accreditation. Accreditation is what high schools receive and what colleges use as a judging point of the school to evaluate if they want the student and if they are from a good high school. Accreditation is crucial for college acceptance.
CHS Prepares for a NEASC Visit
BY AMANDA MCKECHNIE
CHS will be having an important on-site Decennial Accreditation visit on March 1 through March 4, 2020, by the New England Association of Schools and Colleges or NEASC. This visit is when CHS will be evaluated by a group from NEASC of teachers, administrators, and one associate director of NEASC to determine if CHS can keep its accreditation. Accreditation is what high schools receive and what colleges use as a judging point of the school to evaluate if they want the student and if they are from a good high school. Accreditation is crucial for college acceptance. To gather further information about this visit, The Entry sat down with one of the coordinators, Mrs. Maccarone.
CHS will be evaluated against certain standards for teaching and learning. The five standards are learning culture, student learning, professional practices, learning support, and learning resources. These Standards of Accreditation are what NEASC will specifically view. The NEASC team will meet with school administration, review the school’s Self-Reflection, visit a number of classes, and examine examples of student work chosen by the school.
The school’s Self-Reflection was in the spring of 2018 and CHS faculty identified the school’s strengths and the areas that needed changes to be made and it was conducted by the guidance of NEASC.
The outcome of the Self-Reflection was the school formed committees of teachers and administrators to work on areas of need. Some examples are some committees work on social and emotional learning for students and created SAT Prep, support for AP students, climate and culture of the school, and vision of graduates. These committees are run by different teachers and administrators also.
The school has been working and preparing for two years for this NEASC visit and Mrs. Maccarone and Mrs. Capwell, co-chairs for the visit, have been writing reports on what the faculty is doing to meet the standards so the school can keep its accreditation. If the school does not receive its accreditation it is put on probation and is given a certain amount of time to fix what standards were not met.
This NEASC visit will have a minimal disruptive effect on students at CHS during the actual visit, as it will be business as usual on visit days. Yet the outcome can really affect all of us.
The positive note of this NEASC visit is it is helping the administration and teachers refocus on the standard and identify more and provides a message to the town and community of what is needed for the school to support good quality learning.
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