Content Details
ED464387 - Visiting Accreditation: Strengthening the Regional Accreditation Process
- Category
- Executive Agency Publications
- Collection
- Education Reports from ERIC
- SuDoc Class Number
- ED 1.615:
- Date Issued
- March 1, 1999
- Author
- Wilson, Thomas A
- Source Institution
- Northeast and Islands Regional Educational Lab. at Brown Univ., Providence, RI
- Sponsoring Agency
- Office of Educational Research and Improvement (ED), Washington, DC
- Publication Type
- Information Analyses
- Subject
- Academic Achievement, Academic Standards, Accountability, Accreditation (Institutions), Educational Change, High Schools, Peer Influence, Performance Based Assessment, Public Schools, Student Improvement
- Identifiers
- New England
- Abstract
- This study examines the process through which the Commission on Public Secondary Schools of the New England Association of Schools and Colleges (NEASC/CPSS) accredits the public high schools of New England. The commission is one of five that compose the association. Recent efforts of government agencies to hold schools accountable by testing performance against the new standards for school performance pose critical challenges to the accreditation process. The private agencies that accredit public schools must respond effectively to these challenges if public-school accreditation is to survive. Two central study questions emerge: (1) How does NEASC/CPSS accreditation work? and (2) How must it change to meet the challenges it faces in 1999? This study presents 41 findings about how accreditation works, and about the issues the commission now faces as it implements its new Statement of Purpose. Findings include results of six school visits carried out by NEASC/CPSS visiting teams, a comprehensive survey of the research literature about accreditation, extensive feedback about the initial study findings, and participant observation of two NEASC/CPSS working committees that revised both the standards and the self-study. Results indicate that accreditation is built upon peer judgments about how well schools meet peer-established standards. An appendix contains a report on the Foundations of the Catalpa School Visit.