PERFORMANCE ACCREDITATION FRAMEWORK

The NCA Commission on Accreditation
and School Improvement Standard

The NCA CASI Standard--to maximize the proportion of promoted or graduated students who are self-directed learners and are prepared to make successful school-to-school or school-to-career transitions-is a single overriding commitment to excellence. NCA CASI has specific membership and improvement criteria in place to help schools develop their capacity to achieve the Standard.

The Commission on Accreditation and School Improvement challenges all candidate schools and member schools to pursue the intent of the Standard by utilizing the performance accreditation framework. The NCA CASI Performance Accreditation Framework focuses on designing and implementing quality school, district, or system improvement processes and on documenting enhanced student performance.1

The performance accreditation framework is based on three assumptions:

• Schools are at differing stages as they progress through the school improvement framework.
• The school improvement process promotes continuous growth.
• Building upon certain capacities within the school will enhance its ability to implement quality school improvement activities that lead to improved student performance.

The NCA CASI Performance Accreditation Framework promotes growth through a transitions process for both the individual student and the school/system. For students, the transitions are from school to school and school to career. Schools/systems that transition from one stage in the improvement framework to another build upon their capacity to improve as an organization. For both students and schools, the results of school improvement are growth and enhanced student performance.1

School Capacities

There are five major capacities that specify the policies, procedures, conditions, and resources needed by a school to initiate and sustain the NCA CASI Performance Accreditation Framework. The capacities include:

• School Improvement Plan (SIP)
• Information System (IS)
• Process of Schooling (PS)
• Vision, Leadership-Governance, and School Community (VL)
• Resources and Allocation (RA)

Each of these five capacities has two types of criteria--membership and improvement.

The membership criteria are those requirements considered to be essential to the function of a school or system. Member schools must meet all of the membership criteria. The school will be asked to attest to the fulfillment of these membership criteria via the Annual Report System.

The improvement criteria are considered necessary for a school to initiate and sustain a continuous improvement effort focused on improved student performance. Thus, as the school analyzes its improvement needs, the extent to which it has achieved the intent of the improvement criteria is an important component. Schools will vary in terms of implementation of the improvement criteria. NCA's focus is on helping schools move from an entry stage to an exemplary stage of school improvement over time. Improvement criteria are verified via the Annual Report System and during on-site reviews.

Stages of School Improvement

The capacities listed above are considered critical components of school improvement. A school may be at different stages of development within each capacity. Therefore, the performance accreditation framework has four stages that recognize increasing readiness to engage in school improvement. The school or system is expected to document progression in these stages over time. The stages are:

Capacity Assessment Instrument

The NCA CASI Performance Accreditation Framework asks the school to document continued growth in their capacity to engage in high quality improvement activities. The Capacity Assessment Instrument lists specific indicators to assist both the school and the peer review team in assessing the school's capacity.

The school is required to use the Capacity Assessment Instrument as a self-assessment in advance of the initial and final peer review team visits. The peer review team must complete the instrument at the time of the initial and final peer review visits, also.

The Capacity Assessment Instrument is in the Team Chair software that was given to all member schools in the fall of 2000. The assessment can be downloaded from the web by clicking on this link: Capacity Assessment Instrument.

Rubrics for Evaluation Criteria

Evaluation Criteria and Rubrics have been developed to assist the school and the peer review team in evaluating the school's effort in the performance accreditation framework. The rubrics can be found in the Team Chair software given to member schools.

Requirement: The peer review team must complete the applicable Evaluation Criteria and Rubrics at the time of the initial and final peer review team visits.

District Accreditation

A district interested in systemic school improvement may pursue district accreditation. The district must have all schools enrolled as members or it must be working toward all-school membership via an affiliate agreement with the Commission on Accreditation and School Improvement. Additionally, district accreditation requires the following:

1. The board of education, working with and through the school staff, parents, and community at large, establishes a vision for education in the community, identifies district-wide goals to advance that vision, and establishes an accountability system to document and monitor achievement of those goals.
2. The district establishes a district improvement committee whose members are drawn from the individual building steering committees. A district coordinator is selected to oversee the improvement efforts.
3. Each school has improvement goals that complement the district focus and goals.
4. There is continuity among elementary, middle level, and high school improvement efforts. These efforts involve collaborative planning among the three levels.
5. An external team visits the district at least once in every five years to monitor the district goals, the attainment of the goals, and the functioning of the district committee.

1 Use of the term "school" throughout this document refers to a school, a district, or a system of schools.

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