The Middle States Association of Colleges and Schools is a non-governmental, nonprofit, peer-administered organization of diverse educational institutions committed to ensuring that students in accredited schools are receiving the highest quality education. For more than 125 years, MSA has provided leadership in educational quality and school improvement for its member schools in the United States and around the world.  MSA seeks to ensure that accredited schools are engaged in continuous growth and improvement efforts through effective leadership, a comprehensive program of self-study, evaluation by peer educators external to the school, exemplary programs, and supportive services which all meet the requirements for accreditation. 

 

The school that is the subject of this report selected the Excellence by Design (EBD) self-study and accreditation protocol. EBD is an accreditation protocol that uses strategic planning as a vehicle for growth and improvement in student performance and in the school’s capacity to affect that growth. The protocol, developed by the Middle States Association Commissions on Elementary and Secondary Schools (MSA-CESS), links various planning and school growth and improvement efforts. Excellence by Design leads the school to establish objectives for improving student performance and organizational capacity based on its vision of a preferred future for its students. In addition, the protocol provides for a continuous review of programs and services and of the results of student performance. Finally, it  allows diverse constituent groups to participate in charting the future of the institution.

 

The purpose of Excellence by Design is to provide a framework and process to guide the school’s efforts to achieve excellence in student performance and to achieve accreditation by the Middle States Association.

 

Excellence by Design also provides the framework for formally aligning all the work of the school to ensure that all of its efforts are coordinated and focused on achieving the school’s mission. It is expected that this framework will accomplish the following purposes:

• Development of a sense of community and common purpose among the school’s students and staff, and its community of stakeholders.

• A Plan for Growth and Improvement in student performance and the school’s capacity to produce the levels of student performance expected by the school and its community of stakeholders.

• Greater cooperation between all of the school’s stakeholders in identifying and implementing practices that have been demonstrated to lead to excellence in student performance and the organization’s capacity to produce the desired levels of student performance.

 

Most importantly, this framework intends to develop an understanding in the school community of stakeholders that the school is part of a larger community of learners and that this community has agreed upon, supports, and accepts responsibility for assisting the school in achieving its Mission, Core Values, Profile of Graduates, and Plan for Growth and Improvement in student performance and organizational capacity. This learning community understands that, by working together to articulate and align its efforts, it can achieve higher levels of excellence in student performance.

 

To be accredited through the Excellence by Design protocol, the school first must meet the 5 Standards and 23 Key Concepts for Accreditation. Second, the school, through a planning team of representatives from the school’s community of stakeholders, must identify areas of student performance that are the highest priorities for growth and improvement, measurable performance objectives, and a plan for achieving the objectives. Lastly, the school’s foundation documents must be used as the basis for decision-making in creating the plan for growth and improvement. 

 

After the self-study, the school goes through a peer-review process by a Visiting Team. The Middle States Visiting Team is a group of professional educators appointed by the Middle States Association to visit the school. The purpose of the Team’s visit is threefold. First, the Team determines whether the school meets the 5 Standards for Accreditation. Second, the Team determines if the school meets the requirements for a planning ethic and planning processes of the Excellence by Design protocol. Third, the Team reviews the content of the school’s Plan for Growth and Improvement in student performance and organizational capacity to determine the validity and clarity of the Plan together with the level of commitment to implementing the Plan and achieving its objectives expressed by the school’s community of stakeholders.