The Source

Around the turn of the twenty-first century, the focus and process of accreditation shifted from a ten-year evaluation of the accomplishments of an institution’s past decade to a forward-looking process examining what an institution is striving to accomplish in the following five years. Modern accreditation examines the current and future... Read the full article >

Educators across the country are formulating plans to address so-called “learning loss.” As a teacher in Washington, DC, I see every day the losses that students, families, and teachers face due to Covid-19. But I also see how resilient our communities are—and how harmful it is to focus solely on... Read the full article >

South’s oldest continuously accredited school continues to reinvent itself through the Cognia Accreditation process  Battle Ground Academy is an independent K–12 day school in Franklin, TN, the county seat of prosperous Williamson County. The co-ed, college-prep school draws students from a 30-minute radius in the Middle Tennessee region, which extends... Read the full article >

Accreditors dig deep into data on all aspects of performance. We review key documents and plans, and conduct detailed surveys, interviews, and observations of crucial aspects of schooling that affect student learning. We spend multiple days on site and get a glimpse, up close and personal, of what is working... Read the full article >

The right operating conditions must exist for sustainable turnaround success. The University of Virginia’s national experts on turnaround schools claim that two major factors can influence the success of school turnaround. The first factor involves “…the characteristics and actions of the turnaround leader.” (Dolan, 2013, 8) Likewise, one of the... Read the full article >

How can we develop tailored solutions based on the specific challenges and complexities of underperforming schools? State education agencies, responsible for the improvement of schools and local school systems, need help uncovering the root causes for underperformance and guidance planning for future improvement. States such as Kentucky and South Carolina... Read the full article >

Research has shown a strong relationship between student engagement and a variety of student success outcomes (e.g., Fredricks et al.,2004; Parsons et al., 2013). For example, Finn and Rock (1997) found that low-income minority students who were observed as engaged, were more likely to be academically successful, achieve passing grades,... Read the full article >

This Is the Summer of Race and Equity in Education by Anna Baldwin, Education Post. This 2014 Montana State Teacher of the Year writes about her experience as a white high school teacher and The Summer of Equity. In her article she urges her colleagues to speak up about issues of equity even... Read the full article >

Over the past 60 years, we as a nation have sought to improve our education system and focus on equity, excellence, school choice, and standards and accountability.[1] Each wave of reform has been led by different combinations of leaders and stakeholders: government officials, educators, parents, and activists (focused on equity);... Read the full article >

Section 8 of 10. Not long ago, California used test scores as a single measure to identify progress, but policymakers sought to eliminate the state’s Academic Performance Index (API) system. When lawmakers adopted a new funding system, the state contracted with a research organization to develop new measures and rubrics.... Read the full article >