Home from Massachusetts School Accreditation Trip

Hey, y'all,

Last Tuesday night I returned home from 3 days spent in Maynard, Massachusetts. I was honored and pleased to have been invited to serve on an External Review Team for AdvancED, the accreditation body who this past Fall had reviewed my own online school and awarded us a 5 year accreditation based on final review numbers the lead evaluator called "statistical anomoly" due to their across-the-board superlative high ranges when compared to like schools internationally.

AdvancED is dedicated to helping schools improve, and on a vast scale. From their website's About page:

AdvancED is the largest community of education professionals in the world. We are a non-profit, non-partisan organization that conducts rigorous, on-site external reviews of PreK-12 schools and school systems to ensure that all learners realize their full potential. While our expertise is grounded in more than a hundred years of work in school accreditation, AdvancED is far from a typical accrediting agency. Our goal isn’t to certify that schools are good enough. Rather, our commitment is to help schools improve.

Combining the knowledge and expertise of a research institute, the skills of a management consulting firm and the passion of a grassroots movement for educational change, we serve as a trusted partner to 32,000 schools and school systems—employing more than four million educators and enrolling more than 20 million students—across the United States and 70 other nations. AdvancED was created through a 2006 merger of the PreK-12 divisions of the North Central Association (NCA) and the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools (SACS)—and expanded through the addition of the Northwest Accreditation Commission (NWAC) in 2011.

 It was truly a learning experience for me, and I feel privileged to have worked so closely with the team chosen to review and recommend accreditation for The Virtual High School in Maynard, an organization providing learning opportunities to students worldwide utilizing a unique model to do so for nearly 20,000 students in 47 states and 34 countries. Thanks to Wendy Amato; Marcel Monnar; and Donna Richardson, team Lead Evaluator, for their collegial collaboration and to everyone at VHS for their gracious hospitality and openness through the process!

Here's hoping for some relief up there from the incredible winter they have experienced. It was 15 degrees Fahrenheit our last morning, and though streets are clear there's still plenty of snow on the ground, up to 4 or 5 feet in places.

Busy busy busy!

Okay, I believe this weather has come up in order to give me a bit of a break to get my house(s) in order.

Ice on the foliage suggests road conditions

If you read my previous post about NYSCATE Digital Wave and more, it was already pretty clear I'm fairly stretched this season. Yesterday MNPS closed its Main Office, telling not only 10 and 11 month employees (who are off with pay on school closure days) but 12 monthers, of whom I am one, to stay home and off the treacherous, icy roads--an almost unprecedented move. Today, they are calling office and 12 month staff workers in late, at 10, with the option to remain home by using a vacation or personal day. I'm going to exercise that option and cash in one of my stockpiled vacation days. Cool. [Even cooler--while I'm writing this they tell us all to stay home again, saving me a vacation day! To quote the email announcement: 

 

12 month employees:

 

We are shutting down the entire system again today (Tuesday, February 17, 2015.  Road conditions are as bad or worse than I’ve seen since 1993.

Please stay home and stay safe.]

One of the things I am working on is the online training for yet another upcoming travel experience, the trip to Maynard, Massachusetts on March 21 to serve on a 3 day external review team for AdvanceEd, the accrediting body for the New England Association of Schools and Colleges (NEASC), and for other international organizations, including our own Southern Association of Colleges and Schools.

I was invited to do so a couple of months ago, on the basis of our own stellar results in the online school accreditation review, where our numbers were so high in relation to the average results of the ~32,000 schools regularly reviewed that we were called "a statistical anomoly" in the Executive Review presentation. See the review document, and read this "Children First" announcement from Feb. 2, which I will cherish always.

I'm working on two keynote addresses today as well. One for my March 13 NYSCATE appearance, and one for my part in our Leadership Team keynote for v-TEACH15, a week from Friday and the next day at Martin Center here in Nashville. There's still time to register and make plans to attend, and Music City should be de-iced by then! My pups sure hope so:

Graphic representation of the concept "Forlorn"

And I will be playing some ukelele today. And maybe some WoW. And looking at mounting Sim-on-a-stick for our MNPS Virtual World I. And napping. Thank you, oh Weather, for the day to pursue a broad range of interests at will. Y'all: Stay safe and warm.