Every college struggles to create processes of quality assurance and continuous improvement to demonstrate and ensure its service to students and community. Accreditation is one avenue that ensures some uniformity across many institutions in the eyes of the public. While this paper focuses on accreditation processes and meeting the needs of…

ExpandED Schools (formerly TASC) has spent the past 17 years helping schools and community organizations find the right partners. This resource guide offers a guide to the strategic questions school teams might ask themselves and their potential partners to have the best outcomes for young people. The following attachment is included: School…

It is essential that before a school or district begins a classroom visitation program, everybody is clear about what to expect and what their role is to be in the process. The purpose of this article is to establish a typology of classroom visitations that might help schools and districts to achieve that clarity. Implemented well, each of the…

The Accrediting Council for Independent Colleges and Schools (ACICS) supports the concept that periodic evaluation entered into voluntarily by institutions and their peers enhances the quality of the educational process and demonstrates that self regulation of a profession is superior to outside regulation. The federal government, for purposes of…

Noting that professional development activities are a key component in the continuous process of improving instruction, this guide assists schools that are considering a visit to a Leadership and Learning Best Practice site (Illinois schools that have demonstrated a commitment to the reading best practices as identified by the Best Practices and…

It is the purpose of this manual to present suggested steps and procedures for use by individual onsite evaluators or by the Utah State Office of Education or any other similar agency charged with responsibility for arranging or conducting onsite evaluations. Although many of the examples used in this manual are drawn from materials developed in…

A manual for accreditation visiting teams is presented that may also be used by colleges preparing for evaluation by the Commission on Institutions of Higher Education of the North Central Association of Colleges and Schools. After describing the role of the visiting team in the Commission's accreditation activities and the selection of the team,…

Proposed schedules for short and long visits for state licensing team visits to colleges and universities are presented. The short visit, which some states use for program evaluations, involves a half day (the afternoon) prior to the formal visitation and a full day visitation. The long visit entails the afternoon prior to formal visitation, the…

This manual is intended to guide institutions of higher education and evaluation teams through the evaluation visit by, and the subsequent processes of, the Commission on Institutions of Higher Education. The manual is divided into the following chapters: (1) institutional preparations for the visit (preparations that must be made beginning 2…

To renew and update their professional skills, teachers need to read professional literature; interact with other teachers and educators; take college courses; attend staff development activities; use professional leave time to visit innovative educational programs; and join professional organizations. (MDM)

Describes the process of seeking accreditation of nursing education programs by the National League for Nursing, from the self-evaluation by administration and faculty of a school of nursing to collect information, assess their program against established criteria, and write a substantiating report to the accreditation visit itself. (MF)

This document presents the most recently revised guide to the protocol and review process for external review of universities in the Netherlands. Part 1 consists of a description of the review process, an explanation of the protocol, and the roles of the parties involved, with further discussion of the actions of the visiting committee, the…

This document is designed to provide enough information for technical colleges and similar institutions to conduct their own focus visits. A focus visit is defined as a full-day activity that takes place on the campus during which a team of 10-25 individuals (program faculty, former and current students, technical college staff, advisory committee…

The Basic Skills Program Improvement Process (BSPIP) is a peer review opportunity offered to New Jersey School districts by the Division of Compensatory/Bilingual Education of the New Jersey State Department of Education. BSPIP is a project designed to encourage school personnel to examine the quality of their compensatory basic skills programs…

The accreditation process of the Western Association of Schools and Colleges (WASC) is described along with recommendations to help schools make the most of the process. Following a brief description of the purpose and composition of WASC, the four steps of the accreditation process are listed: (1) the use of a school self-evaluation instrument;…