Advance Ed Accreditation
by Ishrat R. Islam

Al-Amal School teachers, administration, and students have been busy this school year getting ready for a Quality Assurance Review team visit to our school. This team of professional educators from around the state of Minnesota is coming to our school on May 6th and 7th InshAllah. What is accreditation you might ask? Let me answer that question with brief intoduction to what is Advance ED.

AdvancED is the unified organization of the North Central Association Commission on Accreditation and School Improvement (NCA CASI), Southern Association of Colleges and Schools Council on Accreditation and School Improvement (SACS CASI), and National Study of School Evaluation (NSSE). Advance Ed is the world’s largest educational community made up of:

• 23 thousand public & private schools
• 30 states & Navajo Nation
• Department of Defense Schools Worldwide
• 66 countries
• 15 Million students
• 16 thousand volunteers & 3 million plus teachers

Every school that is accredited by Advance ED has to meet the following 7 standards, and show appropriate documentation and evidence of adherence to the standards.

1. Vision and Purpose
2. Governance and Leadership
3. Teaching and Learning
4. Documenting and Using Results
5. Resources and Support Systems
6. Stakeholder Communications and Relationships
7. Commitment to Continuous Improvement

Schools are accreditated for a period of five years. A candidate school for accreditation has to conduct an internal review of current capacity to meet the standards. After the preparation and gathering of evidence, the school submits Standards Assessment Report to Advance Ed. Alhumdulillah, Al-Amal School has already submitted the report on March 23, 2009. The next step is to host the QAR Team in May. The team will then make a recommendation for accreditation of Al-Amal School. However, the process does not stop there. The school continues the process of constant improvement through monitoring, documenting, and evaluating improvement efforts. An accreditation progress report has to be filed by Al-Amal School at the end of two years of Accreditation.

With the help of all stakeholders of the school, and Allah’s blessings, InshAllah, the school will maintain the accreditation that we have had since 2002. If you have any questions you can stop by and talk to the Accreditation Preparation Team member that include: Br. Dido Kotile, Sr. Tami Maidi, Sr. Jean Flomer, Sr. Memoona Ghani, Sr. Amena Ali, Br. Kais Guiga, Sr. Hala Maarouf, and Sr. Ishrat Islam (Chairperson). You can also attend a parent orientation that I will be conducting on April 13, 2009, during the regular PTSA meeting, InshAllah.