Novermber, 2001   Volume 15 Number 2

Edison/Fareira Re-accredited by Middle States Commission

During the visit, the Middle States team met with and interviewed representatives of all  the school’s stakeholders, including teachers, students, parents, and administrators, as  well as representatives of the Edison Cluster.  Team members also toured the school’s facilities,  studied the school’s strategic plan for school improvement and other documents related to the  school’s work, and observed teaching and learning in classrooms.

To be accredited by the Commission on Secondary Schools, a school must meet the Commission’s standards for each major area of a school’s work and activity. These areas include the school’s educational program, learning media services, student services, student activities, facilities, school staff and administration, finance, school leadership and governance, and assessment of learning. 

However, because Edison/Fareira High School elected to use the Accreditation for Growth protocol for accreditation, the school was required to do more than meet the Commission’s standards to be accredited.  Accreditation for Growth (AFG) is a unique accreditation process that uses strategic planning as a vehicle for school improvement and growth in student performance. In AFG, the primary determinants of progress are not the resources a community provides for its schools (the inputs) but, instead, the actual results of the school’s work—the students’ performance.  AFG requires the school to establish objectives for improving student performance based on a vision of a preferred future for the school. 

By choosing AFG as its accreditation protocol, Edison/Fareira High School also made several commitments. It committed to focusing its work on the end results — improved student performance—as the primary priority for school improvement efforts. It committed to operating the school from a vision of where it wants and/or needs to go with its mission and beliefs serving as a unifying force for change. It committed to including a varied spectrum of stakeholders in the process of continually defining a preferred vision, in developing the means to get closer to that vision, and in implementing action plans developed by these stakeholders. It committed to a process in which progress will be continuously reviewed. And, it agreed to participate in a peer review and external validation process by accepting outside visitors.

Ongoing review is the hallmark of the AFG protocol, and Edison/Fareira High School is required to conduct an annual review of the plan and the school’s progress toward achieving its student performance objectives and to communicate the results of its work to the school’s community.  Once every five years, a Validation Team will make an onsite visit to the school to examine the results of these annual reviews, the school’s planning processes, and the content of the strategic plan.  At the midpoint juncture in the five-year cycle, one individual, appointed by the Middle States Association, will make a one-day onsite visit. 

"Edison/Fareira High School is to be congratulated for having completed the rigorous and demanding accreditation review process successfully," said Dr. Joseph J. DeLucia, Executive Director of the Commission on Secondary Schools. "By meeting the standards of the Commission, and by having established a comprehensive and challenging strategic plan to improve targeted areas of student performance, Edison/Fareira High School  has joined a growing number of schools in the Middle States region that are committed to public accountability for their results. The Commission encourages the entire Edison/Fareira High School to join in supporting the school as it seeks to achieve its objectives over the next five years."

For more information about the re-accreditation of  Edison/Fareira High School, contact: Mr. Kenneth Lerner or Mrs. Hedimay Berger, assistant principals, at (215) 324-9440.