Components of the SAIS Accreditation Process

The SAIS accreditation process consists of three components:

Part 1:  REFLECT

The school assesses all aspects of its operation to demonstrate compliance with each standard of SAIS accreditation

Within this component, the school completes the School Snapshot on the accreditation portal.  The snapshot provides the visiting team chair and team with a brief overview of the school, including its mission, history, leadership structure, type of self-study process, goals, etc. 

Mission:  What is the school’s mission statement? How does the school’s mission statement inform decision making in the school?

Brief History: Briefly describe how and when the school was established, along with major milestones in its development. Provide current demographics and statistics including grade levels, number of students, and number of faculty/staff. This section does not need to be exhaustive.

Leadership: Describe the school’s current leadership structures (administration and board).

Self-Study Process: Describe the type of self-study process that the school plans to use or has used.

Improvement: Describe the strategic goals that are likely to emerge from the self-study process. Note: Given that the School Snapshot must be completed several months prior to the team visit, SAIS recognizes that the school’s responses to the Self-Study Process and Improvement questions may change over time.

 Accreditation Engagement Questions: These are three sets of yes-or-no questions about critical areas of school operations – governance, financial wellness, and student safety – reviewed by SAIS and the visiting team chair to identify specific areas of concern or opportunities for additional support before or during the visit.

After completing the School Snapshot, the school should enter its responses to SAIS Standards and Indicators in preparation for the preliminary visit. Within each standard area  varying number of indicators. Schools must comply with ALL of the indicators in order to earn SAIS Accreditation or Reaccreditation. The responses to standards and indicators initially read and confirmed by the visiting team chair at the time of the preliminary visit and fully confirmed by the visiting team at the time of the visit.

When responding to each indicator, schools must use the following three-part structure:

• Affirms adherence to the indicator.
• Describes how the school adheres to the indicator.
• Provides evidence that demonstrates adherence to the indicator.

Part 2: REPORT

The school develops comprehensive, mission-based, strategic goals based on input from all parts of the school community.

The self-study process is a comprehensive review in which a school evaluates its programs, policies, and outcomes through the lens of its mission to identify strengths, weaknesses, and opportunities for improvement. This process typically involves collecting data, engaging all stakeholders, and producing the Self-Study Report that informs both the schools strategic planning and accrediting body’s assessment.

Schools are encouraged to use existing structures and practices as they embark on this aspect of the accreditation process. In other words, if a school already “engages in formal and regular strategic thinking and planning aligned with is vision, mission, and beliefs and provides for the continuity of mission”, it does not need to conduct a separate process to generate goals solely for the purpose of SAIS accreditation.

Regardless of the approach(es) a school chooses, the self-study process must

• Be guided by the mission of the school.
• Provide all stakeholder groups the opportunity to participate and provide input.
• Result in goals (usually three to five) that are comprehensive and strategic.

The Self-Study Report serves as the foundation for the visiting team’s work. It summarizes the school’s progress on previous strategic goals(if applicable), describes the self-study process, and provides responses to the Four Critical Questions for each identified goal.

• PROFILE: What is the current status of this goal area?
• VISION: What does the school hope to achieve in terms of this goal?
• PLAN: What specific steps must the school take to accomplish this goal?
• RESULTS: How will the school determine whether it has reached this goal?

Please note:  Parts 1 and 2 should develop concurrently.  Schools waiting to complete Part 1 before beginning Part 2 will likely not have enough time to complete the process. 

Part 3:  REVIEW

The school hosts a 2.5-day visit by a team of school leaders who will offer constructive feedback about how to achieve the strategic goals. The visiting team’s school visit is an opportunity to demonstrate to a group of volunteer peer observers how the school lives out its mission.  The team’s focus is on learning as much as possible about the school’s goals, interacting with members of various stakeholder groups, observing daily life at the school, and offering meaningful feedback about how to achieve the goals developed by the school.