Report Writing Guide

The Team Visit Report is compiled in the SAIS Accreditation Portal. Teams may wish to collaborate using a Google Doc or Microsoft Teams Doc before transferring to the portal, as the portal is not a collaborative space.

• The portal is located at http://portal.sais.org.
• Contact pat@sais.org or jostoltz@sais.org for assistance.
• If you copy and paste into the Portal (rather than writing directly into the entry screens), note that the program will strip out a lot of formatted material. Please review the text as it appears in the Portal window.
• Write complete sentences based on the prompts.
  • When writing commendations – The visiting team commends the school for . . .
  • When writing recommendations – The visiting team recommends the school consider . . .
• It is customary to use bullets in the commendations and recommendations.
• You must save your work often. The most recent version of a section will overwrite previous versions, but you can use the archive to look at past versions. The archive runs on a set schedule, not every time you save.

OVERVIEW OF THE REPORT FORMAT

The SAIS Accreditation Portal was created to make report writing easier and allow the team to focus on the school and the commendations and recommendations rather than struggling with formatting the report.

The final visit report consists of the following sections:

• Cover page, History of SAIS Accreditation, The Team Visit Process, SAIS Accreditation Policies, and Roster of Visiting Team Members (all dynamically generated)
• School Snapshot: written by the school as part of their snapshot and standards response
• Introduction and Overview of the Visit (written by chair/team)
• Goal Area 1
  • Goal Title
  • Description
  • Commendations
  • Recommendations
• Goal Area 2
  • Goal Title
  • Description
  • Commendations
  • Recommendations
• Goal Area 3, 4, 5, 6 (repeated format – leave blank if needed)
• Additional Commendations and Recommendations (leave blank if needed)
• Summary, Conclusion, and Recommendation

 Visit reports are due 10 days after the visit concludes.

The following information details the sections of the visit report. Use the “Print Visiting Team Report” in the top right corner of the portal to see what the final compiled version of the report will look like.

INTRODUCTION AND OVERVIEW OF THE VISIT

The introduction is a narrative description of the visit and the type of community you found; you may wish to include (briefly) a listing or description of the stakeholder groups you encountered, various highlights of the visit, and major themes that emerged as a result of the visiting team’s interactions with the school’s strategic vision (as written in the school report) and with the people of the school.

Make sure to read through the school snapshot that the school wrote (which is automatically included as part of the final visit report) and don’t repeat comments made there. 

GOAL AREA RESPONSES

The goals that the school has been working on provide a framework for the commendations and recommendations, and the goals are used by SAIS to build the visiting team. Chairs may wish to make goal area assignments based on the capacities of the team as they align with the school’s goals.

Goal Title:  The title should be evident from the school’s snapshot section. Use the school’s terms for their strategic initiative (for example, if they call it “Technology Integration” then use that term).

Description:  Provide a description of how the school approached the specific goal and what challenges or victories they might have had as they studied themselves.  (refer to the self-study report that the school submitted for background information to use when writing this section)

 Commendations:

• State each commendation only once.
• Make the commendation grammatically correct to match the prompt (The visiting team commends the school for) – begin each commendation with a gerund
• Use consistent formatting – SAIS protocol is to provide a bulleted list

 Recommendations:

• State each recommendation only once.
• Make the recommendation grammatically correct to match the prompt (The visiting team recommends the school consider) – begin each recommendation with a gerund
• Use consistent formatting – SAIS protocol is to provide a bulleted list
• Note that the school is required to address each of the recommendations as part of its interim report.
• General guidelines for recommendations:
  • Have you been clear in what the school should consider?
  • Have you left enough space for the school to address the recommendation in their own way and according to their own beliefs and mission?
  • Does the recommendation impact many, if not all, constituents?
  • Refrain from naming individuals, suggesting monetary solutions, or endorsing specific products or programs.
  • Maintain objectivity and avoid personal bias

Repeat the format above for each of the goal areas the school has expressed for itself. SAIS has provided up to six goal areas; most schools have expressed two or three – leave extra sections blank, and they will not generate into the final report.

Additional Commendations and Recommendations

Most if not all commendations and recommendations will be in response to the school’s strategic goal areas. If, however, there are additional commendations and/or recommendations, then use this section and follow the same guidelines as above. NOTE that this section should be left blank if there are no additions.

SUMMARY, CONCLUSION, AND RECOMMENDATION

SUMMARY

A few ideas for what to include in this section. You are by no means limited to these things:

• Were expectations set and on target?
• Consider a note about the school’s position and future, and the big questions, opportunities, or challenges facing the school.
• Some teams will write a very brief appreciation of the hospitality of the school, the head, and/or the accreditation coordinator. You are welcome to do so here or in the conclusion section (or omit).

CONCLUSION

There is no need to enter additional comments in this section, but some teams use this space to thank the accreditation coordinator and head of school and describe the community. You are welcome to do so, or include in the previous section, or omit. 

COMPLIANCE AND RECOMMENDATION

There are three radio buttons to select indicating the school’s compliance with standards, the quality of the self-study, and the team’s recommendation to accredit.