At a special, 20-minute meeting on May 9, the Van Buren Public Schools Board of Education learned that the district has been accredited by AdvancED “on advisement,” which means it has 18 months to move toward improvement.
AdvancED replaces the previous North Central Association accreditations for each building.
There are five ratings: Highly Functional, Operational, Emerging, and Not Evident. The Van Buren District received two Operational and five Emerging scores.
This put the accreditation recommendation “on advisement” for 18 months. This is the first time the district sought accreditation as a district. In the past each school building was accredited individually.
“You’ve done a good job,” said Quality Assurance Review team chairman Dr. George Griffin. “A lot of the standards are in place, but you’ve got work to do.”
He said these should be addressed over the next 18 months and then the district should host another accreditation visit in five years.
A five-member team spent three, intense days assessing the district. Team members were:
• Dr. George Griffin, committee chairman, of Chapel Hill, N.C., a native of Detroit;
• Dr. Romain Dallemand, superintendent of Bibb County Schools, Macon, GA;
• Dr. Kristina Harmon, Lincoln Consolidated Schools, MI;
• Vicki Donnelly, South Redford Schools, MI; and
• Stephanie LaBelle, Van Dyke Schools, MI.
Dr. Griffin said the team interviewed 171 different people for the QAR, which included board members, administrators, teachers, support staff, citizens, and students.
He said within 30 business days the district will receive a detailed, written report on the team’s findings.
Dr. Griffin commended the district’s leadership team, the faculty and the staff. He said there were so many stories about what staff members do for students.
He also commended the district on its community relationships, including partnerships with businesses and organizations, the volunteers, and parents.
The recommended improvements included defining clear expectations for students’ learning and setting a vision and mission for future planning.
The team also recommended building stakeholder ownership of curriculum, improving research-based instructional practices and structured use of student performance.
Also, the team recommended aligning curriculum and instructional practices across the board and applying classroom knowledge and skills to real-world problems. The team noted an assessment system was necessary to clearly define performance, which Dr. Griffin said was not an uncommon recommendation.
“We really need multiple sources of performance data,” he said, clarifying it was needed for students, schools, and the district.
Dr. Griffin said the written report will tell what the evidence is for each of these recommendations.
School Board President Martha Toth said, “I am kind of encouraged that we are Emerging, which shows a sense of urgency to the community, showing this is where we want to be going.”
She pointed out that the team members are volunteers and do not get paid for their service.