During the 2014-15 school year, AdvancED External Review Teams in the State of Utah completed 76 External reviews! Congratulations to the schools who hosted review teams, the Lead Evaluators who led teams and the team members who participated on the review teams. We couldn’t have accomplished this great work without all of you.

As a brief summary of the External Review data that has been submitted so far, teams in Utah conducted 4,505 interviews with school stakeholders and completed 1,375 classroom learning environment observations using the Effective Learning Environments Observation Tool™ (eleot™). The average Index of Educational Quality™ (IEQ™) score for the schools in Utah so far this year is 297.22 with the highest score being 341.88 and the lowest score being 260.26. The five Indicators with the highest scores from External Reviews this year were: 2.3 The governing body providing autonomy to the school to meet goals; 4.3 School maintains facilities and provides a safe environment; 4.1 Professional and support staff are sufficient in number to support the school’s purpose; 2.4 Leadership and staff foster a culture consistent with the school’s purpose; and 2.2 The governing body operates responsibly. The five Indicators with the lowest scores so far are: 5.3 Professional and support staff trained in the evaluation, interpretation and use of data; 5.2 Professional and support staff analyze and apply learning from a range of data sources; 5.4 The school engages in a process to determine verifiable improvement in student learning; 3.6 Teachers implement the school’s instructional process in support of student learning; and 3.10 Grading and reporting are based on clearly defined criteria and are consistent across grade levels and courses.