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AdvancED Virginia Director and Associate Director to Retire
Director Hilda Kelly and Associate Director Dr. Patricia Golding have announced their retirement from AdvancED Virginia, effective June 30, 2014. Together, their tenure approaches the quarter century mark in service to AdvancED Virginia. A reception was held in Richmond during the April AdvancED Virginia Council meeting where both were honored for their years of exemplary service. Read more from the News section of the AdvancED Virginia Web page.
Dr. Wallinger Named Excellence in Education Award Recipient
AdvancED Virginia is proud to announce Dr. Linda M. Wallinger as the 2014 AdvancED Excellence in Education Award honoree for her unparalleled leadership in promoting and advancing excellence in education. She received her B.A. degree in French from the College of William and Mary, a M.Ed. in Educational Administration from the University of Virginia, and a Ph.D. in Educational Policy, Planning, and Leadership from the College of William and Mary. In a career in education spanning approximately 39 years, Dr. Wallinger recently retired as Assistant Superintendent for Instruction for the Virginia Department of Education. Read more from the News section of the AdvancED Virginia Web page.
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External Review Fees in Annual Accreditation Fee Invoice
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When an institution hosts an External Review, AdvancED assesses an External Review fee to cover administrative costs related to the review. In the past, an institution was invoiced this fee after the External Review. This year, this procedure has been changed so that an institution hosting an External Review during the 2014-2015 school year will receive a separate invoice for the External Review with the fee due in August of 2014. The External Review fee will apply only during the school year in which the institution hosts an External Review with AdvancED. This change in procedure will assist institutions with their budgeting and planning processes. Please make sure that the appropriate personnel for your institution are aware of this change in procedure. If you have any questions, please contact us.
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Preparing Your School/System for the External Review
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AdvancED Virginia will host two summer training opportunities entitled: Preparing Your School/System for the External Review. Choose the one that is closest to you:
- Wednesday, July 16 at the Spotsylvania County Schools central administrative building in Fredericksburg
- Wednesday, September 17 at Radford University
Schools and school systems working toward an External Review in the school year 2014-15 or 2015-16 are strongly encouraged to attend one of these training workshops. Registration will open soon; school and central office administrators will receive registration information by email.
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Invitation to Serve on Reviews
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The AdvancED Virginia Managing Office encourages interested school personnel to participate in one of the most valuable professional development opportunities available: serving as a team member on an External Review. Online training is available to prepare team members, and no prior experience is necessary. We welcome anyone who wishes to serve. For those whose school or school system has an upcoming External Review, serving as a team member would be particularly rewarding in preparing for their own review. There is no cost involved with review team service for the team member. Below are a few of the advantages in serving on an External Review:
- Become familiar with the AdvancED process
- See how others address similar challenges
- Share your expertise and knowledge
- Help a fellow school/system improve
- Secure new ideas for your school/system
- Learn valuable best practices
- Earn recertification points
Click here to contact the AdvancED Virginia Managing Office to sign up!
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Are You Anticipating Your External Review?
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As some schools look forward to the External Review in the school year 2014-15, the AdvancED Virginia Managing Office looks forward to working with you in preparing the Internal Review. We eagerly anticipate your External Review and are excited to see your continuous improvement efforts first-hand. We look forward to seeing the everyday happenings of your school and the learning environment that you have created for your students. Your commitment to the accreditation and continuous improvement processes will yield results to be proud of throughout the school year and beyond.
In fact, we have found that when schools and school systems use their External Review as a school improvement tool, it helps pinpoint specific areas for improvement and celebrate areas of achievement. The benefits of the External Review do not end with the review. The continued use of the AdvancED Standards, Protocol and ASSIST™ will maximize your school improvement efforts for years to come.
We understand the importance of taking what you have learned from the previous year and from the External Review and using it to build upon a continuous improvement journey. The AdvancED Standards, Protocol and ASSIST are the perfect trio of tools and resources to help guide that journey. We hope you will take advantage of these tools today for the ultimate benefit of your students. If you have questions about our continuous improvement resources or accreditation protocol, please don’t hesitate to contact our office. We are here to support you every step of the way. Please watch for future newsletters in coming months. We’ll be sharing information about some exciting enhancements coming to AdvancED that will help you improve your school or school system more quickly than ever.
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The Index of Education Quality Makes its Debut
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In response to a need for institutions to have a deeper understanding of their institutional effectiveness, AdvancED® introduced in the 2013-14 school year an innovative and state-of-the-art framework to measure institutional performance. The Index of Education Quality™ (IEQ™) provides institutions a holistic measure of their overall performance based on a comprehensive set of indicators and evaluative criteria. As a formative tool for improvement, it graphically pinpoints areas of success as well as areas in need of support and/or focus.
In the past, accreditation reviews resulted in a recommended accreditation status. Labels such as accredited, advised, warned or on probation were used to describe the status of an institution relative to a set of static standards. These labels, with the exception of accredited, were oftentimes perceived as punitive in nature and not as a formative measure by which a school or system could improve. Each institution's initial IEQ score is the starting point for improvement and provides a benchmark to assess and guide the institution. Using the IEQ, institutions have the opportunity to focus their attention, activities and actions resulting in positive impacts and measurable improvements designed to optimize learning for every student. As institutions document these changes and submit them for review, their IEQ scores are updated to reflect this progress and guide the next steps on their improvement journey.
Setting an IEQ score became part of AdvancED’s accreditation process in the fall of 2013. Moving forward, if you have completed an External Review during the 2013-2014, or if your institution belongs to a school system engaged in AdvancED School System Accreditation, you will be able to access your IEQ™ score from the Adaptive System of School Improvement Support Tools (ASSIST™) via a dashboard. From the dashboard you can update your institution’s demographics, see the latest documents/reports for your institution and see your IEQ™ score.
As a reminder, institutions will continue to receive a comprehensive report of the team’s findings with recognition of Powerful Practices, Opportunities for Improvement and Required Actions through the External Review process. The addition of the AdvancED Index of Education Quality further enhances the accreditation process as a lever for continuous improvement and enhances an institution’s understanding of where it is situated on a continuum of performance and improvement. If you have questions about IEQ, please feel free to contact our office.
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AdvancED, the home of NCA CASI, NWAC and SACS CASI, is dedicated to
advancing excellence in education worldwide.
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