Accreditation
NELA becomes an Accredited High School!
On April 6th, 2009, Northpoint Expeditionary Learning Academy hosted a Quality Assurance Review, the last step to becoming an accredited high school within PUSD. The Quality Assurance Review Team is a peer evaluation team trained through NCA CASI, the public school accreditation organization through AdvancED. Staff, students, parents, and community members all participated in the process through interviews with the team members, while the school provided artifacts and evidence of the school’s mission/vision, standards, policies, and processes. In order to earn and maintain accreditation, a school must meet the AdvancED standards for quality schools, engage in continuous improvement, and demonstrate quality assurance through internal and external review. It is with pleasure and pride that Northpoint can officially say that we have been recommended to the state for accreditation. NELA has come a long way in the last 2½ years and is grateful for the hard work and accomplishments of the leadership, staff, students, and parents. Below is a summary of some of the information provided by the Quality Assurance Review Team.
The Quality Assurance Team identified two commendations for NELA that speak of its strengths overall. These are not the only strengths mentioned, but the two that stood out to the team.
Northpoint Expeditionary Learning Academy has shown significant success in developing and implementing effective opportunities to engage external stakeholders in productive and meaningful communication.
Staff and the leadership team are committed and dedicated to the continued success of the expeditionary learning model of instruction.
The team noted that a broad range of parents, students, and community members were actively involved in decision making processes and the focus groups interviewed remarked on the high level of support and dedication to the academic growth of students by staff and leadership.
The Quality Assurance Team also identified two recommendations for NELA. The team focused its recommendations of those areas that, if addressed, will have the greatest impact on improving student performance and overall school effectiveness.
Formulate and implement a plan to provide clear and concise communication of the school’s vision and mission to a broader range of external stakeholders.
Develop and implement a comprehensive summative and formative assessment system that is aligned to state and district curriculum standards.
The team noted that broad community knowledge of the vision and mission would support the enrollment of students that are committed to the expeditionary learning model and provide wider community support. The team also found that the only systemic assessment data that the school collects and analyzes is summative in nature and more formative assessment data in all content areas will help instructional and curricular improvements and interventions.
