The Academy of St. Louis is the only accredited, private school for students with learning challenges serving Kindergarten through 12th grade in the St. Louis area.
The Academy is grateful to have had the opportunity to work with NCA-AdvancEd‘s leadership team and for their expertise and guidance. We are thankful for the NCA team that visited the Academy for 2 1/2 days, evaluating the Seven Standards associated with a fully functional school.
For many, accreditation is an important achievement pronouncing an institution’s quality of education. Additionally, it’s a remarkable, enriching process for the institutions, recognizing the tremendous competitive and performance gains it affords.
Sadly, some schools approach accreditation as a necessary burden, which they must endure to secure the seal of accreditation. And the quicker they satisfy the requirements, the sooner they can return their attention to running their school. Therefore, it’s those schools and school systems that don’t see the untapped power in the process of accreditation.
So with the proper accreditation process put in place, schools are able to improve student learning and make continuous school improvement a distinctive reality.
It is the process of accreditation that yields the greatest continuing return for institutions.
The internal self-assessment a school conducts against a set of research-based quality standards can produce a wealth of inspiring insights, especially when it’s approached properly. Honest self-evaluation is unique in its ability to uncover and bring special challenges into sharp focus. And for a school that may not be fully understood, it’s a welcome process.
With this in mind, the external review is the most important part of the accreditation process. Similar to the internal self-assessment, it energizes and equips the leadership and stakeholders of a school or school system to tackle those areas that may be thwarting desired performance levels.
Accreditation is a force multiplier.
The process is a catalyst for transformative excellence. AdvancED’s accreditation process is a standards-based framework.
The goal of the framework is to feed continuous improvement and transform education on a global scale. Education providers of all types around the world use AdvancED Accreditation.
Accreditation: The inextricable link to the institution and educational system improvement.
Presently, the accreditation process asks schools and systems to critically evaluate their vision, strategies, priorities, leadership, and programs and resources.
The process of earning and maintaining accreditation provides institutions and educational systems with clear and compelling direction for implementing changes to move toward excellence.
We’re proud to be the St. Louis Accredited School for Kids with Learning Disabilities
What is Accreditation?
Accreditation is a voluntary method of quality assurance, developed more than 100 years ago by American universities and secondary schools.
In addition, accreditation design purpose is primarily to distinguish schools adhering to a set of educational standards.
As a result, the accreditation process drives student performance effectively and has the ability to trigger continuous improvements in education. But such definitions, though accurate, are incomplete.
Furthermore, accreditation requires a set of strict protocols and research-based processes.
While the goal is to evaluate an institution’s structural effectiveness, it analyzes much more than that.
Therefore, accreditation reviews the whole institution: the programs. From the cultural context to the community of stakeholders, the process determines how well the parts work together to meet the needs of students.