LINCOLN CONSOLIDATED SCHOOL DISTRICT Oral Exit Report Quality Assurance Review Team District Accredi

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LINCOLN CONSOLIDATED SCHOOL DISTRICTOral Exit
ReportQuality Assurance Review TeamDistrict
Accreditation
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A Picture of AdvancED

• Worlds Largest Educational Community
• 23,000 public and private schools
• 30 states and Navajo Nation
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• 65 countries
• 15 million students
• 18,000 volunteers
• 3 million plus teachers

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A Picture of AdvancED

• Dedicated to Advancing Excellence in Education
  through

• Accreditation
• High Standards, Continuous Improvement, Quality
  Assurance
• NCA CASI and SACS CASI are the accreditation
  divisions of AdvancED
• Professional Services
• Professional Development, Technical Assistance,
  Conferences, Consulting
• Research and Innovation
• Publications, Resources, Tools, Evaluation

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District Accreditation

• A national protocol for school systems committed
  to systemic, systematic, and sustainable
  improvement
• Builds the capacity of the system and its schools
  to increase and sustain student learning
• Stimulates and supports improvement and
  effectiveness throughout the system

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District Accreditation

• Ensures all people, processes, departments and
  operations of the system work in concert
• Strengthens efforts to meet accountability
  requirements
• Encourages growth beyond compliance to achieve
  excellence
• Promotes continuous not episodic improvement

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Systems Approach

• District Accreditation applies a systems
  approach to improvement. It examines how all
  elements of the school system work in concert for
  the benefit of student learning. It looks for
  examples of systemic, systematic, and sustainable
  improvement.
• Systemic improvement using and aligning the
  interdependent functions within and across the
  district to produce improvement
• Systematic improvement fostering improvement
  efforts that are regular and predictable at all
  levels of the district
• Sustainable improvement maintaining
  improvements over time

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Pillars of Accreditation
To earn and maintain District Accreditation,
districts must

• Meet the AdvancED Quality Standards
• Engage in Continuous Improvement
• Demonstrate Quality Assurance through Internal
  and External Review

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Expectations

• District
• Meets the AdvancED Standards for Quality Systems
• Identifies and guides the implementation of a
  systemic continuous improvement process
• Monitors its schools through a quality assurance
  process
• Prepares and hosts a QAR visit every five years

• Schools
• Meet the AdvancED Standards for Quality Schools
• Implement the districts continuous improvement
  process
• Participate in the districts quality assurance
  process

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Purpose Role of the Quality Assurance Review
Team

• Determine the extent to which the district meets
  the AdvancED standards.
• Assess the efficacy of the districts improvement
  efforts.
• Evaluate the effectiveness of the districts
  methods for quality assurance.
• Provide high-quality feedback with clear
  recommendations and actionable next steps.
• Make an accreditation recommendation.

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Activities of the Quality Assurance Review Team

• Artifacts/documents review
• Interviews
• School visits
• Observations
• Professional deliberation

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Interviews with Stakeholders

• During the on-site Quality Assurance Review, team
  members interviewed
• 1 Superintendent of Schools
• 5 members of the Board of Education
• 2 members of central staff
• 5 school-based administrators
• 56 teachers and staff
• 11 parents, community members, and business
  partners
• 13 students
• TOTAL of 94 stakeholders

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Criteria Used to Arrive at the Teams Findings

• When reviewing evidence to arrive at its
  findings, the team
• Sought a district perspective
• Pursued evidence that could be corroborated
  through multiple sources
• Examined the context and capacity of the district
  in relation to its vision, mission, and beliefs
  and
• Applied the criteria for accreditation.

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Structure of Teams Findings

• Strengths
• Recent accomplishments achieved by the school
  district or conditions which benefit the school
  district.
• Commendations
• Professional commendations by the Quality
  Assurance Review Team.
• Challenges
• Opportunities that the district may seek to
  address for further improvement or conditions
  which are potential barriers
• Recommendations
• Professional recommendations by the Quality
  Assurance Review Team.

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Commendations

• The Quality Assurance Review Team commends
  Lincoln Consolidated School District for
• The work of the District Leadership Team in
  developing and facilitating plans for increased
  student learning is exemplary.
• The Lincoln Public School District is one of only
  two within the state to have implemented a K-12
  Teacher Advancement Program (TAP), a powerful
  program of embedded professional development and
  implementation of research based instructional
  practices.
• The wide-spread collection, analysis and use of
  data for improving student learning outcomes is
  evidence of a strong data culture developing
  within the district.

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Commendations

• The recently established Pre-K program
  demonstrates the districts commitment to a
  strong learning foundation for all students.
• The districts commitment to technology
  innovations (the availability of equipment and
  use of instructional and supportive software)
  grows out of an awareness that technology has
  been found to be an effective tool for increased
  student learning.

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Commendations

• District stakeholders exhibited a pervasive
  understanding of, and commitment to, the systems
  vision.
• The students of the district are served by a
  competent and dedicated school board,
  superintendent and staff of administrators,
  teachers and support personnel.

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Challenges

• Declining revenues resulting from a
  static/declining student enrollment, the current
  and anticipated downturn in the
  local/state/national economy and the increasing
  numbers of district families below the poverty
  level.
• Finding the necessary resources to support
  crucially important programs within the district
  and the needed construction of facilities found
  in the districts Long Range Facilities Plan.

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Recommendations

• The Quality Assurance Review Team recommends that
  the Lincoln Consolidated School District
• Increase the meaningful involvement of district
  community stakeholders to provide a powerful base
  for collaborative decision-making and increased
  community support for all school improvement
  initiatives.
• Aggressively seek alternative funding sources to
  maintain and support the current Teacher
  Advancement Program (TAP) now funded through a
  grant from the Rewarding Excellence in Academic
  Performance (REAP) program.

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Recommendations

• Conduct a follow-up study of graduates as a means
  of further validating the relevance of the
  districts instructional programs and services.

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Next Steps

• A written report of our findings and observations
  will be drafted and sent to the Superintendent of
  Schools within 30 days.
• After receipt of the report, the district is
  expected to
• Review and communicate the findings and
  observations contained in the report
• Begin to address the recommendations in the
  report
• Continue to monitor accreditation standards and
  requirements for the system and its schools
• Monitor the execution and impact of strategies
  for improvement
• Continue to engage methods that provide for
  quality assurance and
• Submit the Accreditation Progress Report two
  years following this review detailing the
  progress the district has made toward addressing
  the Quality Assurance Review teams
  recommendations. This is a requirement to
  maintain and sustain accreditation.

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Accreditation Recommendation

• The Quality Assurance Review Team recommends to
  the AdvancED Accreditation Commission that the
  Lincoln Consolidated School District be awarded
  District Accreditation as a quality school
  system.
• Once reviewed and approved by the AdvancED
  Accreditation Commission, the district and all
  its schools are granted a 5-year term
  accreditation.

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Final Thoughts

• On behalf of the Quality Assurance Team, I
  extend
• Our appreciation for your hospitality, support,
  and professionalism
• Our respect and acknowledgement of the quality of
  the school district and
• Our congratulations for your progress toward
  achieving District Accreditation as a quality
  system.

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