NEASC-CIE Summer Webinar

The Tashkent International School is accredited by the New England Association of Schools and Colleges – Commission on International Education since 2002. NEASC is one of six American regional agencies that accredit international schools. NEASC traditionally accredits CEESA (Central & Eastern Europe Schools Association) international schools. They are headquartered in Lowell, Massachusetts and as the name indicates, they accredit schools in the states of the New England region of the US, pictured in purple below (Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont, Massachusetts, Rhode Island and Connecticut). I’ve worked in international schools that were accredited with WASC (Western States) and Advanced Ed (southern states).

I attended the NEASC-CIE Summer Webinar hosted today, June 22, by the Director and Associate Director of Accreditation and School Improvement, Jeff Bradley and Trillium Hibbeln, and others from the NEASC/CIE international accreditation team. The purpose of the webinar was to give a preview of initiatives in the 2022-2023 school year. Some of the highlights I took away from the webinar are below.

• They are launching a Community of Practice for Experienced Chairs starting in October. A chair is a volunteer educator who leads accreditation visits. Leading a visit is a big responsibility and a good leader can really make a big difference in the accreditation experience for schools so I am glad they are doing things like this.
• NEASC/CIE will be requiring background checks for visitors.
• The planned visits this fall are mixed virtual and in-person. I think virtual visits can be done, but they are not as good as in-person visit. There is much to be said for being together in the evenings with team members reflecting on what was seen and heard during the day. This all can be done virtually and a hybrid approach can save money/time/carbon by not sending a full team. Some team members could be virtual instead of on-site and contribute to the report and process. I think this will be the future format of accreditation visits.
• My feedback in the webinar to NEASC was to give accreditation team chairs advice on what are the key documents from the school to read before the visit, especially for working heads of schools. We have busy working lives and being able to use our time efficiently would be appreciated. I also wanted some more advice on how to work with colleagues from the Council of International Schools and the International Baccalaureate when we are on joint visits.
• I am interested in learning more about the collaboration between the IB and NEASC regarding the Collaborative Learning Protocols (CLP). This is a link to a presentation on the latest alignment of the ACE pathways and IB standards.
• From what I’ve read of the ACE standards, they are really good and I am curious to see how they are mapped against the IB standards. This is a link to the 10 ACE Learning Principles and the 6 Foundation Standards. They are launching an ACE 2.0 that has more emphasis on DEIJ and SEL issues and rubrics for each of the Learning Principles.