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Many public schools across the country struggle to embed an improvement process that is student centered, data driven and researched based however, Chisago Lakes High School is not one of them. The improvement process is one that has been an aspect of daily life for years at CLHS.

Chisago Lakes High School was granted once again continuing accreditation from the North Central Association Commission on Accreditation and School Improvement (NCA CASI). This is an outcome that all should be extremely proud of. Chisago Lakes joins over 9,000 schools across a 19 state region that was honored for earning accreditation. We have maintained accreditation status since 1982.

To earn accreditation, schools must meet NCA CASI’s high standards, be evaluated by a team of professionals from outside the school, and implement a continuous school improvement plan focused on increasing student performance based on data and research. The accreditation process is voluntary and requires annual review.

NCA accreditation demonstrates to our students, parents, and community that we are focused on raising achievement, providing a safe and enriching learning environment, and maintaining an efficient and effective operation staffed by highly qualified educators. It assures parents that our school is meeting regionally and nationally accepted standards for quality and successful professional practices.

With our current improvement cycle, CLHS has selected the goal of raising student reading comprehension across all curriculum areas. Staff development activities will focus on reading comprehension strategies, assessments and interventions.

Staff members have been sharing their expertise in professional learning groups and have written action plans. They will be spending time this second semester embedding best practice and research based reading comprehension interventions, across the curriculum. In late spring, we will be using standardize assessments to evaluate our progress.

The preliminary results from our fall benchmark testing are that we have increased the reading comprehension across the building and across subgroups. Our building is committed to this goal and raising student achievement across the content areas.

Parents and interested community members can learn more about NCA CASI accreditation at www.ncacasi.org.

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