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Institutional accreditation is provided by regional and national associations of schools and colleges.

An accrediting agency evaluates an entire educational organization or at an individual building level. The accrediting agency evaluates such things as governance and administration, financial stability, admissions and student services, institutional resources, student learning, institutional effectiveness, and relationships with internal and external constituencies. 

NCA accreditation demonstrates to our students, parents, and community that CLHS is meeting regionally and nationally accepted standards for quality and successful professional practices. The highly qualified educators and staff are focused on raising achievement, providing a safe and enriching learning environment, and maintaining efficient operations.

To earn accreditation, schools must meet North Central Accreditation high standards. Schools need to be evaluated by a team of professionals from outside the school, and implement a continuous school improvement plan focused on increasing student performance. The accreditation process is voluntary and requires annual review. On March 6, our school hosted an outside visiting team to audit their five-year school improvement cycle.

Our current NCA cycle began in March 2003 when our steering committee used various data sources to develop a mission statement, profile and capacity for change assessment. In the fall of 2004, the NCA regional office approved the cycle's goal of increasing reading comprehension across the curriculum for all students.

In April 2004, we developed a school improvement plan and an outline for staff to implement the plan. From 2004-2006, the school improvement plan was embedded in our curriculum. Through staff development, teachers were introduced to a variety of strategies to improve students' reading comprehension across the curriculum. Teachers participated in professional learning groups which encouraged the sharing of successful lessons plans and discussed areas in need of improvement. Staff rallied behind the goal of improving individual teaching using best-practice reading strategies across the curriculum and ultimately showing gains in student achievement.

Staff met these goals despite several challenges, including a shortage of staff development dollars, creating the need for creative solutions for training at the beginning of the accreditation cycle. Our district was fortunate to have valuable resources through our SCRED membership. Reinstatement of funds from both state and local levels provided staff with the continued opportunity for professional growth.

The visiting team spent the day with staff and examining the data that has been collected. Their report contained the following commentary,

"Much credit should be given to the Chisago Lakes High School NCA committee and staff. They have demonstrated leadership in school improvement and building organizational capacity while maintaining focus on student improvement and student work. Change was reflected in the discussion when committee members, regardless of discipline, were using the same terminology when talking about improving student reading comprehension. An improvement in organizational capacity was evident through the documentation and also observed by the team. The team was particularly impressed with the development of data driven Professional Learning Communities and the implementation of a school-wide reading progress monitoring system."

Based on their visit and meeting the NCA criteria, Chisago Lakes High School will continue with its accreditation status.

Our goal could not have been achieved without our staff's dedication, collaboration, and willingness to embrace new ideas.

The staff and the NCA Steering Committee of Donn Arnold, Allison Eikenberry, Sara Johnson, Tim Turnquist, John Whitacre, Dave Ertl, and Chair Laura Yehlik have put in countless hours to achieve our building goal. We will take the insights we have gained from this process and continue to develop students who are engaged in their learning, respectful of themselves, others, and their environment, and prepared to become active citizens and lifelong learners.

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