The Benefits of the Evaluation Process

I spent the first four days of this week at another school here in our Commonwealth serving on a NEASC evaluation team. The days were long and the work was hard, and in this case, made more difficult by the snow day which closed the school on Monday, typically the day when the majority of the necessary information about the school is gathered. However, the team persevered and by Wednesday we had written the draft of a report which will provide a road map for improvement the school will be able to use in the next few years.

Over the years I have served on a dozen visiting teams and I am continually amazed at just how much one can learn about the strengths and weaknesses of a school in such a short amount of time. Our own NEASC evaluation visit was exactly two years ago this month and the report that we received commended us for so many things we are doing well and provided us with close to thirty recommendations for improvement based on the accreditation standards to which we have agreed to adhere. In October, I will have to submit a Two Year Report to the Commission on Public Secondary Schools. Thanks to the work our faculty has accomplished since the visit, I will be able to report, in detail, that over half of the visiting committee's recommendations have been implemented. Look for that report to be posted on our web page when it is completed this fall.

Two years ago our NEASC report confirmed for us what we already knew; Chatham High School is a very good school! The two year report will suggest that we are getting even better!