Quick Hits: School District to Begin Accreditation Process This Month

It was a quick meeting Tuesday for the , which — two members short — wrapped up its agenda in an hour at the district's administrative offices.

Only have time for the quick hits? Here's a rundown of what happened during Tuesday's meeting:

Schools begin districtwide accreditation

The district has hired AdvancED to conduct a districtwide accreditation process this fall.

The accreditation is part of a longstanding process the district conducts every five to seven years, formerly with the North Central Association Commission on Accreditation and School Improvement (NCA). NCA merged with the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools to become AdvancED, which now serves 27,000 public and private schools across the country.

According to Paul DeAngelis, ' deputy superintendent for educational services, the accreditation is a comprehensive audit of the district's best practices and achivements, akin to "measuring ourselves against our strategic plan."

"This process is really a snapshot of who are today," DeAngelis said.

The process will begin this month with a meeting of building representatives, staff and community surveys as well as a districtwide standards assessment review. In October and November, AdvancED representatives will collect information and then prepare the schools chosen for a quality assessment review in December.

That review will be conducted by an eight-member team of educators from outside Michigan and Oakland County. The schools chosen to be assessed during the accreditation are:

has been chosen as an alternate.

The schools were chosen as being representative of the district, geographically and demographically, DeAngelis said. In total, DeAngelis said everyone from building administrators to school board members, to teachers will be involved in the accreditation process.

Other board actions Tuesday

• Board members voted to approve various special committee assignments for board members.
• The school board approved several field trips for Birmingham students during the 2011-12 school year, including a trip to Chicago for high school economics students, a spring break service project to Covington, LA, and a trip to Kentucky's cave country for 's sixth-graders.