Bishop Guilfoyle

Bishop Guilfoyle

Catholic High School

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Goodness, Discipline, Knowledge

Accreditation

What is Accreditation?

Accreditation is the affirmation that a school provides a quality of education that the community has a right to expect and the education world endorses. Accreditation is a means of showing confidence in a school's performance. When the Commission on Secondary Schools (CSS) accredits a school, it certifies that the school has met the prescribed qualitative standards of the Middle States Association within the terms of the school's own stated philosophy and objectives.

The chief purpose of the whole accreditation process is the improvement of education for youth by evaluating the degree to which a school has attained worthwhile outcomes set by its own staff and community. This is accomplished by periodically conducting a comprehensive self-evaluation of the total school. Through the accreditation process, the school seeks the validation of its self-evaluation by obtaining professional judgment from impartial outsiders on the effectiveness of the total school operation. The intent throughout the process is more than to focus on shortcomings; the chief goal is to seek remedies for inadequacies and to identify and nurture good practices.

Accreditation of a secondary school is on an institutional basis. It should be noted that the whole school, not just one program such as the college preparatory courses, is covered by the accreditation.

The following are some of the many benefits of accreditation: greater clarity of purpose, stronger internal relationships, wider professional participation, more effective methods of planning for school improvement and improved consistency between educational purpose and practice.

© Commission on Secondary Schools, Middle States Association of Colleges and Secondary Schools

For more information on the organization, visit www.css-msa.org.