Revere High School moves forward in accreditation process

Superintendent of Revere Public Schools Dr. Diane Kelly announced this week that Revere High’s accreditation will continue. Kelly then turned the school committee meeting over to Revere High Principal Chris Bowen to explain the accreditation process.

Accreditation by the New England Association of Schools and Colleges is a voluntary evaluation process that ensures schools are meeting basic standards and have plans and strategies for progress and improvement.

Bowen explained in the past, accreditation occurred about every 10 years and involved a visit to a school and a review of materials presented by administrators.

“Now, it’s different and mirrors the teacher evaluation process we use. There’s the self-assessment phase, the goal setting phase, the formative assessment and the summative assessment which is the formal assessment,” said Bowen.

Revere High has gone through the self-evaluation phase which was done primarily by faculty with input from administrators, students, parents. Five priority areas were identified for Revere High during the self-study phase. The next step includes a visit from a NEASC team which is a group of trained volunteer professionals from similar schools who evaluate a school’s goals to ensure they are aligned with NEASC.

During the upcoming NEASC visit, Revere High School will be offered recommendations for improvement. The school will then have the next six years to improve and meet those goals.

Bowen was asked about Revere’s priority areas which seemed focused heavily on safety.

“When we think about safety, we’re talking broadly about all sorts of safety. There is physical safety obviously, the security of the building, but in addition there’s bigger picture kinds of stuff. Do students feel comfortable in classes having challenging conversations with people who are different than them. The criteria NEASC uses to define safety is that all stakeholders provide a safe, positive, respectful and inclusive culture that ensures equity and honors diversity in identity and thought. I’s not just physical safety but all types of safety.”

Although accreditation involves a lot of work and discussion, Bowen said Revere High teachers did much of the heavy lifting with the self- evaluation last year.

“It’s about progress and improvement,” said Kelly.