standards

The CIS evaluation criteria are expressed in 57 standards (65 for schools with homestay provision). The standards are statements against which your school measures its alignment by discussing across all stakeholders and gathering relevant evidence to justify its assessment of alignment. The standards are the minimum levels of performance required for CIS accreditation.

Standards are used:

• as universal benchmarks throughout the process

• to make an initial assessment if your school is ready to begin the accreditation process

• at the Preparatory stage to determine if your school is ready to begin the Self-study stage

• as points of reference during your school’s Self-study process

• to evaluate your school during the team evaluation and ultimately decide whether to recommend accreditation

• to measure the extent to which your school is aligned, along with commitment and capacity of the school to improve, in the case of recommending accreditation

• as parts of a holistic picture of the school

Here is an example of a standard from Domain F:

F3 The school provides for the continuous professional development of faculty and staff that relates to school priorities, the professional needs of the staff and contributes to the students’ learning.

Standards are grouped into two categories: core standards and non-core standards. Your school must meet all the core standards at the time of the team evaluation to be CIS-accredited. Core standards are essential for a school’s effective functioning and sustained improvement and shows the school’s ability to implement the four drivers behind CIS International Accreditation in practice. Non-core standards are developmental goals for improvement.

School evaluation standards can be applied to schools in every context. They do not impose any specific education or school philosophy. Instead, they state generally-accepted benchmarks of the international educational community as to what constitutes sound quality in any school, regardless of its cultural context, governance and ownership model, or curriculum offered. All schools have the potential to align with the standards. However, although alignment with all standards is the goal for every school, each school will have work in different priorities throughout the evaluation cycle.

Use the essential questions and guided development questions to assess your school’s alignment with the standards. The outcome of this collaborative process is a rounded, professional judgement rather than the product of any formula.