This month, on two school days between April 7th and 21st, we will take the final step in our re-accreditation process.  On those two days, one of the assessors from the NAEYC Academy for Early Childhood Program Accreditation will visit our school for a tour of our facility, observations of 5 of our 9 classes, review of our classroom portfolios and our program portfolio, appraisal of 10% of our child and staff files, and analysis of the data from our staff and family surveys.  During these days, we will operate our high quality program as usual, with our preschoolers investigating “Birds” and our kindergartners studying “All About Me” (in preparation for graduation), our undergraduates conducting their final project experiments or doing observations of children’s developing cognitive and social skills, and our teachers preparing for and conducting conferences.

From one point of view, being observed during a routinely busy time of year is no big deal.  We are a laboratory school and our team is used to being observed at any and all times, so it’s just “business as usual”.  On the other hand, we know that the stakes are high for this particular assessment of our quality, and we know other top programs at universities that have not passed the site visit for a variety of reasons (either because they have not met one of the few required criteria or because they did not meet at least 80% of the criteria in each of the 10 standards categories).  The staff has worked hard to meet as many of the accreditation criteria as possible and to document that fact in a detailed manner.  We are proud of the program that we offer and the work we have done to demonstrate all aspects of our quality to the NAEYC Academy.  Now that all the documentation is ready, we are striving to simply relax and do what we do best – provide an engaging and stimulating learning environment for our children, families, and the campus community that we serve.

As the “big days” approach, you can support the staff by sharing the ways you have appreciated their impact on your children and family, by being extra attentive to memos and other administrative details, and by generally offering your positive attitudes and sense of humor to our days.  On the actual visit days, we will attempt to be as responsive to families as possible; but, because of the tight schedule, there will be some times that particular staff members will be unavailable.  After the visit days, you can join us in waiting for the Academy’s decision, which typically takes about 3 months.  In addition to being patient while waiting, we can all breathe a little easier and enjoy the last month of school, the transition to summer camp and other summer fun, and the preparations for the next school year.  We’re glad that we are on this journey together and look forward to our next adventures!