Cooke Passed the NYSAIS Accreditation Review with Flying Colors!
What does that mean?
Thanks in large part to our outstanding faculty, Cooke continues to meet or exceed expectations for accreditation, demonstrating our expertise in applying the principles of best practices for special education in New York City!
The National Association of Independent Schools (NYSAIS) is a voluntary organization of 197 independent schools and is New York’s statewide accrediting organization. NYSAIS has been accrediting member schools for over 45 years. It is a member of the National Association of Independent Schools’ Commission and includes all major state and regional accrediting organizations in the United States and Canada.
The accreditation process is driven by the dual beliefs that each independent school is unique and should be evaluated in terms of fidelity to its own mission, and that it abides by well-established principles of best practices.
The accreditation review is an in-depth process which includes a self-study, which typically takes a school between 12 to 18 months to complete. During the self-study, all members of the school community, including the board of trustees, administration, faculty and staff, parents, alumni and students, critique their school, measuring it against more than 90 established criteria.
Just as accreditation is integral to membership in NYSAIS, it should be one of the considerations made by parents when choosing a school. Without regular and ongoing self-evaluation, an institution may lose focus and, in a rapidly changing world, its value and relevance for the children and families it serves. Through its accreditation process, NYSAIS supports the members of a school community as they scrutinize and refine their goals, and reinforces their ability to meet those goals.
A school that has undergone the rigors of the accreditation process, at both five-year interim) and ten-year (decennial) intervals, has shown that it lives up to the high standards expected of a NYSAIS school, and that it is committed to continuing innovation and improvement.
Lauria, Mark W. (2016) What is Accreditation? The Parents League Review.
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