The school where I work is currently preparing for its five-year re-accreditation visit. A major part of my job description (as Academic Dean) involves overseeing the accreditation process, so it's front and center for me right now. So what should we think about accreditation? More particularly, what should Christians think about accreditation of Christian schools by non-Christian accreditation agencies (such as the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools - SACS - which is accrediting our school)?
When I first started working in Christian education, I thought along these lines: We are a Christian school, and our foundations are totally opposed to those of non-Christian educators. How can unbelievers evaluate whether or not Christians are doing well? That's like asking pagans to come into church and tell us whether our pastor is preaching the truth. The only accreditation we need is our parents - if they like what we're doing, they'll continue to enroll here. If we're not doing a good job, they'll go somewhere else.
Since then, I have changed my outlook. It's still true that unbelievers can't really tell whether or not our school is being faithful to God. And we are still subject to the "accreditation" of the marketplace - if we don't do well, our school will soon cease to exist. But there are other issues as well, besides the practical one - that it's difficult for students who graduate from a non-accredited high school to get accepted into college.
There is value in having an external entity inspect and validate your work, especially from a preventative point of view. For example, if you have a restaurant, the health inspector checks your facility for health and cleanliness. We could take a free-market view (if you have rats crawling around in your kitchen, your customers will quit coming when they find rat droppings in their salad). But that is not usually known until after the fact - after someone gets sick from eating tainted food. The health inspector serves to protect consumers before they get sick. Likewise if a school does a lousy job teaching children, parents will get fed up and will leave - but what happens to the children that have already suffered under poor education? It would be much better if one could be relatively assured that the school was providing sound education before children are sent to it.
There are also generally-accepted standards that indicate a good school. Think about the financial world. Businesses generally have to go through an annual audit - there are "generally accepted accounting principles" that are the mark of sound financial dealings. Likewise in education - there are practices that are generally accepted (by Christians and non-Christians alike) to be sound educationally. An external accrediting agency can see if the school is following those principles.
Besides, it is helpful to have someone from outside the school to come in and give us a fresh perspective on our work. Those of us who are "in the trenches" on a daily basis can easily think that we are doing things just fine. But someone with no prior experience at the school who looks at us might see things which we are missing. Proverbs 18:17 says, "The one who states his case first seems right, until the other comes and examines him." That is, we might be convinced that we are doing a good job, and we might even be able to convince our parents of that fact. But someone else might come in and say, "You're missing this part entirely." Or they might say, "Have you thought about doing this?"
The way the SACS accreditation process is structured, we are not required or expected to change our Christian foundations or practices. Their approach to accreditation is to say, "What is your mission as a school? Are you carrying out that mission in your classroom practices, in your board activities, in your planning, in your communications with parents?" If our mission is to glorify God, they will want to see what that means in every area of our school. This process has always been very helpful for us.
Hopefully I will survive the visit next week! But I'm actually looking forward to it - thinking about the opportunity to show the visiting team what the Lord has done at our school, and primarily seeing it as a time to glorify God for His goodness to us.
When I first started working in Christian education, I thought along these lines: We are a Christian school, and our foundations are totally opposed to those of non-Christian educators. How can unbelievers evaluate whether or not Christians are doing well? That's like asking pagans to come into church and tell us whether our pastor is preaching the truth. The only accreditation we need is our parents - if they like what we're doing, they'll continue to enroll here. If we're not doing a good job, they'll go somewhere else.
Since then, I have changed my outlook. It's still true that unbelievers can't really tell whether or not our school is being faithful to God. And we are still subject to the "accreditation" of the marketplace - if we don't do well, our school will soon cease to exist. But there are other issues as well, besides the practical one - that it's difficult for students who graduate from a non-accredited high school to get accepted into college.
There is value in having an external entity inspect and validate your work, especially from a preventative point of view. For example, if you have a restaurant, the health inspector checks your facility for health and cleanliness. We could take a free-market view (if you have rats crawling around in your kitchen, your customers will quit coming when they find rat droppings in their salad). But that is not usually known until after the fact - after someone gets sick from eating tainted food. The health inspector serves to protect consumers before they get sick. Likewise if a school does a lousy job teaching children, parents will get fed up and will leave - but what happens to the children that have already suffered under poor education? It would be much better if one could be relatively assured that the school was providing sound education before children are sent to it.
There are also generally-accepted standards that indicate a good school. Think about the financial world. Businesses generally have to go through an annual audit - there are "generally accepted accounting principles" that are the mark of sound financial dealings. Likewise in education - there are practices that are generally accepted (by Christians and non-Christians alike) to be sound educationally. An external accrediting agency can see if the school is following those principles.
Besides, it is helpful to have someone from outside the school to come in and give us a fresh perspective on our work. Those of us who are "in the trenches" on a daily basis can easily think that we are doing things just fine. But someone with no prior experience at the school who looks at us might see things which we are missing. Proverbs 18:17 says, "The one who states his case first seems right, until the other comes and examines him." That is, we might be convinced that we are doing a good job, and we might even be able to convince our parents of that fact. But someone else might come in and say, "You're missing this part entirely." Or they might say, "Have you thought about doing this?"
The way the SACS accreditation process is structured, we are not required or expected to change our Christian foundations or practices. Their approach to accreditation is to say, "What is your mission as a school? Are you carrying out that mission in your classroom practices, in your board activities, in your planning, in your communications with parents?" If our mission is to glorify God, they will want to see what that means in every area of our school. This process has always been very helpful for us.
Hopefully I will survive the visit next week! But I'm actually looking forward to it - thinking about the opportunity to show the visiting team what the Lord has done at our school, and primarily seeing it as a time to glorify God for His goodness to us.